Hello,
I recently moved my laptop quite a distance in my bag and when starting it found it unable to start windows. I re installed and all was fine but I am now getting fairly regular BSOD and am hoping you might be able to help me. The details are attached. I am suspicious it might be hardware related.
- 64bit Windows 7 Home Premium
- Original OS
- Weird Dell OEM
- Bought laptop refurbished about 10 months ago
Thanks for any help!
The first thing to check is whether the hard disk is physically connected to the motherboard properly. To do so:
- Shut down and turn off the computer
- Remove the AC Adapter
- Remove the battery
- Hold down the power button for 15-30 seconds to close the circuit and drain any residual power
- Remove the panel on the underside of the laptop where the hard disk is housed
- Remove and re-insert the hard disk by sliding it away from the connector and then gently but firmly pressing it back into the connector (no screws should need to be removed to do this step)
- Replace the panel on the underside of the laptop to cover the hard disk
- Replace the battery
- Replace the AC Adapter
- Turn on the computer and see how it responds
Post back once these steps have been implemented whether the system is stable. Sometimes these crashes can occur due to a loose connection.
You have some DirectX/graphics card related crashes. May be due to corrupted drivers or a corrupted DirectX installation.
- Try re-installing DirectX using the Download: DirectX Redist (June 2010) - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details and see how the system responds.
Follow the steps for Diagnosing basic problems with DirectX. To re-install your display card drivers as outlined in the DirectX link, use the following steps.
- Download the drivers you want for your display card(s)
- Click Start Menu
- Click Control Panel
- Click Uninstall a program
- For NVIDIA:
- Uninstall the NVIDIA Graphics Driver (this should uninstall all NVIDIA software and drivers)
- Restart your computer
- Make sure NVIDIA 3D Vision Driver, NVIDIA 3D Vision Video Player, NVIDIA HD Audio Driver, and NVIDIA PhysX System Software are not still listed under Uninstall a program through Control Panel
- If any remain of the above, uninstall one at a time
- If asked to restart after uninstalling any of the above, do so, and continue uninstalling any remaining NVIDIA items until all are removed
- For AMD:
- Uninstall AMD Catalyst Install Manager if it is listed (this should remove all AMD graphics software and drivers)
- If AMD Catalyst Install Manager is not listed, use the following method to uninstall the graphics drivers (this also works for onboard graphics drivers):
- Click Start Menu
- Right Click My Computer/Computer
- Click Manage
- Click Device Manager from the list on the left
- Expand Display adapters
- Do the following for each adapter (in case you have multiple display cards)
- Right click the adapter
- Click Uninstall (do not click OK in the dialog box that pops up after hitting Uninstall)
- Put a tick in Delete driver software for this device (if this option is available, otherwise just hit OK) and hit OK
Alternatively:
- Login as an adminstrative user
- Click Start Menu
- Click Control Panel
- Click Hardware and Sound
- Click Device Manager (the last link under Devices and Printers)
- Expand Display adapters
- Do the following for each adapter (in case you have multiple display cards)
- Right click the adapter
- Click Uninstall (do not click OK in the dialog box that pops up after hitting Uninstall)
- Put a tick in Delete driver software for this device (if this option is available, otherwise just hit OK) and hit OK
- Restart your computer after uninstalling drivers for all display cards
- Install the driver you selected for the display cards once Windows starts
Hi, thanks for your suggestions.
I removed the back case of my laptop but the hard drives did appear to be locked in place with screws.
I reinstalled Direct X and graphics drivers as per your instructions and still got the errors.
I did recieve a tip that the 0x00007f errors might be caused by Zonealarm so I have now uninstalled that so I will report back if it does or doesn't solve the problems. I did however get a 1x000001e error so I could post more dumps if that would help.
Have you had any other crashes since removing ZoneAlarm? I suspect that it was not ZoneAlarm that caused your crashes, but anything is possible. If you have had crashes since removing it, please upload the reports. Otherwise, sit tight for a few days and post back at that time how the system is running.
Hi, its been a few days and I have had no crashes so I can only assume it was Zonealarm causing them. My friend said that, after much googling, he found something saying that Zonealarm handles udp packets in a way windows 7 doesn't like. This seems quite odd for a well known company like Zonelarm but it was causing my crashes. Hope this helps someone else, and thanks for your quick responses writhziden.
ZoneAlarm had some issues with Windows 7 a couple years ago, but I had thought the problems were ironed out. That is not to say it cannot cause conflicts on some systems since not all systems have been tested and will have different hardware/software. I am curious though: were you using an older version, or was the an up to date version of ZoneAlarm?
If it was a newer version, it may have been a corrupted installation (this can happen over time), or it may have had some incompatible features with something else on your system (hardware or software), Either way, what is important is the problem is solved, and I am glad to see it.
As far as I know I was using the most up to date version, and due to reinstalling windows 4 times I also reinstalled zonealarm 4 times. On top of that my friend (the one who also had the zonealarm caused crashes) has the same laptop as me (XPS 17) so it seems likely that its just a fluke of the hardware I have.
Good to know. It may also be the software that comes pre-installed on that laptop if you did not do a clean install. You say you re-installed, but to be clear, was it a fresh install, or did you recover the system using the factory image on the recovery partition or recovery discs? As a precaution: What antivirus software came with your laptop and how was it removed?
Ah, yes I did reinstall from the recovery partition with all of Dell's crap on it. There was I think a mcafee or norton trial included but I immediately uninstalled it (just with the normal windows uninstaller).
Ah, that might explain it. To uninstall Norton or McAfee, you have to use their tools to get rid of all the remnants, and even that does not always remove everything. I had a Norton technician this weekend go through my system and clean up more remnants after using the Norton removal tool.
Download and run the Norton Removal Tool to uninstall your Norton product
How to uninstall or reinstall supported McAfee products using the McAfee Consumer Products Removal tool (MCPR.exe)
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