BSOD Crash, need guidance

[CStaat]

Hey guys, I've been lurking around on the forum, but now joined to seek help with my Blue Screen of Death.

The problem seems to occur when I'm doing nothing. The laptop just sits on my table, and I can hear the welcome sound, telling me Windows restarted. Yesterday I caught it in the act, and saw that it was doing a physical memory dump. I didn't get the chance to see what the first few lines said, though.

The laptop is a brand new Dell Inspiron 1564, with the i3 processor, and 4 Gigs of RAM. All the hardware is OEM. I had some shut down errors corresponding to the USB power settings, which also related to Hibernating problems. That was fixed, and I'm not getting any errors from that.

I've run Memtest86, and everything passed. I ran a scan tool I found on here: command prompt, stf /scannow. It said Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. Yes, the laptop is under warranty, but those guys at Dell are never any help.

A side note, the webcam in the lid also acts funny. I think that's on the USB buss. So I don't know if these issues might be linked. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Most recent BSOD:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 7f
BCP1: 0000000000000008
BCP2: 0000000080050031
BCP3: 00000000000006F8
BCP4: FFFFF80001C9FE58
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1

 

[tea]

If you just bought this from Dell perhaps you should get them to replace it if you are having multiple problems with it.

 

[CStaat]

Not 10 minutes after I posted this, I walked away and found another blue screen. I turned off the auto restart so I could see it. I attached a picture.

tea, I'm looking for the tech number to call Dell and see what they say. It's dumped 3 times in 2 days. Irritating!

 

[tea]

Can you boot up in safe mode?

Also, here is Dell Support.

 

[CarlTR6]

I looked at your last five dump files. You had two different stop error codes with both pointing to hardware problems.

STOP 0x0000007F: UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP

Usual causes: Memory corruption, Hardware (memory in particular), Installing a faulty or mismatched hardware (especially memory) or a failure after installing it, 3rd party firewall, Device drivers, SCSI/network/BIOS updates needed, Improperly seated cards, Incompatible storage devices, Overclocking, Virus scanner, Backup tool, Bad motherboard, Missing Service Pack

BSOD Index

STOP 0x0000009F: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE

Usual causes: Device driver

BSOD Index

If this computer is still under warranty, I would take it back to Dell and have them look at it.

Three of the dumps pointed to this driver as a probably cause, bcmwl664.sys. This is a Broadcom wireless driver. Read the thread below:

Broadcom Wireless Win64bit BSOD bcmwl664.sys Fix - RRTech...The SOURCE for Extreme Liquid Cooling

 

[zigzag3143]

Just an observation. 3 of his DMP's also list his Broadcom driver as problematic. I would re-install that as well.

Ken

 

[CarlTR6]

Thanks, Ken; I was researching that as you posted. I found a rather interesting link regarding the problem. I appreciate you posting; I could have missed it.

CStaat, here are two of the dump files showing the two stop error codes. Note in the first one the driver, bcmwl664.sys. The second lists ntkrnlmp.exe as the cause. This in all probability is not the cause since ntkrnlmp.exe is a core Windows system file.

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 9F, {3, fffffa800497ea20, fffff80001aba518, fffffa8005692700}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for bcmwl664.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for bcmwl664.sys
Probably caused by : [COLOR=Red]bcmwl664.sys[/COLOR]

Followup: MachineOwner


*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 7F, {8, 80050031, 6f8, fffff80001c3be58}

Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiDoubleFaultAbort+b2 )

Followup: MachineOwner

 

[CStaat]

Guys, I talked to the Dell customer service, and his response was "The operating system was installed incorrectly, you need to reinstall the OS." So now the laptop is back to the "factory settings". The wireless driver causing a problem, I didn't expect that. I will read that thread and try to fix it before that error happens again. The first crash happened about 2 days after I started using the laptop. I will try to "break it" again, and report back on Monday. Thanks for the help so far guys!!

 

[CarlTR6]

I am glad, at least, you are running. I think it is quite likely that the wireless driver was creating problems. It would not be the first time we have seen that.

Keep us updated. If you have another crash, attach the mini dumps again.

 

[jcgriff2]

Guys, I talked to the Dell customer service, and his response was "The operating system was installed incorrectly, you need to reinstall the OS." So now the laptop is back to the "factory settings". The wireless driver causing a problem, I didn't expect that. I will read that thread and try to fix it before that error happens again. The first crash happened about 2 days after I started using the laptop. I will try to "break it" again, and report back on Monday. Thanks for the help so far guys!!

That is something many hear all too often. Who installed the OS "incorrectly" (assuming such a condition ever existed) in the first place? Dell.

Restoring the system back to factory default settings resulted in the old networking driver being installed as well. Update it as you did before.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.

 

[CStaat]

Well guys, it did it again! I just got home, and saw the blue screen. Same as before. The Dell guy called me about 8 hours ago to check and see. At that time it was fine. Guess I'll be calling Dell AGAIN to see what they think will fix it now. And same as before, the computer was sitting, Windows Live Mail running, along with AVG and ZoneAlarm. I should have stuck with a Sony...

 

[ttran]

Hi CStaat

Since the BSODs you posted didn't show any clue about AVG therefore I will not say that is the cause. However, third party security software is known for causing BSODs and AVG is not exception (I got that). Would u be willing to remove AVG completely just for testing purpose only,

If it doesn't fix, you can re-install it anytime you want

Regard

Tuan

 

[jcgriff2]

Well guys, it did it again! I just got home, and saw the blue screen. Same as before. The Dell guy called me about 8 hours ago to check and see. At that time it was fine. Guess I'll be calling Dell AGAIN to see what they think will fix it now. And same as before, the computer was sitting, Windows Live Mail running, along with AVG and ZoneAlarm. I should have stuck with a Sony...

Zone Alarm would be the target of my focus.

Zone Alarm removal --> Self-Service Support

I would suggest that you try Revo Uninstaller --> Download Revo Uninstaller

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.

 

[CarlTR6]

Well guys, it did it again! I just got home, and saw the blue screen. Same as before. The Dell guy called me about 8 hours ago to check and see. At that time it was fine. Guess I'll be calling Dell AGAIN to see what they think will fix it now. And same as before, the computer was sitting, Windows Live Mail running, along with AVG and ZoneAlarm. I should have stuck with a Sony...

Zone Alarm would be the target of my focus.

Zone Alarm removal --> Self-Service Support

I would suggest that you try Revo Uninstaller --> Download Revo Uninstaller

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.

I concur with JC. Zone Alarm and Windows 7 do not play nice. I suggest you uninstall both AVG and ZA using Revo uninstaller. Simply disabling ZA will not work. For anti-virus protection install MSE for testing purposes and turn on Windows Firewall. Let's eliminate all possible sources on conflict. You can always reinstall AVG; but I would not reinstall ZA. It is a known, documented problem.

 

[CStaat]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. I will go ahead and uninstall ZoneAlarm first. I'll give that a couple of days. If I still get the BSOD, I'll remove AVG. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[CStaat]

Well, here's an update. Since removing Zone Alarm, I've had no crashes! So thanks a ton to you guys for helping me out with that.

Now, what do you recommend as an alternative? I like how Zone Alarm would block programs, and tell me they are being blocked. I've stopped some virus' from spreading because of Zone Alarm. Suggestions?

 

[CarlTR6]

Well, here's an update. Since removing Zone Alarm, I've had no crashes! So thanks a ton to you guys for helping me out with that.

Now, what do you recommend as an alternative? I like how Zone Alarm would block programs, and tell me they are being blocked. I've stopped some virus' from spreading because of Zone Alarm. Suggestions?

I am using Comodo - just the free firewall. Its interface is the closest I could find to ZA. But be warned, it has a learning curve. It is not as easy and intuitive as ZA; but it seems to do a good job. It uses less resources than ZA, too.

I am glad your BSOD's have disappeared. ZA and Windows 7 just do not get along. Thank you for reporting back. Well done.