SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION Toshiba Satellite L555 Windows 7 bit-64

Manufacturer: Toshiba
Model: Satellite l555d
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
CPU/Ram: 2.3 GHz / 3838 MB
Video Card: AMD M880G with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200
Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio

My computer has been freezing up lately. Most of the time the screen just becomes unresponsive and there are random,thin and horizontal multicolored lines all over the screen with a static-like-buzzing sound. It seems to do this when the computer is under some load like when I virus scan or watch videos on youtube or video chat on skype.

I was having this problem before and I re installed the display driver,sound drivers and wireless drivers and it seemed to work find until 2 or 3 weeks after. I decided to open up the computer today and check the fans and vent but it wasn't that dirty. I cleaned it out and hoped that the problem was the ventilation system. I attempted to restart the computer but it didn't boot. I thought I messed up something inside when I was cleaning but I decided to swap the RAM chips first and see if that will make it start.It did start but still freezing and now I get this message.

"SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

If this is the first time you've seen this error screen restart your computer.If this screen appears again follow these steps.

Check and make sure your hardware is properly installed,ask your hardware and software manufacturer for any windows update that might be needed.

if the problem continues disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software, disable BIOS memory options such as cachings or shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable component,restart your computer,press F8 to select advanced start up options and then select safe mode

Technical Information
*** STOP: 0x0000003B(0x00000000c0000005,0XFFFFF80002cA4A9B,0xFFFF88002DEF0B0,0x0000000000000000)

Collecting data for crash dump....
Initializing disk for crash dump...
Beginning dumping of physical memory.
Dumping physical memory to disk : 60"

My hard drive is good. I did a diagnostics test with SeaTools and my toshiba diagnostic tool also tells me the hard drive is good. I did that diagnostic test on my memory when the computer starts up and it didn't find any errors at all in the memory. I've also fragmentation the the computer. My computer also doesn't seem that hot when it freezes so I don't think it's an overheating problem.


I'm tired of this and I am thinking of redoing the BIOS or doing a total factory reset.What do you guys think is the problem and what is the best course of action?

Also, I would like to know how much CD's do I need to redo my BIOS and how much memory I takes on average.

Sorry for the typos and and thank you in advance!

gregrocker said:

Is there a BIOS update on the Toshiba Support Downloads webpage for your model? If so install it from the OS not disk.

Since you've tested the hardware, what I would do is find a Win7 installation DVD to clean reinstall without the factory bloatware following these steps to get a Perfect Reinstall.

This is a vastly superior install to the bloatware which comes preinstalled on today's consumer PC.

Another interim option is to run Toshiba factory Recovery from its partition after making the Recovery Disks as a backup: Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility

Then follow these steps to clean up the bloatware as best as possible: Clean up factory bloatware

Other than that if you can't start it now use the Installation DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair repeatedly, report back results.

If you can start it monitor the logs for repeat errors and use the system resources to gather clues to the cause, plus work through the tests given here: Troubleshooting Win7

Yes there is a BIOS update on the Toshiba Download Website. Install it from the OS? How do I install it from the Operating System?

I think I'll go with the clean Windows 7 installation. I'll run those tests and see what happens and I'll report back! Thanks a million for the advice and links!

TVeblen said:

That error has been associated with bad video drivers, defective video card, or defective RAM. It can also be due to OS corruption as Greg suggests.

You may want to try some hardware tests before reinstalling the OS just to rule that out.

First you could remove all Catalyst software and drivers, delete the AMD folder that contains the driver files (or it may just reinstall), then restart the computer.
Windows will find the graphics card and install it's own generic WDDM1.1 driver. You will be asked to restart again - do so. Try running on the generic driver for a while to test.

Try re-seating the video card. Make sure the slot is clean. Check all of your connections.


You could also try running on just one stick of RAM in Slot A1. If the problem returns try the other stick alone.
Memory diagnostics are fine, and a good test, but they do not catch everything.

The idea here is to try and isolate any hardware issues before attacking it from the software side.

Hope that helps.

At this point I'm hoping it's a software issue and not a hardware issue. It froze on me while I was watching a video not too long after I re installed the video drivers. I tried putting it on but it was not booting so I took out 1 RAM card and pushed the power button and it came on. I tested it by during the usual stuff that sets it off and it didn't freeze. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It makes sense to rule out the hardware issues first. Can you suggest a good and free video card testing option?

thanks a million!

Britton30 said:

You can use this: Video Card - Stress Test with Furmark This all seems like a video hardware issue. Have you tried new drivers as TVeblen suggested? It could be a failing monitor or connection too.

I've tired the stress test and these were the results

FurMark v1.9.0 Burn-in test, 1920 x 1080 - 1 FPS
OpenGL renderer: AMD M880G with ATI Mobility Radeon
HD 4200 (1002-9712) - MSAAx
FPS- min:1, max: 2, avg: 1
Frames: 3600 - time : 2:00:00
GPU 1- AMD M880G with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200
Core: 500 MHz, mem: 400 MHz, temp:0c
VDDC:0.000V,fan speed: 0%
F1 toogle Help

I followed all the steps on the link you gave me. The image was not fluid motion at all. it just seemed to be interchanging between 2 static images and every time it did that the frame count would go up.I stopped it after 2 hours. Don't know what the results means.

I've tried re installing the drivers and it didn't work.
I've tried removing one stick of RAM. It seems to be working fine now but I need more time to confirm.

TVeblen said:

If you removed one of the sticks of RAM and the issue disappeared then you have uncovered the problem: bad RAM.

Can you confirm that this is what you did? You mention a lot of things in that last paragraph!

This is what I did. I removed 1 RAM stick and I am not having the problem but I think I need to monitor the computer for a little while to see if the RAM card was the problem.