>>>>>I installed VS2012 Express for Web. Now I can only work in VS2012 for about 1/2 hour when it - along with the entire computer - crashes. The result of the crash is the DOS dump of memory. So I have to restart the computer.
>>>>>The computer is Windows 7 Prof; 4 GB RAM.
>>>>>Has anybody else experience this issues? Do you know if there are fixes available? TIA.
>>>>
>>>>No user-mode application should be able to cause a BSOD ("Blue Screen Of Death"). If that's what you're getting, there is either a kernel level/driver bug, or a hardware problem.
>>>>
>>>>Try to record the exact message of the BSOD, and the hex parameters. Sometimes the BSOD stays on-screen until you intervene manually, in that case you can easily record that info. If not, you can try hitting Pause and/or have a digital camera handy to take a pic of the BSOD. You can usually Google the results to get a good idea of what's going wrong.
>>>>
>>>>Examine your System and Application event logs for unusual warnings or errors.
>>>>
>>>>My understanding is VS is demanding of hardware e.g. wants lots of RAM. Maybe you've got a bad RAM chip that doesn't get used until you run VS, so you don't see the problem until then. You could download an ISO of MemTest86+ to test your memory.
>>>>
>>>>If the computer is new, make sure all drivers are up-to-date and exactly correct for the actual hardware. Look for hardware-related optional updates in Windows Update.
>>>
>>>I will try to take a picture with a camera when I get this BSOD. It usually scrolls fast but maybe Pause button will work.
>>>The computer is not new - about 3-4 years old. And I only see this BSOD after I installed VS2012.
>>>I have 4 GB of RAM. If I knew that adding another 2 or 4 GB would help to alleviate the problem I would certainly do it.
>>>And I will check the System and Application event logs, to see if I find anything there.
>>>Thank you.
>>
>>I highly recommend downloading the MemTest86+ ISO, burn a bootable CD from it, and run it to test your memory: http://www.memtest.org/
>
>I see many downloads on this page. Could you please explain the difference between the following two?
>Download - Pre-compiled Bootable ISO (zip)
>and
>Download - Pre-compiled Bootable Binary (zip)

You want the top one - the ISO. It is supplied in a zip archive. When you unzip it, you will have a single file with a .iso extension. You can then burn that ISO CD image directly to a blank CD - you can do that directly with Win7. You can then boot from the CD to run the utility. To do that, you have to make sure your machine can boot from CD, or access the boot menu with the appropriate keystroke sequence during boot.