Dell Crashing for some reason

[Jarwulf]

Hi, I need help diagnosing a crash...

Dell Studio XPS 9100 Windows 10, i7 930 2.8GHZ, RAM 6GB

My computer suddenly started crashing and freezing usually there is no dump. It will just freeze or freeze at the BSOD before it gathers any info. Sometimes nothing but an unplug will work to get it back.

Here are links to 2 minidumps and 1 kernel dump. Can anyone tell me what is wrong and preferably how they figured it out? Running memtest86 and no errors yet in 4 passes.

Thanks.

https://ufile.io/fc47 https://ufile.io/67314
https://www.scribd.com/document/326672131/Crash-Archive

 

[VirtualLarry]

Sometimes nothing but an unplug will work to get it back.

Sounds like PSU, or motherboard?

 

[John Connor]

Run whocrashed or bluescreenview. BSODs and crashes are usually due to hardware or a driver. Have you installed a piece of hardware or install a driver or program recently before the crashes?

 

[Jarwulf]

Run whocrashed or bluescreenview. BSODs and crashes are usually due to hardware or a driver. Have you installed a piece of hardware or install a driver or program recently before the crashes?

The crashes in bluescreenview simply point to ntoskrnl.exe which is a windows driver, I don't see anything else that jumps out in the dumps so I'd like if someone with more experience could figure it out.

 

[Ketchup]

How long did you have Windows 10 on the machine before the crashes started?
Do you have the anniversary update?
How often are you getting these?
Have you done any kind of hardware changes to machine?

 

[Jarwulf]

How long did you have Windows 10 on the machine before the crashes started?
Do you have the anniversary update?
How often are you getting these?
Have you done any kind of hardware changes to machine?

Win 10 has been on the computer since it was purchases AFAIK and its been okay for months. I don't recall any hardware changes. It just started all of a sudden.

 

[XavierMace]

How long ago did you purchase it? That computer is too old to have come with Win 10 new.

 

[ylin0811]

Your memory might be faulty. Run goldmemory for 24 hours and see if any errors show up. If there are errors and machine is under warranty, have dell replace the defective memory module. If not, purchase some cheap kingston/corsair memory and swap it out yourself.

 

[John Connor]

The crashes in bluescreenview simply point to ntoskrnl.exe which is a windows driver, I don't see anything else that jumps out in the dumps so I'd like if someone with more experience could figure it out.

Is the hard drive very old at all? You could try running HDTune and doing an error scan and look at the SMART data.

 

[Ketchup]

Win 10 has been on the computer since it was purchases AFAIK and its been okay for months. I don't recall any hardware changes. It just started all of a sudden.

The i7 930 in that computer is over 6 years old. Windows 10 just passed the one year mark at the end of July. If someone sold you that computer as new, get your money back.

 

[PliotronX]

The dell preboot diagnostics are pretty handy for eliminating hardware culprits (most of the time). I would say run a chkdsk /scan /perf and sfc /scannow - 10 and 8 have a refresh feature which can help to repair windows without changing anything. Bluescreenview doesn't always show the root cause of bluescreens I have had to use windbg.exe from the ADK a few times. One of the times it was the realtek lan driver causing ntoskrnl crashes which was interesting. I had to use slightly older drivers for that one and they went away.

 

[piasabird]

Dells often have a power supply that is under-powered and of questionable quality. Sudden freeze problems can also be Memory and video card related or it could be full of dust. Dust is a real killer for computers. Lastly is just a bad motherboard which is hard to test for unless it has bulging capacitors. Most motherboard these days have the newer capacitors that are solid and do not go bad. Sometimes cooling fans quit running also.