Random BSOD crashes while im AFK

Hello all, new member here :)

I keep getting random crashes from time to time.
My first encounter was the first few mins after going to dell website and downloading lots of updates, including the bios update. After that, I left an item to download over night, and in the next day, I find an error message saying that it recovered from an unexpected error, event type : BlueScreen.
I would blame my BIOS update, but im not sure ... Here are the files I was asked to zip in the sticky topic :

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/695335/Windo...D_jcgriff2.zip

Is Windows 7 . . . - 64 bit - Win 7 - an OEM - What is the age of system (hardware)? 1 week - What is the age of OS installation (have you re-installed the OS?) 1 week

I bought a laptop, Dell Inspiron 15R

I hope someone can figure whats causing the unexpected shutdowns !!

THANKS !

zazu90 said:

Hello all, new member here :)

I keep getting random crashes from time to time.
My first encounter was the first few mins after going to dell website and downloading lots of updates, including the bios update. After that, I left an item to download over night, and in the next day, I find an error message saying that it recovered from an unexpected error, event type : BlueScreen.
I would blame my BIOS update, but im not sure ... Here are the files I was asked to zip in the sticky topic :

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/695335/Windo...D_jcgriff2.zip

Is Windows 7 . . . - 64 bit - Win 7 - an OEM - What is the age of system (hardware)? 1 week - What is the age of OS installation (have you re-installed the OS?) 1 week

I bought a laptop, Dell Inspiron 15R

I hope someone can figure whats causing the unexpected shutdowns !!

THANKS !

Both of these crashes were blamed on win 7 files which is almost impossible. In both the active application was Steam.exe. Neither point directly at steam but it seems like a good bet.

In one the machine uptime was over 2 hours, steams uptime under 10 mins.

I can only recommend general things as the faulting driver was not identified.

1-test your memory
Download a copy of Memtest86 and burn the ISO to a CD using Iso Recorder or another ISO burning program. Boot from the CD, and leave it running for at least 5 or 6 passes.


Just remember, any time Memtest reports errors, it can be either bad RAM or a bad motherboard slot. Test the sticks individually, and if you find a good one, test it in all slots.

2-Run a system file check too verify and repair system files

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Let us know if these dont help


ken J

Thank you very much for your reply !

Its dissapointing that the problem was not identified, whats even more frustrating that SFC returned this after running a scan : Windows Resource Protection did NOT find any integrity violations.

I will try memtest86 some time later ... How long does it need to run for ? Is there anything else I can try before using such softwares ??

Thank you again for your help !

Thanks for the reply.

I think I will try memtest tonight, what do you mean by 5-6 passes by the way ?

Driver verifier looks a bit risky (it pushes your system to BSOD ? ) Ill leave this as my last resort if I couldnt sort it out ..

I tried reading the dump files before posting here, but I couldnt pinpoint the problem. Hence I posted here :)
So I do have some little background on this subject.

Oh one more thing, might it be the RAM ? I will try changing its position as well ... THe problem is I never had a BSOD directly ... Only when im AFK .. (Which was a couple of times over night while downloading ).

Thanks

I think I may have just jinxed my self right there ...

I got my first live BSoD encounter ...

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: a
BCP1: 0000000000000028
BCP2: 0000000000000002
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: FFFFF800034BA884
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1

Do you want the latest .dmp file ? Or what shall I do now ?

I was watching a video on youtube using firefox, and downloading a trial from adobe.com
Was doing nothing other than that !

I think I need to return this laptop to the shop I got it from ...

--Oh and by the way, I opened the BIOS just to check for any weird settings ..

I noticed my driver is set to AHCI instead of SATA .. Will changing this have any effect ?

UPDATE :

I have downloaded BlueScreenView and checked out whats causing the Win7 to crash.

Apparently its ntoskrnl.exe , in all 3 dump files, this file is marked as present in Crash Stack.

I will try playing around some more .. I hope someone can give me a reply here just to check if they noticed a possible solution or something

Thanks

Thanks for your reply Mitchell
I will commence the memory testing soon .. I will check on this post from my other computer.

I hope this points out the problem !

Thanks again for your replies all.

Hello all

I got a crucial update .. memtest ran at 5 passes with 0 errors .. So I turned it off and called DELL to trouble shoot. THey told me to hold FN + POWERBUTTON and it went through RAM and Hardrive testing etc ..
After a while, the test failed with error 0123. They told me there is a fault in your RAM and issued me new ones (im supposed to receive them soon )

So I guess it turned it out that I was given faulty RAM modules after all ...

Whats your opinion ? Shall I go through further testing ? (Moving my RAM chips around ? )

I appreciate any feedback :)