Crash but not BSOD (maybe)

Hi, I would like some help with my daughter's crashing Dell Inspiron 1564 running W7 64.

At random times her laptop crashes to a coloured screen (same colour as the toolbar) but it is not a BSOD. The PC hangs and does not restart until its turned off/on via the power switch. As far as I can see no memory.dmp file is written per crash. (I've looked in the c:\windows folder and the c:\windows\minidump folder is empty.)

So I'm wondering if its not a software problem but a hardware issue. Can you give me some advice to see if we can find the issue?

Thanks.

Mikey61 said:

Hi, I would like some help with my daughter's crashing Dell Inspiron 1564 running W7 64.

At random times her laptop crashes to a coloured screen (same colour as the toolbar) but it is not a BSOD. The PC hangs and does not restart until its turned off/on via the power switch. As far as I can see no memory.dmp file is written per crash. (I've looked in the c:\windows folder and the c:\windows\minidump folder is empty.)

So I'm wondering if its not a software problem but a hardware issue. Can you give me some advice to see if we can find the issue?

Thanks.

Can you ensure that DMP's are enabled in control panel.




We do need the DMP file as it contains the only record of the sequence of events leading up to the crash, what drivers were loaded, and what was responsible.

You may be able to get the DMP files without crashing by booting into safe mode (F8) with networking.

To enable us to assist you with your computer's BSOD symptoms, upload the contents of your "\Windows\Minidump" folder.

The procedure:

* Copy the contents of \Windows\Minidump to another (temporary) location somewhere on your machine.
* Zip up the copy.
* Attach the ZIP archive to your post using the "paperclip" (file attachments) button.
*If the files are too large please upload them to a file sharing service like "Rapidshare" and put a link to them in your reply.


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 check event viewer.

There are several ways to find what the problem is. The best is to go into event viewer (type eventvwr in search). Event viewer (local) and look for the critical errors listed in the last day, week, etc. Then go to the windows log>application tab. Finally the windows Logs>system tabs.

You want to look for all errors (they have red in the left column ).

When you find them you want to look for critical errors that say app hang, app crash, or anything that relates to the problem.

When you find them please note the event ID, and the source codes and tell us what they are.

Thanks for your reply. We still are having a problem getting hold of any dump file but looking in the event viewer we see the following critical error:

Event ID: 41
Source: kernal-power
#event: 63

Does that help any? We'll continue to look for the dump files.

correction :

Task Category: 63
#Event: 135

Mikey61 said:

Thanks for your reply. We still are having a problem getting hold of any dump file but looking in the event viewer we see the following critical error:

Event ID: 41
Source: kernal-power
#event: 63

Does that help any? We'll continue to look for the dump files.

This just says the shutdown was not clean

Mikey61 said:

correction :

Task Category: 63
#Event: 135

This indicates a problem with a dvd drive (internal ide)

Are these both marked critical?