Blue Screen Error And Windows Shuts Down

Shane732

On my windows laptop, a Toshiba, I'm running into some problems with my laptop. I'm not exactly sure what this problem is but from other internet forums it appears to be referred to as the blue screen of death.

It's happened a few times for what appears to be for now reason at all.

I have a .dmp file from last night but can't upload it here as it's an invalid file type.

Any suggestions as to what the problem might be?

5uspect

You need to read the minidump and see what's causing it. Although they're not always clear. The Microsoft debugger can open minidumps as well as some third party apps such as:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
(Download link buried at the bottom of the page)

Have you installed any updates, drivers, etc that may have caused the BSODs?

You could try a simple system restore to a time when the issue wasn't there.

JonathanAnon

Have you tried booting to safe mode..?
What exactly is the BSOD error?

zenno

what is you're operating system ? xp/vista/win-7 >? what you want to do is capture the error. as soon as you turn on the power to the laptop, begin tapping F8 repeatedly until you get to the Safe Mode menu. then scroll down with your arrow keys to something that say's (disable automatic restart on system failure) scroll down until you see this hilighted and click enter and the laptop will restart. you basically want the laptop not to restart on system failure so you can see the blue-screen error. when the computer gets the error again in blue screen write down the error code 0000xxxxxxxxxx and post back. this error code will pinpoint you and us to the exact problem you are having. good luck.

Shane732

Ok I've run into two other problems now....

1) The .dmp files appear to have disappeared...?!!

2) The laptop just seems to automatically restart itself every 15 - 20 mins. I'm not actually getting a blue screen now the laptop just goes black and then restarts. It restarts as if it's just crashed (i.e. I get asked whether I want to boot in safe mode etc...)

I installed some extra RAM today (I was getting the BSOD prior to installing the RAM). Could the laptop restarting itself be because of the RAM I installed??

Thanks...

5uspect

It could be a lot of things but the new RAM is an important factor.

Did you replace the existing memory modules or simply add them to the existing ones. Is possible for you to remove all the modules and test one stick at a time? Sometimes the modules can be inaccessible on laptops being installed on either side of the mainboard.

Is it getting hot? Most CPUs/GPUs will shut themselves down to protect themselves from thermal destruction. Speedfan is a good app for monitoring temps.

Shane732

Thanks...

I just replaced one of the 1GB sticks with a 2GB stick.

I'll take it out and try it with the 1GB sticks as opposed to a 1GB & 2GB stick

Yes I think it is getting a hot.....

What's the problem?

Shane732

Another thing is that the CPU usage is jumping all over the place even when the laptop is basically idle.

5uspect

Have you measured the CPU temperatures yet?
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Laptops often tend to run at the edge of comfortably warm but the CPU shouldn't get much hotter than 40 Celsius at idle and 70 under load.

If it's going higher than this the heatsink may need a good clean due to dust blockage. Some recommend opening it up and blasting it with a can of compressed air. I just tend to give regular doses of the hoover.

This doesn't explain your BSOD tho.

Open the task manager and tell us what process is eating up the CPU.

Also you still haven't given us your full system specs. Model, version of Windows etc.

Shane732

5uspect wrote: »

Have you measured the CPU temperatures yet?
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Laptops often tend to run at the edge of comfortably warm but the CPU shouldn't get much hotter than 40 Celsius at idle and 70 under load.

If it's going higher than this the heatsink may need a good clean due to dust blockage. Some recommend opening it up and blasting it with a can of compressed air. I just tend to give regular doses of the hoover.

This doesn't explain your BSOD tho.

Open the task manager and tell us what process is eating up the CPU.

Also you still haven't given us your full system specs. Model, version of Windows etc.

Seriously thanks for all the help so far - much appreciated!

Specs:

Toshiba Satellite L300
Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2.00GHz
Memory is currently 2GB (2X1GB) - I've switched back from 3GB in the last half hour and the laptop doesn't seem to be restarting

I've opened the task manager and the processes are jumping all round the place every second.

Google Chrome is using a good bit
Windows Task Manager
dwm.exe
PC Tools Application

There like 5/6 processes for chrome.exe. which look to be using lots of the memory

The CPU numbers don't add up to the CPU usage %.

The % usage drops drastically when I open up processes for all users to like 10-25% for 75-90% when it's just showing my processes.

Jerichoholic

Are you using it as a media server? That makes your CPU go mental.

5uspect

Shane732 wrote: »

Seriously thanks for all the help so far - much appreciated!

Specs:

Toshiba Satellite L300
Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2.00GHz
Memory is currently 2GB (2X1GB) - I've switched back from 3GB in the last half hour and the laptop doesn't seem to be restarting

I've opened the task manager and the processes are jumping all round the place every second.

Google Chrome is using a good bit
Windows Task Manager
dwm.exe
PC Tools Application

There like 5/6 processes for chrome.exe. which look to be using lots of the memory

The CPU numbers don't add up to the CPU usage %.

The % usage drops drastically when I open up processes for all users to like 10-25% for 75-90% when it's just showing my processes.

XP/Vista/Win7?

The multiple chrome instances are probably the tabs you have open, IE does the same. PC Tools App looks like some sort of spyware app. I've never heard of it tbh and I have no idea if its legit or even any good but I'd get rid of it. I use malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials myself.

DWM is part of the Vista Aero engine so I guess you're either on Vista or Win7.

Have you tried one memory module at a time? Run memtest to check for a faulty memory module.

riseagains

ok... so what problems are you still having with it now??

zenno

you need to post you're operating system I asume it is either vista or windows 7 ?

do you have the windows installation disc of you're operating system ?

without knowing this information it will be impossibe to troubleshoot the problem.

2) The laptop just seems to automatically restart itself every 15 - 20 mins

the answer was already given to stop the computer from restarting is posted above or did you just not notice.

as soon as you turn on the power to the laptop, begin tapping F8 repeatedly until you get to the Safe Mode menu. then scroll down with your arrow keys to something that say's (disable automatic restart on system failure) when this is hilighted click the enter key and power the laptop up normally. the next time whether 15/20 minutes the laptop crashes it will not restart it will give you a blue screen. write down the 0000xxxxx code and forward it to boards. the reason the screen is going black is because the operating system command is not telling the computer to stop on error so the screen will go black and automatically restart.