Laptop Blue screen of death

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:27 pm

My laptop keeps getting the blues screen of death and the error message does not stay on the screen long enough for me to read it before it re-starts. It is currently on XP home edition.

I'm thinking of formatting it and installing XP pro, does anyone think this will help as I think the blue screen of death could be software related?

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:40 pm

Blue screen usually means a failure in its memory allocation or running out of it. I don't think XP Pro will improve it.

Reboot daily as no matter what MS say closed applications leave memory allocations used up until re-booting. Keep processes down to a minimum. Keep an eye on how much CPU you are using by using the Task Manager.

RichieP · Post by **RichieP** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 8:08 am

BSOD can mean so many things, but it's usually hardware or driver related.

On laptops it's often overheating.

See if you can get it to freeze on the blue screen:

Right-clcik My Computer > Properties.

Click the Advanced tab then the Settings button underneath Startup and Recovery.

Remove the tick next to Automatically restart, underneath system failure.

Click OK on the boxes to exit.

Hopefully it will stop on the blue screen next time.

Make a note of the stop code, usually something like 0X000008E.

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 7:51 pm

Thanks I'll take a look at it when I get chance

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:05 pm

I just had a quick look and this is annoying the crap out of me to be honest

The laptop is a Toshiba Equium and was not the cheapest laptop in the world, all I can say is that it is a good job that I have lots of patience or it would be smashed into pieces by now

I right clicked on my computer and sorted the tickbox to prevent it from restarting.

The error message is something to do with ati2dvag and said that it is running in a continous loop, I have found this as a possible solution-

Here's the fix for the infinite loop problem caused by ati2dvag.dll
that worked for me and has worked for some others.

Right click on My Computer
Choose Properties
Choose the Hardware(Tab)
Choose Device Manager(button)
Click the [+] next to System devices
Right click on CPU to AGP Controller
Choose the Update Driver(button)

Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Choose Next(button)
Select "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install."
Choose Next(button)
Select PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Hit Next(button)
Hit Finish(button)
Reboot.

1.The only problem is that the mouse pad is disabled as that annoys the crap out of me.
2. The mouse does not work anymore, when I plug and unplug it into the usb nothing happens, then after a few mins I get the blue screen of death again and have to keep my finger on the on/off button to switch the pc off.

I must say that I am not at all impressed with laptops

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:14 pm

Stop code is -

0x000000EA (0x84074680, 0x842f3dc0,0xf732dcb4, 0x00000001)

RichieP · Post by **RichieP** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:16 pm

Can't you re-enable the touchpad for the fix?

If not, you can navigate around using the keyboard. Takes a bit of getting used to but works.

You can get to Device Manager slightly quicker by holding down the Windows key, then press Pause/Break.

Use the arrows on the keyboard to move across the tabs.

Then use the tab key to move through the buttons and press Enter when you have the one you want.

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:32 pm

Thanks Richie,

I'll take a look tomorrow when I get back home

Rich-Ando · Post by **Rich-Ando** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:37 pm

i know this may sound rather hard to beleive or rather a stupid statement but....

don't take that to be your problem 100% m8.

wait until you have had 4 or 5 BSOD's and take a look at each reference. the chances are they could be different each time. each one will give you a different answer to the problem and again, each one will point to a different cause.

i would have put my money on it being memory too, as mentioned earlier.
have you tested your memory yet?

"Memtest Pro" is a fairly handy tool and is the one trusted by most major suppliers. ( if you don't have it pm me and i might be able to ahem, explain how to get it)

this program will allow you to test al aspects of your ram. if any errors are found, you can pretty much guarantee they are the cause of your bsod's.

of course you might be the unlucky 5% that get them and it is something other than ram related.
in general though, that's the cause. it buggers up far more than people realise and in ways they would never relate to ram.

laptops are also renoun for high temps though, usually because they use them on hot parts of the bodies called "the lap" weird, you would never expect them to get warm there eh? another fantastic manufacturing idea!!

i don't know the capability of your L/P but if you want to get it hot, run a current game on it and leave it running for a while with other processes running in the background such as FTP work. then have graphics programs running too and leave a music player going. that usually heats them up

have you got any core temp monitor programs inside? that could give you an idea of the temperature.

if you wish to know what is inside the L/T then you can always try Belarc Advisor. it's a free online proggy that gives a fairly good description of everything inside the rig.

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Wed May 09, 2007 12:32 pm

I'm ringing PC world when I get the time

I uninstalled the graphics drivers by ATI as this seemed to be causing the problem. I went to the ATI website to download new drivers for my particular onboard graphics and it won't install

So now the laptop is using windows built in drivers. I no longer get the blue screen of death, but now every now and again the screen goes completely blank, but the computer is still switched on. No matter what I press it will not do anything and so I have to switch it off by holding in the on/off swich

This is really annoying :!:

knoba · Post by **knoba** » Wed May 09, 2007 3:39 pm

Hey UHM~

Unfortunately laptops are seen by most manufacturers as more of an expendable toy than a bread & butter tool. They do tend to have probs with overheating; I've done quite a few laptops where i had to solder in new, uprated, panasonic smt capacitors onto their motherboards because the CPU temp was causing them to avalanche. Not what what you would expect from a maker like Sony et al. Screen probs are also common as well as all the other issues you would expect from "shoe horning" all those components into a small brief case box.

It does sound like the ATI driver conflicting with XP though. The USB mouse locking sounds like a BIOS conf issue or poss update. The touchpad needs re-configuring so it isn't a nuisance as they are pretty good really. ( i take it your hand keeps touching it, when typing, and keeps moving the cusor to different parts of the screen and/or it doesn't transfer your finger movements to the screen correctly)

Just looking at options for you here UHM; My sister (not a computer bod - buying and selling on ebay etc.) currently has an Equium laptop (from PC world) which came with XP on it and was a regular Fuc$ing nightmare. I put Linux on it incl. wifi and she's been over the moon with it and had no problems with it for the last 18 months at all.

just a few quikies;

Is it still under warranty?
What are the system specs of the laptop?
What are your needs from the laptop?
Have you checked for updates from the Windows site?
Have you checked for Updates from the Toshiba site?
Have you "googled" to see if any other Equim users have had the same issues and how they fixed it?

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Wed May 09, 2007 4:14 pm

I think it is still under warranty as I purchased it last August, I have never been able to complete the online warranty registration as it bombs out before I get to the end, arghh

It's a Toshiba Equium M50-244 CM 360, which also came from Pc world, it was £469 at the time of purchase.

This is the spec- Celeron M 360 1.4 GHz - 14" TFT
Notebook - RAM: 512 MB - HD: 40 GB - DVD±RW (+R double layer) / DVD-RAM - 2.3 kg - Battery run time: 2.9 hour(s)

I only bought this particular model as it was one of the few with a pcmia slot in it because I wanted to get a 3G card for it. I got the 3G card and that went faulty and needed replacing as well

If I use the 3G card and mouse the battery rund flat in no time, that is if it does not crash!

I checked the pc world website and there was no help at all regarding the problem that I have. The laptop is now at my girlfriends, I will pick it up tonight and then call pc world tomorrow.

I bought it from PC world in Blackpool as my girlfriend at the time lived in Lytham, but my nearest store is Blackburn, hopefully if I need to return it I can take it to Blackburn rather then Blackpool.

I have not checked for any updates as I tried it once and the computer crashed. If I update the 3G card software it stops working and if I install windows updates it crashes! I have not checked the Toshiba site though, I will do that tonight from the girlfriends, if it will let me without crashing!

I googled for the graphics card problem error that I had, but the best advice I could find was to uninstall the ATI drivers and use the windows ones, so I did. But it still crashes, although I do not get the blue screen of death anymore, the screen just seems to switch off!

The laptop is just a back up really for if my ISP ever has trouble and I can't connect through broadband. I was going to do work for the website on it, but it confuses dreamweaver if I do that and so I just connect to the net on it and check the forum and directory with it.

Personally I hate the bloody thing, the keys are too small and close together and it takes me ages to type a message and then I catch the damn keypad and the cursor moves

I logged in last night from the girlfriends, it crashed after answering one post so I restarted it, then when I logged back on the forum software had marked all the messages as read and so I did not know what was a new post

I had three messages and did not even bother replying to them as it takes me that long on the laptop, so I replied this morning from the desktop!

RichieP · Post by **RichieP** » Wed May 09, 2007 6:49 pm

You probably need the motherboard drivers, rather than the graphics drivers. Unfortunately, Toshiba is one of the few manufacturers that doesn't make available any of its drivers on its website to download.

Did you get any recovery CDs or anything with drivers on?

Will it run long enough to download and install Everest Home Edition?

If you can, run it and click on motherboard on the left. Copy and paste the model and make of the motherboard here. Hopefully it won't be Toshiba.

If it won't run long enough, try it in Safe Mode.

knoba · Post by **knoba** » Wed May 09, 2007 10:37 pm

Hey RichieP, sounds like he HATEs it. What d'ya reckon?

I agree UHM. If it's still under warranty let them deal with it. You're the client here!

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Thu May 10, 2007 8:01 am

RichieP wrote:You probably need the motherboard drivers, rather than the graphics drivers. Unfortunately, Toshiba is one of the few manufacturers that doesn't make available any of its drivers on its website to download.

Did you get any recovery CDs or anything with drivers on?

Will it run long enough to download and install Everest Home Edition?

If you can, run it and click on motherboard on the left. Copy and paste the model and make of the motherboard here. Hopefully it won't be Toshiba.

If it won't run long enough, try it in Safe Mode.

I am downloading that to my desktop and will transfer it using my usb pen drive