BSOD browsing + Daily freezes

Teh Spearhead · 25 Jun 2014

Hello, I regularly look on this site for issues and 9/10 someone has already found a solution to the issue I am having but this one seems to be more machine specific so I was hoping that someone out there could give me a hand.

Basically when I switch my computer on it works perfectly fine for about 10-15 minutes before freezing, I have no choice but to switch the machine off and for the rest of the day it works perfectly fine. However recently I have been getting blue screens rather frequently, particularly when browsing YouTube. It could be any random video and suddenly my browser (Firefox) freezes for 2-3 seconds before the YT video flashes green and refuses to go back to normal. Audio is still playing by the way.

A few seconds after that (if I don't close Firefox immediately most of the time) the computer completely crashes and goes to a bluescreen.

I read in other places on the forum to try using something called BlueScreenView which I did and three items came up red: dxgmms1.sys USBPORT.SYS and watchdog.sys

If you could help me with anything I would be incredibly grateful, I use this machine quite a lot and would be quite upset if I had to replace it.

I would also like to add that I'm not massively computer savvy so if you could be patient with me I would appreciate it greatly, thank you for any assistance.

Dave

Danawesome · 25 Jun 2014

Update your video card drivers. Never get drivers from Windows Update. Get them from:

1. The device mftr.'s website; OR
2. The motherboard mftr.'s website if hardware is onboard; OR
3. The OEM's website for your specific machine if you have an OEM computer (HP, Dell, Sony, etc.).

Read the installation instructions on the website where you get the drivers.

To find out what hardware is in your computer:

1. Read any documentation you got when you bought the computer.
2. If the computer is OEM, go to the OEM's website for your specific model machine and look at the specs (you'll be there to get the drivers anyway)
3. Download, install and run a free system inventory program like Belarc Advisor or System Information for Windows.

Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit, for software, hardware and security configuration information on your computer. Software license management, IT asset management, cyber security audits, and more. - Belarc Advisor
SIW | System Information for Windows by Gabriel Topala - System Information for Windows

If you have installed drivers from Windows Update, you can roll them back:

How To Roll Back a Driver in Windows 7

Or if you installed the latest Nvidia drivers, uninstall them and install the older ones that worked. Nvidia keeps an archive of older drivers. I don't know if ATI does. I don't see anything offhand but someone else who has an ATI card might know.