i searched on google and various forums talk about a similar problem but unfortunately many of them didn’t report back on what actually worked or what was the actual problem.
this is just a side PC i’m working on so it’s not critical that it be immediately fixed. but the problem is harping on my mind. the most annoying thing about it is that it’s random and all of a sudden.
*i noticed the problem first when i was logging out of my account, all of a sudden i got the WSOD
*so just to save time, I reimaged the whole PC with latest iso of win xp, installed all updates and thought it was perfectly fine after that but when i came in the next morning the monitor was totally WSODed the fan was running fine, opened up the cover, took out the RAM cards and made sure they were securely in their slots, everything seemed fine just checking the hardware quickly
*it’s not a problem with the monitor b/c when it was in ‘wsod state’ i connected the pc to another monitor that i know works fine and it displayed the same wsod
*restarted the PC, just to pinpoint when it happens, just browsing around and i put in a cd of a piece of software it Wsoded on me again all of a sudden
still learning how to troubleshoot, the more i practice the better i’ll get…so right now since the WSOD is so random, i’m thinking it’s an issue with the video card/ driver problem so i have the PC running on safe mode for a whole day and hasnt WSODed when i was checking that particular PC in that classroom computer lab this morning, it seems to be running fine in safe mode…what piece of info am i missing with this case?
^^that’s the same site i went to and a couple other ones but it sucks that none of the OPs report back on whether it was really the video card issue b/c not sure if it was that forum or one of the other ones but after he thought it was a v. card issue somebody else said it’s a mobo issue and OP never came back to say which one was the real problem…sooooo for now i’m confoooosed
You should also run a bootable memory diagnostic, that way you rule out Windows as being a possible cause. I like this one: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp. You can create a bootable floppy disk, or an ISO file to burn as an image to a CD. Then boot to it, press T to run the extended tests, and run at least 3 or 4 passes. It will take some time so be patient.
It can be sometimes some strange Malware giving false white screen. I know you formated the machine but you didn’t say if you have restored the backup copy again you made and how was it working before you restored it. I mean to say if installing fresh Operating System keep the system running smoothly.
Update the Drivers. Specially Graphics and Main Board.
If PC then do followings:
Swap monitors (if you have any other monitor and check on it for few hours)
Reset CMOS. Move the jumper on your motherboard and pull the battery, let sit for 5-10 minutes and then replace the pin and battery and then restart the PC. Go back into the BIOS and reset some of the basic settings for your system to boot correctly.
If you have built in Graphics Card and also slot Graphics card. Remove the graphics card from the slot while your PC is off and try built in graphics card.
Sometimes its also RAM. If you have two separate RAM banks filled with two RAM stick. Remove one and see if it remains stable. Although it will be slow due to less RAM.
Replug the wires coming from your computer power supply to your main board.
If it is laptop then:
Connect it to External Monitor and see for few time if the white screen appears. If it does appear there too then your laptop screen is fine. If no white screen appears then it means there is Problem with the screen of your laptop or with the LCD cable connecting your notebook screen to your graphics card.
If you can then try to Reset the cable connected on the graphics card / main board coming from LCD.
So in the end you have tested the RAMs, Swapped Monitor, Replugged PSU wires, Reset CMOS, Swapped Graphics card.
If still none of them works then its main board problem.
If you are installing an 8 year old OS and its not resolving the issue then you might as well go back a few more years and install “the latest version” of Win98.
it’s my college, i work at the helpdesk/computer lab part time, that’s the operating system on every computer right now, they will be moving over to win 7 soon after this semester ends but there are so many computer labs including in all the classrooms so for now it’s window xp. Again this is not my personal computer, anyways, i’ll try all the suggestions that others have given
if I did new install of the OS totally erasing every drive on the PC, then why would i need to do this.
i did a fresh install so all the drives were wiped clean, so that would take away any problems with the OS
i’m going to do this first thing monday, was a bit too busy on friday
If PC then do followings:
i had already done this read my above comment
i did forget to look at the bios settings…will do this as well
PC needs to be off??? No :p…joking
i really don’t think this is necessary if the updating to the video card driver fixes the problem but will keep it in mind.
there are four RAM cards in all the four slots and didn’t seem to be any problems with them bu i’ll try and see if it is a problem with RAM cards again though just to be safe
replug? you mean make sure that all wires are plugged in correctly to all the hardware right?
i had done this already while checking all the hardware, video cards, RAM cards and made sure they were in their slots