More BSOD's, showing unusual desktop displays

[bluegreen1]

I posted in the Graphics Card section earlier today, but kept searching around for a solution, so I just learned that I should have posted here.

Earlier today:

While working, my Win7 desktop suddenly displayed multiple desktops (about 6 of them in 2 columns) and a message to "check with your hardware vendor"... the only way to do anything was to shut down with the power button, which I did.

I then booted into Safe Mode and checked for driver updates, and updated the video card. When I booted back to regular mode, the screen displayed normally, and worked well for a while, but then froze and was completely unresponsive. It is now freezing almost immediately after booting. (But I haven't seen multiple desktops displayed again in regular mode since updating the driver. And Safe Mode still works fine.)

More recent:

I updated Chrome in Safe Mode, and then booted to regular mode where there were Windows updates to install, so I hoped this would fix the problem. But the computer crashed again and gave me a .dmp file after reboot. After searching a little more, I found the link here to create the compressed file for the .dmp file, which is attached. The screen also again displayed images of six desktops in two columns, which I find puzzling. (This is what made me think earlier that the problem may be a graphics card issue.) So hopefully this compressed file will present the solution.

Thanks very much for any help.

 

[Boozad]

Your single dump is a 0x124 which indicates a hardware error. Unfortunately, as with the majority of 0x124s, it's not giving any indication of what the problem actually is. We normally recommend hardware stress and diagnostic checks but if you really want to rule out your graphics card (which could well be the culprit) you can remove it physically from the PC (after uninstalling it through Device Manager) provided you have onboard graphics you can switch to. Do you know if this is possible on your PC?

 

[bluegreen1]

Thanks so much; I don't believe I have another graphics option to switch to, but I'm not sure?

 

[Boozad]

Can you update your system specs as yours say you have a Dell Vostro laptop. I need the specs of the PC in question. Follow the link in my signature, they need to be as detailed as possible.

 

[bluegreen1]

1) Yes, this is still the same machine - the Vostro laptop. But I just added the Sound Card to the specs, and also updated the RAM spec to reflect that it now has 4.00 GB RAM. I'll search for more info that doesn't show up on the System Spec tool also.

2) I just added some more specs that I retrieved from Device Manager.

 

[bluegreen1]

I'm wondering if the system specs I added were able to shed any light on what the hardware problem might be? The problem still remains with no resolution. Thanks for your help!

 

[Boozad]

Apologies for missing this. It sounds to me like your graphics card is causing issues (you definitely have a hardware problem) but I'm not keen on running stress tests on a laptop. Is your laptop still under warranty?

 

[bluegreen1]

No worries at all.

The laptop is not under warranty.

(It still crashes in regular mode, but not in safe mode. I'm assuming the graphics card is under more stress in regular mode?)

Thanks very much for your help.

 

[Boozad]

I'm going out on a limb and saying your graphics card is faulty. Your best bet would be to find a reputable PC repair shop and ask them to take a look, point them to this thread to get a bit of background and see what they say. It's your call but I wouldn't recommend messing around inside it yourself unless you're well versed in laptop internals, I'm certainly not so I would be of no help guiding you unfortunately.

 

[bluegreen1]

OK; thank you. I will take that route and post back here to let you know what transpires. I appreciate your help!