Windows 7: System Hang / Black Screen

ayahirano · 24 Jun 2011

Hey everyone,

Recently I've been experiencing these strange 'crashes'. The screen goes black all of a sudden and the laptop is unresponsive. I end up having to restart the computer by holding down the power button.

Here are my laptop's specs :

Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (SP1 not installed)
Originally came with Windows Vista but the laptop manufacturer, Sony, provided a free upgrade from an install disc
- Windows 7 was installed about 1 year and 9 months ago
laptop will be 2 years old at the end of July
Sony VAIO VGN-FW340D/W

Attached is a zip called dump.zip which contains the dump files and system performance report.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

ayahirano

Maguscreed · 24 Jun 2011

First let's do the easy thing, run a secure file check and see if it comes up with anything.
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Barring that working we should probably move on to the below.

I don't see any minidump files were none in the c:\windows\minidump folder?

If not it might be useful to create some to have a better look at what's going on here.
First assuming the files don't exist you need to enable minidumps

To ensure minidumps are enabled:

Go to Start, in the Search Box type: sysdm.cpl, press Enter.
Under the Advanced tab, click on the Startup and Recovery Settings... button.
Ensure that Automatically restart is unchecked.
Under the Write Debugging Information header
Select Small memory dump (256 kB) in the dropdown box (the 256kb varies).
Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump.
OK your way out.
Reboot if changes have been made.

Then we'll try using driver verifier to see what's causing the hang.
Driver Verifier - Enable and Disable
(Please read all instructions for driver verifier before using as it's possible it will make the machine behave badly and you need to know how to undo it.)

Jonathan_King · 25 Jun 2011

In addition to Maguscreed's advice to run driver verifier:

Run a full scan with Malwarebyes: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Reviews and free Malwarebytes Anti-Malware downloads at CNET Downloads

Code:

Event[239]:
  Log Name: System
  Source: Microsoft-Windows-Wininit
  Date: 2011-06-24T18:08:33.372
  Event ID: 11
  Task: N/A
  Level: Warning
  Opcode: Info
  Keyword: N/A
  User: S-1-5-18
  User Name: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
  Computer: R
  Description: 
Custom dynamic link libraries are being loaded for every application.  The system administrator should review the list of libraries to ensure  they are related to trusted applications.

See if you can update Avira at all, it seems that there are some network-related issues that may be resolved because of that.

Minidumps are already enabled...

ayahirano · 25 Jun 2011

Thanks guys,

Yes minidumps are enabled. Before the computer was set to kernel memory dump but not it is set to small memory dump. Which one is better at providing information whenever the computer crashes?

@Jonathan_King , Avira is updating regularly.

Regards,

ayahirano

Jonathan_King · 25 Jun 2011

Kernel Memory Dump is the default setting. When the system crashes, both a full dump and minidump will be created. This is the setting we recommend 99% of the time. The full dump is written, then a minidump created from that. If, for whatever reason, the system is shutting down before the minidump is written from the full dump, changing the setting to Small Dump may save some precious seconds, enough to get a minidump off. Usually we just look at the Full Dump in those cases.

Run the Malwarebytes test; also, remove Avira completely and install Microsoft Security Essentials for the time being.

Windows 7: System Hang / Black Screen

System Hang / Black Screen problems?