📎 AI Summary:
The thread discusses an aging HP desktop experiencing random crashes and BSODs, with initial analysis pointing to a possible hardware issue or driver conflict, particularly involving bridge.sys, potentially related to network hardware. The original poster attempts driver updates and asks about certain software and hotfixes, but encounters compatibility issues, especially with graphics driver updates. An expert suggests testing the hardware, considering a hard drive replacement, and possibly reinstalling Windows Vista, noting that hardware failure might be the root cause, though subsequent analysis indicates no clear hardware errors from dump files.
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PathOfTears

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Thread Author #1
My PC keeps crashing, it happens seemingly at random. Only time I know its been happening over and over again is when I shutdown, my pc goes to the "Shutting down..." screen and then bluescreens. This has only been happening like maybe a month? Im gonna attach my minidumps to this
 

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BIGBEARJEDI
Hi there,

Looks like you could also be experiencing hardware failure from a system of this age. This system is about 8-9 years old. What I usually do with a system like that comes in to be repaired is to test the hardware first, before attempting software solutions. That's cause I'm a hardware engineer. The software solutions suggested will only work if the hardware is ok. I would suggest that you test the hardware, and I'll give you a couple of links to do so. Once that's done, you should consider getting a new hard drive and removing the old drive, and put the new drive into the PC and install Vista from factory Recovery Media (most likely they will be discs). This will reinstall the Vista that originally came with your...
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kemical

kemical

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#2
Code: 
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 9F, {3, fffffa800458ddb0, fffffa8007ade050, fffffa8004e03c10}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for bridge.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for bridge.sys
Probably caused by : bridge.sys

Followup: MachineOwner
Hi,
of the dump files sent most were like the above. Basically this means that a component didn't power off or on and with the probable cause being bridge.sys it may well be network related. The other dump files were Bugcheck 3b although only a few and can mean a system exception has occurred.

Going back to the bugcheck 9F dump's you can see here that something was told to power down:

Code: 
FAILURE_ID_HASH_STRING:  km:x64_0x9f_3_power_down_image_bridge.sys
Bridge.sys probably relates to Mac bridge miniport. This allows different network interfaces to connect inside the machine.

Please remove AVG AV. This is known on occasion to cause the odd issue and we ask users to remove it and run MSE as this is ultra stable (you can always install AVG at a later date)

I've looked over your system drivers and most date to 2008/2011

You do have updates available however. I checked your systems support page at HP and there are updates. They only date to 2012 but that will do.
Please go through each driver and update. I also notice hotfixes available too so please go through everything.
HP Pavilion a6813w Desktop PC
HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Customer Support

You also have a bios update pending but if your unsure about the procedure it's best left alone.

See how you get on after updating those drivers.

If the bsod should continue then please post the dump files.


.
 

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PathOfTears

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Thread Author #5
Hey I got a bit delayed with the updates so Im doing them now but the graphics driver update is saying "The update did not complete successfully. (9994)". Im just downloading them and installing them from top to bottom so idk if I should have installed something else before, and maybe thats whats causing it to not successfully update or what but I just thought I should let you know incase you knew of a solution.

Also Im down to the Hotfix at this point, do I need to get the "Software-Multimedia" stuff or is that not necessary? I couldnt do the stuff under "Firmware" since my PC doesnt meet the minimum requirements for them. After "Software-Multimedia" theres "Software Solutions" and "Utility-Tools" do I need those as well?
 

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kemical

kemical

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#6
PathOfTears said:
but the graphics driver update is saying "The update did not complete successfully. (9994)"
Click to expand...
According to the HP site the error code means your system doesn't meet the minimum requirements
PathOfTears said:
After "Software-Multimedia" theres "Software Solutions" and "Utility-Tools" do I need those as well?
Click to expand...
You can probably miss these three sections as they are only applications.

See if the graphics driver will install under compatibility mode.
 

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PathOfTears

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Thread Author #7
Ah I guess this system just doesnt meet the minimum requirements for the graphics driver update as the compatibility mode didnt change anything.
 

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kemical

kemical

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#8
Hmm I think it's because of vista for some reason.. See if this update utility will run:
Link Removed
 

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BIGBEARJEDI

BIGBEARJEDI

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#9
Hi there,

Looks like you could also be experiencing hardware failure from a system of this age. This system is about 8-9 years old. What I usually do with a system like that comes in to be repaired is to test the hardware first, before attempting software solutions. That's cause I'm a hardware engineer. The software solutions suggested will only work if the hardware is ok. I would suggest that you test the hardware, and I'll give you a couple of links to do so. Once that's done, you should consider getting a new hard drive and removing the old drive, and put the new drive into the PC and install Vista from factory Recovery Media (most likely they will be discs). This will reinstall the Vista that originally came with your computer from the factory when it was new. If the BSODs stop, then it was due to your having a faulty hard drive. Failed hard drives in systems the age of your PC are the #1 cause of failure.

Having set aside your old hard drive, you can use data recovery programs to get your stuff off of it, in the case you don't already have it backed up to external media. If you don't know how to do this, you can take that drive to your local computer repair shop and pay a professional Tech to recovery all your library files (Documents, Photos, Music, Videos, Movies, E-mail, etc.).

Here are the links to the hardware diagnostics I mentioned to test your PC:

MEMORY DIAGNOSTICS:
Link Removed
HARD DRIVE DIAGNOSTICS:
Link Removed

Starting in 2007, when Vista computers came first came out, very few of them were provided with factory Recovery Discs. However, some were and if you have those you can reinstall Vista onto a new hard drive. If you don't have those discs or lost them, you can still buy them direct from HP for $29-$99 U.S. After testing your RAM sticks, installing a new hard drive, and a clean install of Windows Vista, and your BSODs continue, your Motherboard is bricked.:waah: That normally is a $275-$500 repair cost, and doesn't make sense to fix, given that brand new PCs cost less than $225.

One thing that wasn't mentioned was whether you were using a plug-in Graphics Card or the internal Intel GMA 3100 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 4.0 Graphics chip built into your HP Motherboard. Should you do this testing and Vista reinstall, make sure to remove the plug-in graphics card and use the embedded Graphics Chip to test the computer. If the BSODs continue as above, your Motherboard is toast and it's time to replace it or replace the entire computer which will probably be cheaper. There is also the issue, that you may no longer be able to buy the replacement Motherboard online such as on ebay, as due to it's age it may not be available in the aftermarket.

Good luck!
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>
 

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kemical

kemical

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#10
Whilst some of these are good ideas I saw no evidence of a hardware error in the dump file. If you did you run the last utility suggested can you update on what's happened or indeed the issue is still current?
 

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