In recent developments with my company, I’ve had a customer have a persistent computer problem. The all intrusive BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).
This screen can be a fluke, or in my case turn out to be quite the nightmare. You see, the simple approach of troubleshooting did not work. Every step available on the internet to run scans did not reveal anything wrong with the computer.
The Struggle was Real
Three times over I re-installed windows on the 1TB NVMe Samsung 980 Evo SSD. The customer was growing unhappy with crashes and having to reconfigure.
As a last resort, I ordered a new solid-state disk. I reinstalled everything on this disk and happily delivered the computer back to the customer. Within 24 hours I get a call. The computer spontaneously shutoff!
Motivated to Succeed against the all intrusive BSOD
I was very frustrated at this time, and checked everywhere for troubles. Then I ran Windows 10 Memory Diagnostics. It repeatedly reported an error!
That was a good start but what to do next. Remembering the process of elimination method from debugging software, I removed a stick of RAM so only one was left. Still another error!
Then I removed that stick of RAM and put the other back in…. NO ERRORS!!!
With The all intrusive BSOD and RAM, Sometimes Less is More
I ran the test several more times and still no errors.
Needless to say the computer has been running solid and reliably for a while now and (hopefully) the hardware troubles are done.
All it takes is one bad stick of memory for the whole computer to go bad!
Waiting for the Warranty
I initiated RMA’s on the SSD and the memory stick, but these have already been replaced or re-ordered in the meantime. Samsung and G-Skill do not offer refunds only replacements. I will however replace these devices so they are available to the customer in the future.
In Conclusion
Never give up, never throw away a good computer just because you are having a malignant device problem. There IS a solution if you keep debugging the issue. With the all intrusive BSOD, sometimes less is more.
Stay tuned for more exciting developments.