BSOD Due to Graphics Card? HELP!!!

[Christian Smith]

Hi Guys,
So I'm fixing up a laptop at work that is DRIVING ME UP THE WALL.
Basically, the laptop Blue Screens whenever I wake up from sleep mode. Seems like that could be simple enough to fix. But here's the other thing - is also happens at random, especially when I reinstall my Graphics driver.
Here are the things I have currently done in order to try to fix it.
- Manually set virtual memory
- Restarted in SAFE MODE, uninstalled graphics driver and reinstalled latest graphics driver (The laptop did not crash while installing the update in safe mode). When I returned to standard Windows 7, it still crashed on sleep.
- Attempted to remove/re-install graphics driver NOT in safe mode..blue screen occured.
-In SAFE MODE, ran Malware Bytes to search for issues. None were found.
- Updated the hard drives Firmware (Was running Agility OCZ 3 which has a known bug causing BSOD's) Still crashes.
- Ran memtests, chkdsk -r, prime95, sfc scannnow (Ran as Admin). No issues found.
- Removed RAM sticks and let them sit for a minute (A bit of a long shot)..still crashes.
The thing that I have not been able to do is go the the BIOS and change the power settings for Hybrid sleep to S1 which I heard was a good idea. There does not seem to be any options in the laptops BIOS to control any advanced power settings.
It's a Fujitsu Lifebook E-Series (Pretty old)
2 GB RAM Dual Channel DDR2 @ 332 Mhz
Nvidia 8400M G
Core 2 Duo 2Ghz
Windows 7 64bit
I have attached the minidump file that i've been looking at for a while now trying to suss out what the issue is. I'm starting to really think it is hardware just because I feel like I have tried everything. I've never had to post a question on a forum before so I hope I have actually sent this to the right spot!
It would be MUCH appreciated if you could help out, most of my day at work has been spent on this silly thing.

 

[ionbasa]

Apon inspection of the minidump, it may not be graphics card related.
the minidump says CSRSS is probably causing the bsod, but I cant be for sure unless you properly post the files.
Please follow the instructions here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/92394-sf-diagnostic-tool-using-troubleshooting.html

 

[Christian Smith]

Apon inspection of the minidump, it may not be graphics card related.
the minidump says CSRSS is probably causing the bsod, but I cant be for sure unless you properly post the files.
Please follow the instructions here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/92394-sf-diagnostic-tool-using-troubleshooting.html

Thanks for that, attached are the dumps from yesterday. You will notice that the ones from about 3:30pm onwards actually show hardware issues, whereas the ones prior to this relate to csrss.exe
I ran the virus scan because some malware use csrss to latch onto fairly frequently.

 

[ionbasa]

OK, there are a few things going on.

Only 1 minidump identifies the GPU as the probable cause, all of the other minidumps point to bug check 7A.
Which may well be a either a memory issue or a hard drive issue.

Also of note is that you are running the 64 bit version of windows on hardware which only has 2GB or RAM, where 3.5GB is usually recommended as the absolute minimum.

Also you mention you updated the OCZ agility 3's firmware. Did you update to version 2.55?

Have you updated to the latest drivers?

Most importantly: Are you using AHCI on the SSD? If not then you are loosing trim support.

Also your BIOS is dated from 2007, way before Windows 7 released, if an update is available it may improve performance and compatibility, but beware of the dangers of doing a BIOS flash if inexperienced.

First follow the instructions here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html
But you want to do step 8 right after step 4 and continue.
reboot and let it check the ssd, if it finds anything it should fix it.

If you still get problems afterwards, just let me know and keep attaching minidumps if you keep getting them.

 

[Christian Smith]

I updated to v 2.25 which is listed as the most recent update for the agility 3 SSD, and I am using AHCI for the SSD so that shouldn't be an issue.
The laptop certainly is very old, I'm beginning to thing it may be a good move just to purchase a new machine. It's very possible that the laptop is on its way out.

I'll check for an update for the BIOS tomorrow when I get to work and see if that makes any difference. As for the drivers, I have gotten them up to date according to the windows check but might see if going direct to the manufacture website will proove a better source.

Appreciate all the help, will keep you posted on how it goes.

 

[ionbasa]

Also don't forget to run a check disk.

follow the instructions here: Disk Check
But you want to do step 8 right after step 4 and continue.
reboot and let it check the ssd, if it finds anything it should fix it.

 

[Christian Smith]

I've just gotten to work and was able to get the laptop to Blue Screen twice by going Start > Sleep.
When returning from sleep, the computer goes to the login screen and as soon as I click anywhere it will freeze up and blue screen. Attached are the minidumps from this morning.

 

[ionbasa]

Hmm, it looks like either memory issues or SSD issues,
Have you run a check disk yet?

 

[Christian Smith]

I've definitely made progess narrowing down the problem - as I was saying before that the laptop screen randomly blue screens after the screen turns black for a short time - this time the screen blacked out and I left it in this state for a few minutes. Eventually the screen recovered but I was greeted with an error message that the display driver had stopped working but had recovered. ( Display Driver NVIDIA Windows Kermal Mode Driver, version 306397 stopped responding and has recovered sucessfully)

Putting this together with the fact that it crashes every time I try to update the graphics driver...I'm thinking the GPU's dedicated memory could be the issue. What do you think?

 

[Christian Smith]

Hmm, it looks like either memory issues or SSD issues,
Have you run a check disk yet?

I've run chkdsk -r, sfc scannoe and prime95 a fair few times and no issues were found.

 

[ionbasa]

In that case the only other thing that is remaining is the Memory.
Since you are running a 64 bit OS on only 2 GB of ram it is possible that windows is not allocating memory properly, both system memory and GPU memory.

That GPU in the laptop only has 256MB of onboard memory, and the rest is shared with system RAM.

I would advise that you flash to a new BIOS:
http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/Downl...F_OS Independent (BIOS, Firmware, etc.)_True
and clean re-install windows 7 32 bit:http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

On a note regarding the re-install, if you do not have a windows 7 COA on you laptop, then you will need to get the windows key from running the Belarc Advisor, under Software Licenses, copy the "Microsoft - Windows 7" key, and use it when reinstalling.