Visual Studio 2008 crashes horribly

Question

This has happened to me 3 times now, and I am wondering if anyone is having the same problem. I am running Visual Studio 2008 SP1, and hitting SQL Server 2005 developer edition.

For testing, I use the Server Explorer to browse a database I have already created. For testing I will insert data by hand (right click table -> show table data).

I can do this for a week without problems, but sometimes my computer will crash when the stars are aligned. It doesn't hang, it doesn't blue screen, I see the bios boot screen .2 seconds after I enter some value in a new row that hasn't been saved yet. I have never seen a crash like this, where it reboots instantly. I think it may happen when I enter something that violates a database constraint, but I am not sure yet (need a few more crashes to pinpoint it).

Anyone have the same problem? Know of a solution? Too bad VS wasn't written with managed code, eh? :)

UPDATE: I can reproduce it by inserting a duplicate primary key, clicking off the row, clicking OK on the database error notification, then trying to update the primary key again. I agree - it definitely sounds like a hardware or driver issue, but am not really sure how to solve this since this has only happened when doing this 1 particular thing in VS. I am not overclocking either - I am running a normal (single core) 3 Ghz Dell.

Answer 1

Just so you know, when your computer just snaps right back to the BIOS boot screen with no blue screen or other crash data, this is called a "triple fault" Basically, there was an exception (on a hardware level) whose exception handler triggered an exception whose exception handler triggered an exception. This is almost always a hardware issue since operating systems tend to be VERY careful in the double fault handler not to trigger an exception.

Needless to say, it could be a software problem, but I would check your RAM, CPU and motherboard for potential issues. I had a dell which was doing this fairly randomly with Vista and a new mobo/CPU from dell solved it perfectly.

EDIT: just to note, it can be very hard to convince dell that it is indeed a hardware issue, but stick with it and eventually they'll cave and fix it for you.

Answer 2

Test your memory, it's the most likely cause of your reboots.