Random BSODs hal.dll+12a3b, ntoskrnl.exe+18cb03, IRQL, 0x124..

Hi, more updates. I'm not gonna give up on this little laptop.

I disassembled the entire laptop, cleaned off the old paste off of the processor and the GPU with 90% alcohol (there was none on the southbridge/northbridge? there was instead a blutack kinda rubbery material on that one.), reseated the CPU, and reapplied Xigmatek Freezing Point paste on it ( just a tiny watermelon-seed sized amount of paste ).

booted it up and it RAN LIKE A DREAM.

Ran Prim95, WITH a movie running in the foreground WHILE downloading something and ALSO updating WorldOfTanks for moer than an HOUR. NO PROBLEMS. Played World of Tanks, DC Universe Online and Age of Conan for two or more days NO PROBLEMS.

Finally, I shut off the laptop. Went for a 3 day holiday, came back, and it's just as bad as before. BSODs ALL OVER. Now I can't even boot into windows7. Works well enough in Safe Mode though, which I am in right now.

Tried reseating the CPU, reapplying new thermal paste: NO GOOD.

Please someone, help me!!!!!!

EDIT: Oh yeah, mostly x124s. Tried swapping HDDs and memory; no go.

koolkat77 said:

Whats the age of all the hardware of this laptop?
→ Stop 0x124 - what it means and what to try

Around/ over 2 years old. Plus I'm in a tropical country so ambient temperatures can get pretty high, like 32c maybe 35c. hwmonitor reports that during gaming (which I do a lot of) tops out at 85c+ .

i wouldve thought that the hardware wouldve been fried or something but those 2 days of gaming, you would've sworn it was a brand new rig, you know what i mean? its so weird how it went back to being a depressed laptop only after i switched it off.

update:

now i cant even get the win7 installation to run off the usb stick; as the windows logo is forming up, it will stop0x124 right when its about to load the uhm.... choose language screen.

i made sure that i applied just a tiny amount of thermal paste so that it wouldnt run off onto the sides and make contact with any other metal parts.

it cant be the processor right? otherwise i wouldnt even be able to run anything in safe mode?

Edit: 3x instances of IRQL_NOT_LESS... and 1x instance of PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED... now.
Edit: finally managed to find a slightly more updated version of the gpu drivers... was 2009, now at 2010 version.

koolkat77 said:

Did you read the guide?

yeah if youd refer back to my original post, i've done almost everything thats recommended to be done.

im just totally depressed by the fact that i cant even reinstall win7 now.

but in case im missing something, what specifically could i have missed in that guide that you posted? seems like i have done everything except compressed air into the ram slots since i dont have any gas handy.

oh i hadnt updated BIOS as well. ill be on my way then.

koolkat77 said:

Hmm yup. Go ahead with the BIOS update.

BTW, is the computer under its warranty?
Do you have a spare computer where you can switch parts with to
find out which part of the hardware exactly is causing these problems..?

nah definitely out of warranty.
ive switched RAM and HDD. other parts are non switchable.
BIOS had been updated all along to 1.50 since a few weeks ago, i just forgot.

now my laptop is powering off and restarting intermittently. no BSODs. of course, there are still BSODs as well.