I've been having BSoD problems for a couple of months now...

karlsnooks said:

Please go to this site and download the latest version of Live Update for your motherboard.

Read the instructions very carefully.

This is a marvelous program which will let you know what needs to be updated on your motherboard and has special instructions regarding the bios.

MSI Global - Live Update 5 Manual

Thank you! I did not know of its existence, I will get cracking on that in a minute!

Edit: Horrible UI design on that application though.

I have not yet provided my analysis yet because Karl's suggestions are in line with things I would suggest based on what I have analyzed. I also was waiting to see the system health information prior to jumping in.

Your crashes are pointing to a possible driver conflict. Follow Karl's advice prior to doing any other troubleshooting steps. Verifier is one of my recommendations if Karl's advice does not pan out, but at the moment, I see no reason to run Verifier until you have exhausted all driver/BIOS updates available to the system.

Please follow Karl's instructions carefully. His methods are excellent in troubleshooting systems from the ground up, and despite what he says about not being a blue screen expert, he has solved his fair share of blue screen crashes with those methods. His computer expertise serves him, and those he helps, well.

writhziden said:

I have not yet provided my analysis yet because Karl's suggestions are in line with things I would suggest based on what I have analyzed. I also was waiting to see the system health information prior to jumping in.

Your crashes are pointing to a possible driver conflict. Follow Karl's advice prior to doing any other troubleshooting steps. Verifier is one of my recommendations if Karl's advice does not pan out, but at the moment, I see no reason to run Verifier until you have exhausted all driver/BIOS updates available to the system.

Please follow Karl's instructions carefully. His methods are excellent in troubleshooting systems from the ground up, and despite what he says about not being a blue screen expert, he has solved his fair share of blue screen crashes with those methods. His computer expertise serves him, and those he helps, well.

I will definitely take Karl's instructions to heart then! When you say "driver conflict" one thing pops up in my mind. I had an old ATI Radeon card in while my Nvidia was on service... It was on the same installation, but I have tried using Driver Sweeper to rid the computer of the ATI drivers, but the entry still shows up. Although I do not know if there is still something there. The computer worked perfectly for half a year after this service business. Just putting it out there.

karlsnooks said:

Driver Sweeper is your ENEMY and not your FRIEND!

Do not ever use Driver Sweeper. That program does harm and more harm.

Simply first, try with the normal Microsoft update, then you can go to the manufacturer's website and download there. If any questions, then be sure and let us know. Remember: Don't just jump on installing a driver update.

I agree with the assessment of Driver Sweeper 100%. I see many recommend Driver Sweeper, but I stopped doing so after helping someone and having it damage Windows so simple drivers no longer functioned that were not even among those Sweeper was supposed to touch.

Also, to add to what Karl is saying about using Windows Update: For motherboard related drivers, I recommend going to the motherboard site before Windows Update. That's my personal preference and what I have found works best for me; others may disagree/have their own preference.

For other hardware installed with PCI cards, such as graphics cards, sound cards, etc. it is often better to rely on Windows Update. I have an older ATI card myself that the newer ATI drivers do not work well for. Windows Update provides a better driver for my system to be stable and work smoothly; that driver is over a year old. I can download that same driver from ATI, but I would not know which older version is the best without the Windows Update version to tell me.

karlsnooks said:

Driver Sweeper is your ENEMY and not your FRIEND!

Do not ever use Driver Sweeper. That program does harm and more harm.

Simply first, try with the normal Microsoft update, then you can go to the manufacturer's website and download there. If any questions, then be sure and let us know. Remember: Don't just jump on installing a driver update.

Oh, that is news for me! I will be uninstalling it now.

How do I go about Windows Update (it's Windows, not Microsoft, isn't it?) then? I usually install everything I deem important when it popups (I ignore things like media player, etc.). When opening Windows Update from the Control Panel there are only three optional downloads (Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft SQL Server and something for Windows 7 x64).

After what I'm supposed to do here, I will try the MSI Live Update application?

writhziden said:

I agree with the assessment of Driver Sweeper 100%. I see many recommend Driver Sweeper, but I stopped doing so after helping someone and having it damage Windows so simple drivers no longer functioned that were not even among those Sweeper was supposed to touch.

Also, to add to what Karl is saying about using Windows Update: For motherboard related drivers, I recommend going to the motherboard site before Windows Update. That's my personal preference and what I have found works best for me; others may disagree/have their own preference.

For other hardware installed with PCI cards, such as graphics cards, sound cards, etc. it is often better to rely on Windows Update. I have an older ATI card myself that the newer ATI drivers do not work well for. Windows Update provides a better driver for my system to be stable and work smoothly; that driver is over a year old. I can download that same driver from ATI, but I would not know which older version is the best without the Windows Update version to tell me.

Okay. As for the graphics card I think I'll stick to Nvidias webpage when finding drivers. Even though they seem to get worse and worse, I would like to have a somewhat optimized experience when playing games, which I do occasionally and my card is pretty up-to-date so I would like to have it performing at a maximum.

The driver page for my mobo can be found here: MSI Global ? Mainboard - P67A-C45 (B3)

Although, I think I have installed most of them. I'm working up the courage to do the BIOS.

By the way, my soundcard is integrated on my motherboard (I'm not an audio buff) so I've used the driver that MSI provides. These driver installations were made before I made this thread, so I'm not trying to not follow both of your advice.

karlsnooks said:

Please go to this site and download the latest version of Live Update for your motherboard.

Read the instructions very carefully.

This is a marvelous program which will let you know what needs to be updated on your motherboard and has special instructions regarding the bios.

MSI Global - Live Update 5 Manual

I made a scan now and...



Only the BIOS then. Never done this before, I'm afraid. From what I've heard I can put it on a USB memory stick, reboot and go into BIOS via F12 (or something like that) and install from USB?

karlsnooks said:

Do NOT listen to what you heard!

Follow the procedure that MSI gives.

They also provide a description,which is more complicated, of performing that update using a pen drive, however, they and I both recommend that you use the "automatic" approach.

Incidentally, the instructions you mentioned are only part of the story.

Do not creative or listen to your techie friends. Listen to and follow the advise of MSI.

Actually, it was the computer firm from which I bought the computer from who told me so. Following MSI's tutorial seems more logical and less work, so I will do so.