I had a BSOD on one of my Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit PC's yesterday. For about a day prior to this BSOD, I was having audio problems (either no audio or very low volume/ low quality audio). There had been no hardware/software changes in at least the past several days. I tried using Nirsoft's BlueScreenView, but I have no experience in using BlueScreenView to find out the problem. I found out about the Windows built-in driver verifier. I ran Windows verifier (check all drivers option) and I could see that it was still doing something a couple of minutes after reboot and reaching the Windows Desktop. Then a BSOD occurred. I rebooted again with the same results (BSOD). I decided to do a Cold Image of the Windows System Partition (for file recovery) followed by restoring an Image which was made in mid-July. I did all of my Updates and the PC seems to be working fine now. Questions: 1. Does Windows Verifier automatically generate a log file? If yes, where is it stored and what is the file name? Do you have any special tips for using Windows Verifier? 2. I would like to know for sure what was causing the problem. Since I have a full Image before the Image Restore, I can copy out the Windows Minidump files and examine them. However, I don't know what is the best way to analyze these Minidump files. What is the best way to determine the cause of the BSOD from the Windows Minidump file? Thanks in Advance.
BSODs are usually caused by a hardware driver that's crashed. You'll have to figure out what driver got updated. As a general rule of thumb, don't update drivers unless they provide new features. If your hardware works, leave well enough alone.
