So my girlfriend bought a new pre-made computer from bestbuy with windows 8 on it 4 months ago. Have had no problems up until about a month ago when she started getting BSOD's with different error messages every time. She'll be doing ANYTHING and eventually it'll give her another blue screen with a random error message. It has gotten to the point where I would get BSOD's while googling my previous BSOD error messages. It seems to always crash when i watch movies on any video player without fail. It has also crashed when I've been looking at control panel or just surfing the internet. It has not crashed while the computer has been idle/sleep. We have tried doing a system restore, but the system restore fails no matter which point we try to restore it to.
I'm not very computer savvy about fixing this kind of stuff so would appreciate if somebody could go through this step by step with me. Seems like people usually request a crash report (dont know how to get that).
Any help would be appreciated. About to throw this computer out the window. We did have a list of the error messages but she has misplaced it. The latest one said kernel_security_check_failure (first time).
BestBuy will cover hardware problems under warranty for 1 year - take it in and have them take a look at it.
Be aware that they're going to try and sell you services for it - which may/may not be a good idea (and you can always say "NO").
For example, in CT you can get the extended warranty for up to a year after purchase
Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
Memory
upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
Graphics Card(s)
has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
Sound Card
I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
Monitor(s) Displays
Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
Screen Resolution
800x600
Hard Drives
One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
- Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
PSU
Why do we ask this for laptops?
Case
Silver with a neat Samsung logo
Cooling
sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
Keyboard
Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
Mouse
no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
Internet Speed
too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
Sorry to hear you're going through such troubles with the new machine.
In addition; Not sure if retailer covers the correction of the software, but the OEM will for sure. BSODs are most usually caused by faulty or outdated drivers. Those are programs that make peripherals or devices work. Device driver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is usually no fault of Windows 8 nor any OS, but not 100% guaranteed either, for Windows Update may have updated a driver even though that driver is not created by Microsoft, but rather the OEM or other device manufacturer. So therefore, I advise to contact the computer manufacturer, which are commonly known as OEMs.
It's possible it could be the other software as well, either preinstalled on the machine when you bought it or something you installed. Have you installed any programs since you bought it? Please be aware that may be a ploy they use to point blame that you broke it. Uninstall any software you may have installed if you decide to take it back. You should also delete any folders in C:\Program Files that any of those programs may have left behind.