Does a blue screen always mean its your hardware?

saintdefender · 8 Oct 2011 at 12:01

I overclocked a while ago, and I ran Prime 95 over night so a good 12 hours and it was still running, so I left it assuming its stable. Been using my computer for weeks and weeks now and its been completely fine, turns on everytime, has never crashed/blue screened or done anything weird.

However I was playing a typical day of gaming and I was on black ops, had been playing for a good number of hours on it but then all of a sudden I blue screened, the blue screen didn't give me any information, and from overclocking before Iv come to know most of the blue screens that follow it, such as memory errors and so forth, however this one didn't say anything just a bunch of numbers. Ths was 2 days ago, and its been fine since, iv played black ops since for an even longer time and no blue screens, so Im assuming (hoping) it was just a one off?

But as topic suggests, does it always mean hardware? Or could it of just been an error in the game somewhere, or maybe an error with another programme running in the background?

Running Windows 7.

Thanks guys

CinderzFTW · 8 Oct 2011 at 13:10

BSOD's or Blue Screen of Doom/Death are not just hardware.

They usually are hardware related like memory problems, overclocks gone bad or bad sectors on your hard drive, but they can also be software related.

Software BSOD's are usually Windows Errors or conflicting or bad software installs. I used to get them a lot when I had Office 2003 installed next to Office 2007. They did not like getting paired up next to each other.

I would run a memtest just to make sure by restarting your computer, hitting F8, launching start up repair, logging in using your password, and choosing Windows Memory Diagnostics. Restart again and then let windows do it's scan and it will tell you if you have any problems on screen or when you log into windows after the scan is finished.

Also, what are your temps idle and underload and what are your overclocks?

Thanks

CinderzFTW

The__Malteser · 8 Oct 2011 at 13:14

saintdefender;20252853 However I was playing a typical day of gaming and I was on [B said:
black ops, [/B]

That is your problem.

Lol, jokes aside. It can be temperature.

CinderzFTW · 8 Oct 2011 at 13:18

The__Malteser said:
That is your problem.

Lol, jokes aside. It can be temperature.

Could be temps actually. Forgot to mention that!

Domi · 8 Oct 2011 at 13:19

Put simply no.

However it usually is

saintdefender · 8 Oct 2011 at 13:40

No memory problems, temps are good, idle about 40 and 80-90 fully loaded (GPU) (580 SLI)

Prime 95 was 65c Full load and 30 something idle. (980x)

I dont think its temps as iv said iv gamed for longer periods of time without a hitch! On even heavier games, my CPU and GPU hardly heat up during black ops lol I am 99.9% sure its not temps!