Crash Problem with new laptop and 7

Well, normally I would just google problems I have and search forums to find an answer. But as good old Thomas Paine said, "These are the times that try men's souls." So, I've signed up on these forums, seeing as I now have both my desktop and laptop running on Windows 7. A little background mush to tread through first (but I'll make it quick, I promise). I decided to upgrade my desktop from Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit to Windows 7 Professional 64-bit at the college student deal of $29.99. So far, I've installed it just last night and it seems to be working like a charm. My main issue is with the laptop I just got. As follow are the specs:

HP Pavilion dv4t Entertainment PC
• Espresso Black
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T6600 (2.2GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
• FREE Upgrade to 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 2GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M
• 14.1" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
• Webcam Only
• Intel Wireless-N Mini-card
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• HP Color Matching Keyboard
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• No Modem
• Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

This is straight off my order receipt. I just received the laptop on the 7th of January and it seemed to be working like a charm...for a little while anyway. Then, I began to have problems. I'm not certain exactly what is causing it, but my laptop has crashed about 10 or 15 times. Usually it happens in spurts of 2 or more in a row. Then, it make work fine for a while, but do it again later. Whether it's the OS, the apps I've installed, or HP's manufacturing causing the problems, I don't know. But here's where I'm turning to first as I've seen many intelligent and well-qualified programers (I hope) on here with good answers or attempts as workarounds.

A little more information. I had about an hour and a half conversation with a nice man in India about said problem. Long story short, the laptop crashed twice while he either remoted in or tried to remote in. I tried taking the battery out while it was on, putting it back in and restarting it. Then, we tried scanning my computer for any potentially harmful viruses or malware using the Malwarebytes program. The laptop crashed during this. The next time he tried to remote in, it crashed again right as it connected. Then, he had me do an F10 at reboot and do a hard disk check (both short and long) and said he'd have someone call back and check (Note: they haven't yet so I'm not sure if they would either later today or never). I also did a memory test after that. My laptop passed all the tests. I then logged back in and finished a full scan using the before-mentioned Malwarebytes program. I found one infection (though I don't recall what it was) and removed it. I then used my normal AVG 9.0 to perform another scan that revealed numerous potentially harmful objects that I also removed. My laptop also crashed at a different time after the scans when I was trying to install Microsoft updates. I have since downloaded and installed all the updates I can and the computer hasn't crashed since, but I can't help and nudge the feeling that the problem is still not solved. Thoughts???

P.S. The laptop did not crash when I tried to write this message (Thank God ) as it has sometimes crashed when I have visited different forums on this laptop.

Hi-ya Moochmaker,

Welcome to the forums.
Let's find out some more information and hopefully find what is causing it.
Here's some things to take a look at.

• Open the Event viewer (type eventvwr.msc in the RUN dialogue) and take a look at the windows logs to see if you can ascertain what is causing the issue.
• Is there a blue screen of death (BSOD)? Can you see any information on it that may be useful for us?
• Download the latest drivers from the HP website (not windows update)
• Unplug all external devices such as USB, firewire, eSata, take any cards out of the card slots (including any usb mouse, keyboard, and wireless adapters in card slots), see if the problem still occurs.
• Remove any 3rd party software that you don't need.

Moving forward we can look at using driver verifier and also check the windows dump logs, if you are familiar with these then jump right in, otherwise lets wait until we get the results of the above tests and take this a few steps at a time.

I have seen many new factory installs just crash for no apparent reason. In fact my team is required to fresh install a new PC/laptop so that they know exactly what is on their machine (i.e. to remove all bloatware and ensure that the latest drivers are used). Please keep this in mind as we move through the troubleshooting of your issue.

It looks like the issue is related to the Kernal Power, this is known to happen if not enough power is reaching the kernal, if RAM is faulty or not enough power reaches it and apparently due to hardware drivers and firmware. Some examples:
Iam having Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power crashes and here
https://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...7-crash-2.html

Moochmaker said:

-Yes, I did see the BSOD. On the earlier crashes, it was up for a while, but more recently, it would flicker, the screen would 'fritz' and then the laptop restart. I didn't have enough time to see anything useful. It was very rapid.

Ok, We can get more on this later if needed.

Moochmaker said:

-I forgot to mention in the last post that the guy in India while remoted in, went to the HP website, entered my product under the "Support and Drivers" tab, and downloaded the BIOS and had me restart. The computer did crash after that twice, I believe.

So your bios has been upgraded? Did it crash at all during the upgrade process or just afterwards (same as before)?

Moochmaker said:

Do I want to download whatever is under the driver section?

Go here -> Model search results choose your correct model and download all of the drivers for your computer and install them, this should ensure that you have latest available.

Moochmaker said:

-I'll unplug my devices and run it later to see if it still crashes. So far this morning, it hasn't crashed and has been running fine. The only things I have plugged in are the power cord, Logitech mouse, and my wireless N-card which came with it. Nothing else.

Sounds good, what this does is reduce the amount of wattage required to run your computer and proves or disproves that power is an issue. If it doesn't crash, add one external device every 24 hours until you get a crash. If it crashes unplug it all again and just add the device that you believe caused the crash. This is a type of isolation test and should prove if it is Power issue, or if a particular hardware device causing your problem, or that it crashes regardless of external devices (all of which is useful info).

Moochmaker said:

-I'll remove as much third party software as I can, but can you give me a quick description of what would be good to remove?

This is a hard one and based on your log-info less likley to be a solution. However stranger things have happened . I guess the rule of thumb here is that if you don't need it remove it. For example they may have given you a lot of trial software, or a cd/dvd burning software or movie maker, or 3rd party game etc that won't use. Just remove any software that you don't need.

Moochmaker said:

Like I said, it's been running fine this morning, but I'll continue to see if it crashes later today. Thanks for the advice so far. I have system restored once as well, just to note.

Good point re: the system restore. Which reminds me, you can also open an elevated command prompt (open CMD as admin) as type in SFC /SCANNOW to check that your windows system files are not corrupt.

Now that you know what most likely causes the problem you can narrow your search, there is a wealth of information on possible solutions to similar issues on the www.
blue screen of death "kernel power" HP - Google Search

Also check your power cable to ensure that it is not faulty. You may also consider adjusting the power options in control panel for best performance.

One last thing, if you want to find the cause it is often useful to only try one thing at a time and then test and wait to see what happens. Let me know how you go and good luck!

"Everything is new and shouldn't be faulty", yeah it shouldn't... but it still could be. It's built by humans.

Double check the drivers, often they are months old in factory boxed machines.

All ideas are good and a heating issue can cause a shut down, however there is usually no BSOD, it just turns off.

I have also read about firefox related issues and anything is worth trying. :) I am no longer surprised when the weirdest thiung turns out to be the problem/solution to an issue.

Before you send it back to HP, try a fresh install you may be surprised. But if it continues after the fresh install, just send it back, the log definately suggests a kernal problem (but what we don't know is what is referenceing the kernal).

If you can, next time it crashes and reboots, grab the latest dump file from %systemroot%\minidump and upload it for me, i'll take a closer look and see if a driver (and which driver) is causing the kernal to crash.

If it's a fresh install and the same problem, send it back.

Like you said, you don't need it so you may as well.

Moochmaker said:

Ya, and thanks for all the help. Though I have to send it back, you had some good advice and suggestions. I don't think Windows 7 caused the problem. Must have been something in the hardware that wasn't readily apparent or wasn't an issue until I tried to use it more. Thanks, and I'll come back if I have anymore questions or concerns. My desktop is running great on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and I doubt I'll have any problems there. Seems to be working like a charm.

You're very welcome.

It's disappointing that it turned out to be a hardware issue; but it's always a good reminder that sometimes we can't fix it *Tim eats humble pie* :)

By the way, my windows 7 64bit has never missed a beat, I'm really happy with it also.

All the best and maybe we'll bump into each other here again.