BSOD 8 in 2 days

[calccrypto]

For some reason, I saw the BSOD instructions just now, so I did what it said (hopefully correctly). My laptop miraculously stopped crashing, but I want to know what happened so I dont make a complete fool out of my self in front of the repair people (again) the next time it happens. If I remember correctly from what it said on the screen, my graphics card driver nvlddmkm.sys failed, but updating the driver did nothing

My laptop:
Windows 7 Enterprise x64
OEM

Age of hardware: 2 weeks
Age of software: since i have used it, 2 weeks. When it was actually installed, i dont know

 

[zigzag3143]

For some reason, I saw the BSOD instructions just now, so I did what it said (hopefully correctly). My laptop miraculously stopped crashing, but I want to know what happened so I dont make a complete fool out of my self in front of the repair people (again) the next time it happens. If I remember correctly from what it said on the screen, my graphics card driver nvlddmkm.sys failed, but updating the driver did nothing

My laptop:
Windows 7 Enterprise x64
OEM

Age of hardware: 2 weeks
Age of software: since i have used it, 2 weeks. When it was actually installed, i dont know

There were no dmp files enclosed please re-run as admin

Ken J

 

[calccrypto]

weird, i did run it as admin, and thats all i have. would it have been deleted by ccleaner? i run it every so often

 

[calccrypto]

i ran it again, but no dmp file anywhere.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Hello calccrypto,

Correct, there are no dumps in that report. Instead, I looked through the event logs, and found several BSODs.

Most were 0x50; quite commonly a memory problem, but that is to be taken lightly.

One was a 0x101, a CPU error. Are you doing any overclocking on your laptop? Of course, it can be software-related as well, but in combination with the 0x50s...

Apparently the OS was installed on 8/29/2010. Guess when the first BSOD occurred?

Event[20268]:
  Log Name: System
  Source: Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting
  Date: 2010-08-29T23:06:31.000
  Event ID: 1001
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: leej32T410-PC
  Description: 
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.  The bugcheck was: 0x00000050 (0xfffff8800f2edbd0, 0x0000000000000000, 0xfffff88004ef7f8b, 0x0000000000000002). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 082910-24476-01.

I advise you to return the laptop ASAP.

That means the machine bluescreened likely before it was even sold. Completely unacceptable, make use of the warranty.

I'm guessing the CPU is bad, but in light of the nVidia BSOD, it could also be graphics card. If the motherboard is bad, it could explain all this as well.

SevenForums has some handy tutorials for hardware testing, if you are interested.

Video card: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100356-video-card-stress-test-furmark.html

CPU: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100352-cpu-stress-test-prime95.html

RAM: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

If returning the laptop is not possible, you can try to remove potential software causes, it can't hurt to try.

I notice Semantec is installed, a major cause. Remove it with this tool: ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

Microsoft Security Essentials is the recommended replacement.

Good luck with all of this!

-Lancaster

 

[calccrypto]

Thanks Lancaster!

attached is a new dump from a crash i had this morning. i ran the bsod program before running ccleaner. i have no idea if this new copy is "better" or not. i think it has something to do with the graphics card (nvlddmkm.sys 10x).

I actually went to my school's computer repair place, and all they did was get mad at me. they still tested it, and found nothing, after supposedly two weeks of benchmarking.

i should change to mse, but i spent a bundle on the computer, and feel like its a waste to uninstall it. maybe i might. some people i know have gone crazy and installed mse, avg, as well as malwarebytes because they didnt know they have Semantec, and their computers are completely trouble free (until i use them: i crashed a laptop by pressing the space bar...)

i dont know if this counts as overclocking, but intel turboboost is installed by default, and if necessary, the cpu will jump from 2.53 to 2.97 ghz. otherwise, i have only looked at the bios, but not touched it. i havent run any super intensive programs on my laptop yet, other than superpi on 1mb twice. i will be running prime95 on it later

maybe i should get my laptop reimaged? should i get everything back, or should i get a clean copy of windows 7? on one hand, i would love to. on another, i want some of the programs that were installed, and the techies are not able/allowed to install them individually for some reason or another

and how do you run memtest? it seems like i have to put it on a separate drive of some sort, and it will wipe the drive during installation. isnt there any standalone version of it?

how hot do laptops run while running prime 95? mine is running at 85C. thats hotter than my pc that i managed to overclock to 3.11ghz

 

[Jonathan_King]

Well the truth is, your computer is not generating minidumps. Rather, it is overwriting the large memory.dmp file each time.

If you want, you can upload that for us, but I don't have high hopes for it at all. If you want to upload it, it can be found in C:\Windows. Be sure to compress it first, to reduce the size from ~300MB to ~80.

You'll need to use a 3rd-party site, such as Rapidshare.

Still, I highly doubt I can find anything useful in it, other than a quick way to find outdated drivers. For that, I can use the driverq_v.txt or driverq_fo.txt files in the report.

To run Memtest, put it on a CD or USB Drive. See Part 1: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

85C...that's actually quite hot. Laptop CPUs are designed to operate under higher temperatures, but not that hot. Of course, that is not a fair test, because you were running Prime95.

Since the BSODs started on the day the OS was installed, I would suspect the hardware is defective. Highly doubtful reimaging will help, as the BSODs started before software is a major player.

Create a system image now: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

First thing Lenovo is going to do is wipe it and reinstall Windows, but we are 99.9% sure that will not help anything.

 

[calccrypto]

After running prime95 for an entire night, the highest temp it reached was 96C. its maintaining about 90 right now. My mousepad is ridiculously hot. would stress testing invalidate my warranty?

I cant seem to find memory.dmp in c:\windows.

I would run memtest and create an image, but i dont have any disks with me at all and i dont want to buy a bunch of them just for this one backup. my flashdrives are quite large, so copying the info out and then back in later would take a lot of time. And windows 7 refuses to let me create a backup on my harddrive, which has over 300 gb empty. would that be because it is programmed like that, or did lenovo do something silly?

 

[Jonathan_King]

You cannot save a system image to its own drive. That is a Windows feature designed to keep you from losing all if the hard drive fails.

Stress testing should not invalidate the warranty. You don't have to mention that you did it, but no need to lie if they ask.

Go ahead and stop the test now, if you haven't already.

 

[calccrypto]

Ah. I'll plug in my backup then.

The stress test actually stopped already. Weirdly enough, there were no errors despite the high temps

 

[Jonathan_King]

The fact that the test stopped means that it errored. As far as I know, the workers just stop when they find an error, and don't give a message.

 

[calccrypto]

No. the icons did not turn red. the windows said something like "test completed in 9 hours"