# [SOLVED] Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.



## FreakshowGamer

When I install ANY game, it gets the blue screen of death at some point during the installation progress, it doesn't matter if this game is 500 megabytes, it still blue screens. I tried installing the game "The Longest Journey". A famous PC adventure game from 2000. It blue screens at random points throughout the installation progress. The blue screen will just flash for a second then my computer will restart. It did the same on Dragon Age: Origins, Mirror's Edge and many other games. I have no idea why it does this... I have plenty of HDD space for each of the games. I have about 30 GB left on my hard drive and the games I try to install are 8 GB max. I really need some support. I'll give my specs if that will help at all.

Windows XP Service Pack 3
Intel Core Duo 2 (2.66Ghz)
2048MB RAM
Approximately 596GB hard drive
nVidia GeForce 9500GT (1GB of GFX RAM)
DirectX 9.0c


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## Zealex

*Re: Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.*

Hello and welcome to TSF FreakshowGamer :wave: 

How long has this issue been happening? I need your PSU information, open the side of your case and look for a boxy component. Look at the sticker, we need:

Make
Model
Size (Watts)
Number of amps on 12v rail(s).

I suspect this to be either a PSU or RAM issue, we will first look at the PSU. 

How old is this computer?


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## koala

*Re: Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.*

To see the blue screen without the computer restarting, go to Control Panel > System > Advanced tab > Startup & Recovery Settings button > System Failure and remove the checkmark from 'Automatically restart'. The full BSOD message and Stop error code will help pinpoint the cause of the problem.


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## FreakshowGamer

*Re: Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.*

I got the computer December 2008.

I see a sticker on top of a fan that says Intel above the motherboard... I'm just guessing what you're asking me but I'll see what I can find.

I see a sticker on my motherboard that says:
ASRock
945GCM-S
FSB1333
DDR2 667
Dual Channel

On the side of my Power Supply it says:
TURBOLINK SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY
Model: LC-A420ATX 
12V

Then it shows a table with a bunch of stuff that involves voltage that I don't understand... I'll display something of it below:

Vac- | Voltage 
Input| 115/... You know what, just let me take a picture =.=



I have no idea what that stuff means, but if it's of any meaning to you, good.

This issue has been happening since about mid-2009.


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## koala

*Re: Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.*

Your PSU has two +12V lines (14A each). This is too weak to safely power your PCIE graphics card, but shouldn't affect the installation process which is just moving files from the CD to the hard drive.

Your hard drive is very low on free space. You should have at least 15% free space for Windows to run efficiently, so your 600gb drive should have at least 90gb free, not the 30gb you currently have.


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## FreakshowGamer

*Re: Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.*

So, if my hard drive is cleared to 90GB... it should work fine? (this will be hard looking for crap to delete) What are the chances of that being the solution?


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## Zealex

*Re: Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.*

Could possibly be a RAM issue, and I don't see how it could hurt.

Download *memtest* and burn it to a CD. Boot to the CD and run it for each stick. Should leave it for a pretty long time, such as 6+ hours.

And yes, the PSU is too weak.


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## koala

*Re: Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.*

Follow the instructions in post#3, then try installing another game. If you get a blue screen, copy down everything it says and post back.

Free some space, but be careful which files you delete. Media files (photos, videos, music) are safe to delete or backup to CD/DVD, but for program files you need to uninstall them through the Control Panel.

Run defrag after freeing up enough space.


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## FreakshowGamer

*Re: Blue screen of death when installing ANY game.*

Hmmm... it must have been some hard drive problem, I just successfully installed The Longest Journey at 20% HDD space left (123 GB).  Yayy! But I'm pretty sure I had over that much space when this problem first occurred... weird. Oh well! It seems to be fixed now anyway, unless that was pure luck.


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