Anyone still running Windows 7?

Joshua Cruz74 said:I used Blue Screen View to track down what's causing this Blue Screen of Death. It points to ntoskrnl.exe in System32. I ran a scan and it's clean, but the error says it's a Memory Management issue. Any idea how to fix this mess? I don't want to believe it's a hardware problem, and honestly, I really don't feel like reinstalling everything since I have so many programs installed.

Maybe try a system Restore.

Or just Google "ntoskrnl.exe" and see if any fixes pop up.

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...-exe-bsod.html

I am intermittently encountering a Blue Screen of Death prior to the Windows 7 boot process;

Dump File : 110812-16036-01.dmp
Crash Time : 8.11.2012. 18:38:54
Bug Check String : CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION
Bug Check Code : 0x000000f4
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`08a56060
Parameter 3 : fffffa80`08a56340
Parameter 4 : fffff800`03597460
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : Microsoft Corporation file version : 6.1.7601.17944
Processor : x64
Crash Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
Stack Address 1 :
Stack Address 2 :
Stack Address 3 :
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\110812-16036-01.dmp
Processors count : 4 major version : 15 Minor version
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 276.496

What could possibly be the solution to this predicament? I have already performed tests on my memory modules and they returned no errors whatsoever; why, then, does this Blue Screen of Death continue to manifest itself?🤷

Brian Campbell36 said:I keep getting the Blue Screen of Death right before Windows 7 finishes booting.

Dump File : 110812-16036-01.dmp
Crash Time : 8.11.2012. 18:38:54
Bug Check String : CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION
Bug Check Code : 0x000000f4
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`08a56060
Parameter 3 : fffffa80`08a56340
Parameter 4 : fffff800`03597460
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : Microsoft Corporation file version : 6.1.7601.17944 (win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
Processor : x64
Crash Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
Stack Address 1 :
Stack Address 2 :
Stack Address 3 :
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\minidump\110812-16036-01.dmp
Processors count : 4 major version : 15 Minor version
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 276.496

Any idea how to fix this? I checked my RAM and there aren't any errors, so I have no clue why I'm hitting this Blue Screen of Death.🤷

Maybe check this out, might help you out a bit:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...-7923cdf856b3/

Keith Bennett38 said:Take a look at this; perhaps some of the information contained within might prove useful to you:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...-7923cdf856b3/

It is difficult to say, really. How can one truly determine what is triggering these intermittent crashes? Is it a driver issue related to specific components, a fundamental hardware failure, or perhaps a software conflict? 😕

Does anyone actually know what percentage of CPU usage is considered safe before it becomes critical?
And is there any software out there designed to balance that load?

Edward Allen36 said:Does anyone actually know at what percentage CPU usage becomes a real problem?
And is there some kind of software out there to help balance the load?

I’m not quite following—why would high CPU usage be considered "critical"? You've got a three-year warranty... so, basically, you're covered. I haven't heard of anyone actually frying their CPU just because they kept it pinned at 100%.
If things get too hot, the motherboard will just shut everything down to protect itself.

driftingbadger17 said:Why would high CPU usage be critical? You have a 3-year warranty... so what? I've never heard of anyone's CPU dying just because they ran it at 100%.
If it overheats, the motherboard will shut it down.

It seemed strange to me too—the guy installing Windows for me actually stared at the screen in disbelief when he saw it hitting the 90% mark. He ended up deleting some programs, acting as if they were the cause.🤷

Edward Allen36 said:I thought it was weird too. Some guy helping me install Windows was staring at the screen in total confusion because the progress hit the 90% mark and then suddenly started deleting programs, almost like they were causing the issue. 🤷

It seems a bit sketchy if you aren't even doing anything specific on your PC and some random background process is still pinning the CPU at 90-100%. I guess it could just be a backup running, or maybe a Trojan is eating up your resources and slowing everything down.
I guess it’s pretty standard for the CPU to hit those high numbers when you're doing stuff like gaming or video decoding... maybe just how things work. 😉
I guess the CPU is one of the most reliable parts in a PC, so you probably don't need to sweat it too much...

Thanks for the response...

So, I’ve run into a bit of a snag: I'm always downloading new desktop themes from that Microsoft service you get to through the Personalization settings. Lately, though, I've noticed some really cool new themes popping up, but they have a different file extension than the old ones I used to use. Instead of the usual .themepack, these new ones end in .deskthempack, and for some reason, I can't seem to get them to open like my older ones did. It makes me wonder—are these new themes specifically designed just for Windows 8 since they seemed to drop at the same time, or do you think I might be able to get them working on Windows 7 too?

Down at the bottom, the second to last thing says: Compatible with Windows 7.

Did you even try downloading them? It’s common sense that there shouldn't be an error if you're trying to install them on 7; I can pull them down on my Windows 8 machine just fine and they work perfectly. 😉

I stumbled upon this explanation online: "

The .deskthemepack extension isn't recognized by Windows 7—mostly because it’s a new thing for Windows 8 and currently is not supported by Win7. It turns out all those fancy new "panoramic" desktop themes rely on this specific format.

I think there are a few different articles out there that walk you through how to manually download them, unzip the actual images (you'd probably need something like 7zip or WinZip), and then just build your very own custom theme within Windows 7.

Luckily, the standard .themepack themes are still floating around, and those should keep working perfectly fine on both Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Honestly, what really trips me up is that Microsoft doesn't seem to filter these out for people still running Windows 7—or even pop up a little warning saying, "Windows 8 before you Can Use this Panoramic desktop theme."
It looks like those themes are strictly for Windows 8. Kind of a bummer, I guess!

Look, when I first started digging through the forums on Windows 8, everything was already a week old... It felt like I was chasing ghosts. But finally, we’ve actually got some relevant threads for Windows 8 here. Whether that matters to you or not is up to you. 😉

I assume the ones down at the bottom are meant for the standard Windows 8 build and the tablet version...

Hey everyone, I’ve got a question for you all... whenever I restart my PC, it hits that "starting Windows" screen, and just as those colors are about to pop up, this little red dot appears and everything just freezes solid. It won't go any further. But then, if I kill the power, wait a bit, and boot it back up, it works perfectly fine. It isn't some massive, catastrophic problem or anything, but it's driving me nuts wondering why it does that... all my hardware seems to be running totally fine otherwise. Does anyone here know what's going on or dealt with something like this before? Thanks!

Have you tried booting up in Safe Mode?

Which version of Windows 7 is actually the best if I just want to play some games, browse the web, and listen to music... nothing crazy, just basic stuff. I've got 4GB of RAM, an Intel quad 2 Core Q8400, an Nvidia GTX 260, and a 1.5 TB drive. Maybe even Windows 8 would work? ...

swiftdriver30 said:I was wondering which version of Windows 7 would be the best choice if I just want to play some games, browse the web, and listen to music here and there. Nothing too crazy, really. My setup has 4GB of RAM, an Intel quad 2 Core Q8400, an Nvidia GTX 260, and a 1.5 TB drive. Should I maybe look into Windows 8 instead? ...

Home Premium

swiftdriver30 said:Which version of Windows 7 is best for gaming, browsing the web, and listening to some music? Nothing fancy—just that. I’ve got 4GB of RAM, an Intel quad 2 Core Q8400, an Nvidia GTX 260, and a 1.5 TB drive. Maybe even Windows 8?...

There isn't really a "best" version of Windows (at least not from what I've seen)—it all comes down to your hardware. It doesn't much matter if you're running Windows XP or any version of Windows 7; the main thing is having components that actually meet the requirements for whatever game or software you're trying to run. You have a pretty decent setup, but just a heads up—with that specific graphics card, don't expect much in terms of CUDA support in games. And of course, your resolution will make a huge difference too.

swiftdriver30 said:Which version of Windows 7 is best for gaming, surfing the web, and listening to music? Nothing fancy, just those things. I have 4GB of RAM, an Intel quad 2 Core Q8400, an Nvidia GTX 260, and a 1.5 TB drive. Maybe even Windows 8? ...

Since you're working with 4 GB of RAM, you’ll actually want to go with a 64-bit version of Windows if you want to see any benefit from that extra memory. :)
The 32-bit versions will only ever recognize about 3 GB.

When it comes to gaming, the real trick is just turning off everything you don't need. If there are services running in the background that aren't doing anything useful, shut them down so they stop eating up your resources.

I think some of those "game booster" apps are designed specifically to handle that for you.

My screen just froze on me, and when I rebooted my laptop, everything seemed fine except for the resolution—it looks absolutely terrible. I tried tweaking the settings, but half the options are missing, so I can't get it back to how it was before. 🙂

These are the only options I have available , but honestly, none of them look anything like my old setup. Does anyone happen to know how to fix this? I’d really appreciate the help.