In a change to this blog’s usual style of gentle reportage and whimsy we have opened the floor to all and any Novatech employees to write something useful.  So first out of the blocks is Ryan L. Drake, one of our technical support advisors (he helps make people’s sick machines better).  He wisely advises that Novatech are not responsible for the content of external links. Now read on.

Issues with Crashing, Freezing and Blue Screens of Death - A crash course in D.I.Y. Testing and Diagnosis.

(image from PC Hacks)

Are you having problems with freezing, crashing or blue screens when you are using your system or playing games? I can advise that you run the following diagnostic tests on your machine to check the physical hardware components. Please bear in mind this is a crash course – the science behind the tests will not be explained in this article. All of these tests will run on systems running Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Many tests are also offered in bootable versions which can be used with any Operating System.

This is quite technical and a relatively long read so if you are struggling with these tools, maybe it is best to give it to the professionals – you can contact us on 02392 322 500 – we offer many diagnostics and repair services at competitive prices. A basic overview of these services is available here: http://www.novatech.co.uk/fix. Also our technical support team will be happy to help you through this should you wish to persevere – you can contact them on the same number. This support is of course free and is included for the lifetime of your product as a Novatech customer. Our technical team is based in the UK at our Portsmouth branch.

These are some of the exact same tests that we would run on components and PCs when they are in-house to diagnose problems. You should avoid using the system whilst the tests are running wherever possible. You should complete them from top to bottom, but make sure that you have read the summaries of each before running the tools!

Most of the tools will advise simply either PASS or FAIL. The graphics tests are different so please read the section below regarding these. Once you have achieved a PASS the required number of times, you can move onto the next test, eliminating that piece of hardware as the cause. If you get a FAIL, then you have identified a faulty component, and that component will need replacing – please see here for how to go about that if it was purchased from ourselves and still covered by warranty: http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?24835 You should continue to run the other tests after replacing the faulty component, to ensure all faults are picked up. All of these pieces of software are of course freeware and following this process will significantly help you/us diagnose the problem with your computer.

If you are seeing Blue Screens of Death (also known as BSOD):
If you are seeing a Blue Screen before the system crashes, please make a note of the error code – it will look like 0x000000XX. This page can help you identify the cause of the problem using the error code from the Blue Screen – http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.php You should then pay particular attention to the components that are suggested as being the cause of the problems. If your system is rebooting immediately after flashing the blue screen, please follow the process below to get the system to stop and show the error.

1. Turn on the PC
2. Press F8 repeatedly during boot. You will get the Advanced Boot Options menu. If you see Windows loading, you have missed the point where it checks for the keypresses. Go back to Step One and try again.
3. Choose “Disable System Restart on System Failure” from this menu, using the arrow keys and return key to select the option.
4. The machine will now boot to Windows – if/when the computer blue screens, it will stop at that point until you power off the machine.

If you are contacting our technical team, the Blue Screen error code will be very useful and should be provided so that we can give you the best possible support.

Major Hardware Component testing:
MEMTEST86+ - RAM memory test – http://www.memtest.org/ – full usage instructions: http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?375-Create-perform-a-memory-test-and-understand-results%28updated%29
You should run Memtest86+ at least twice; preferably overnight, to ensure that all faults are picked up. This test is much more advanced than the built-in Windows memory test, and accordingly has a higher success rate when looking for faults. This is available in a bootable version only.

SEAGATE SEATOOLS – Hard disk drive test (works on all brands) – http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools
You should select the Long Generic or Long test to ensure that the drive is fully tested. If you have a solid state drive or a Western Digital drive in your machine then one should use WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics instead (see below). This is offered in both bootable and Windows versions. Please be advised you will likely suffer total data loss if your hard disk drive has failed.

WESTERN DIGITAL DATA LIFEGUARD DIAGNOSTICS - Hard Disk Drive (works on Western Digital drives only) and Solid State Drive (works on all brands) test – http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=613&sid=2&lang=en
You should use this tool only if you have a Western Digital Hard Disk Drive; or a Solid State Drive (from any manufacturer). If you have ran Seagate Seatools (above) then you do not need to run this test. You should select the Long Generic or Long test to ensure that the drive is fully tested. This is available for Windows. Please be advised you will likely suffer total data loss if your hard disk drive or solid state disk has failed.

PRIME95 - CPU and RAM stress test – http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=103
You should select the Torture/Burn-in test when using this tool. This will stress the CPU, RAM and Northbridge (part of your motherboard) to its maximum capabilities. You should run this test for a minimum of one hour on a non-over clocked system, or for a minimum of 24 hours on an over clocked system (please be advised over clocking voids warranties with CPUs, and often also with RAM and Motherboards too). This tool is available for Windows only. If you have a fault on this test, you should run Memtest86+ again just to ensure that RAM is not the cause.

Graphics testing:
I would advise first of all that you download the most up-to-date drivers for your graphics card. For NVIDIA cards, the link is www.nvidia.co.uk or if ATI or AMD the link is http://ati.amd.com. I can advise that you can then run some graphics stress software to see if the graphics card has any problems, and this would confirm or disprove a fault.

I can advise that you run the following tests at least once, but preferably twice or even three times to ensure full testing:
3DMARK06 - Graphics stress test – http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmark06/download/
FURMARK – Graphics stress test – http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

You need to look for graphics issues and freezing whilst the test is running – the score itself is not important (we are diagnosing a fault, not benchmarking). Please see below for some examples of graphics issues. Please also be advised that these tests are designed for cards of all ranges, so on a low-end/older card you may experience low frame rates. This does not represent an issue unless you are seeing some of the problems below.

If you get the graphics problems below, but only in particular games/applications, then I would contact the manufacturer of the game/application (EA, Crytek, Activision, Rockstar Games etc) for a patch or hot fix. Hardware faults would manifest (show up) on all hardware accelerated graphics programs.

Before being certain of a graphics fault, one should try with the most recent drivers first, and then roll-back to a previous driver version to ensure that it is not a bug in the new drivers that is causing your problem.

Examples of Graphics Issues often representing a graphics fault:
Screen tearing:
http://www.tweakguides.com/images/GGDSG_19.jpg
http://www.coplanet.it/userfiles/n1239910191-image001.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_tearing

Graphical Artifacts:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/323201457_7feb65fe53.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/708/gpu2.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs158.snc4/37249_1398864263177_1579398251_906650_448122_n.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/66/screen0003qb7.jpg/sr=1
http://hwzone.co.il/reviews-files/pc_problems_guide/artifacts.jpg
http://www.legionhardware.com/images/review/Nvidia_GeForce_9600_GT_Overclocking_Guide/Artifact.jpg

The following problem is a screen/monitor issue rather than a graphics card fault:
http://www.aguntherphotography.com/files/reviews/dpf/dead_pixels2.jpg
http://www.naijiu.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/dead-pixel-44.jpg
http://cyberarenail.com/CA/lcd-broken.jpg
http://www.bndlaptoprepairs.co.uk/UserFiles/Images/cracked-laptop-screen.png

Further diagnosis (if the above has not isolated your problem):
If your problems continue after you have ran these tests (i.e. they all came back with no faults found), then you should move onto the next stage.

The next stage is to fully update your system using Windows update. You should install optional updates also, especially if they are driver updates.

If that does not fix the issue, then reinstalling your Operating System to eliminate any Software issues is the next stage. Make sure you have backed up your data first! If you have a preinstalled system from us, then please see here for a full guide: http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?24298-Reinstalling-your-Windows-Vista-or-Windows-7-Pre-installed-system. You should run the hardware tests from top to bottom again once you have done this.

Usually, if you reach this stage and are still having problems, it suggests either a motherboard or power supply unit (PSU) fault. Unfortunately the only way to test these components is to swap them out with spares. There are no testing tools available for these – unless your motherboard manufacturer provides one for your specific model (this is only usually the case with very high-end boards). If you do not have spares available, then I advise that one should book the components in with us for testing – please contact our Aftersales/Technical department regarding this on 02392 322 500.

I must advise at this stage that Novatech do not sell products on a trial basis – so if you purchased an item you would not be able to return it if it does not fix the fault with your system (see returns procedures and policies here: http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?24835).

PS – looks like Windows 8 will do things differently…. but that won’t be for while yet.

(pic from Mashable)