Random Bluescreen Error Msg's.....

Every once in a while out of the blue my laptop will crash with blue screen error messages. I don't know if my hd is failing me or i've got registry errors or what, but they're getting annoying. The blue screen messages are as follows.

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again , follow these steps.

Check to be sure there is adequate disc space. If a driver is identified in the stop message, disable the driver or check with manufacture for updates. Try changing video adapters. Check with your hardware vendor for any Bios updates. Disable Bios memory options such as caching or shadowing.If you need to use safe mode to remove/disable components, restart computer , press f8 to select advanced start up options, then select safe mode.

Technical Info:
Stop: 0x0000007E(0xC0000005,0x804EF268,0xF79DA7B8,0xF79DA4B4.


Another variation to this error mssg screen is one that has this message at the begginning.

"A process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated."

Will do some scans to see if anything shows up.

 

check the event viewer logs for errors; post the latest minidump file from C:\Windows\Minidump\ ; you might have to rename it with .txt file to upload it

 

As Cudni suggested, post back some your recent event viewer reports

 

I found my mini dump folder but there's nothing in it. Should I just post the individual event logs I find or the whole folder for each separate program application? I have event logs for Application, Security, System, Antivirus, Internet Explorer and Windows Powershell. I have found error events under Antivirus(Avast) , System, and Application. There are some warning evens but don't know if those are helpful or not.

 

post only a sample of errors you see (show event id and event source). What OS are you running?

 

It would be the System & Application logs that would give the most clues as
to your issue.

* Also a clean boot helps narrow things down. Please do this as well.

Regards,

 

Running XP home. Here are some of the logs. The disk errors under System happen quite frequently and some happen in multiple times up to 20 in a row. I'm still finding the Minidump folder empty.

 

My laptop just had another episode. Included in this Stop Error screen mssg at the bottom was this.

"atapi.sys-addressF73FF516 base at F73F2000, date stamp 4802539d."

 

You may need to turn on Minidumps.

Go to the Control Panel and follow these steps:
1. System Icon
2. Advanced Tab
3. Startup and Recovery -> Settings
4. Enable Write an Event to the system log
5. Disable Automatically Restart
6. Select the following debugging information:
Small memory dump (64 Kb)
Small Dump Directory : %SystemRoot%\Minidump
7. Confirm all and restart the computer.

 

I went and checked and everything was already set as you've described. I'll go through the motions of everything again and restart to see if that does anything.

 

Some recent rootkit infections have been targeting this file
What to do if you are infected. I would suggest follow this route first, as opposed to going through the timely process of having your minidump files analysed.

 

Personally i would uninstall ,some of the security apps that you appear to be using ,starting with threatfire as its one of the apps that appear to be faulting in your logs ,and see if you continue to get the crashes.For analyzing .dmp files try whocrashed (thanks to the person who told me about this app )
http://www.resplendence.com/downloads
ellison

 

A clean boot as previously requested would help. If your OS boots in a clean state, we could trim your issue down from there.

As the last poster indicated, you may have too many security apps, renedering some issues there.

Clean boot and advise if there are any BSOD's in this condition.

 

Nirsoft has a BSOD app that also might be helpful??
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

 

Thank you, Han, up to OP to decide if he would like to use this utility to decipher the minidump logs.

Cheers,

 

Whocrashed and BluescreenView showed nothing , probably cuz the minidump folder shows no files when I look there. I will still try the clean boot. Uninstalled Threatfire to see if that helps.

 

I have noticed that there has been no forward progress with this issue.
First option would be to do a clean boot as already posted.

Once done, you can selectively reboot re-enabling one item at a time, this would provide the ability to determine which item may be causing the issue.

Is this computer still under Warranty coverage at Dell ? If not, Dell may still be willing to assist in this.

The US 24 by 7 Tech Number is: 1-800-387-5757 Have your Service Tag number handy when you call, if you should decide to do this.

It must be determined if this is not malware related, since accomplishing an in-place reinstallation would only cover the malware only to have it trash the reinstall, if selected.

Best of luck !

 

Haven't gotten around to the clean boot yet. Do you recommend I try a clean boot first or do all the rule out infection steps first? The steps laid out at that website for ruling out infections will take some time to fully complete.

 

The infections steps would certainly take longer, clean boot per my previous instructions and advise, good luck and ask if you are not sure.

 

Need some advice on msconfig here. Major Geeks recommends NOT to use msconfig for configuring startup items, yet it appears that is what I'm to use for the clean boot test. Major Geeks really makes it seem that tinkering with msconfig is a bad idea. Thoughts?

 

While I do not wish to contest what advice you may have been given at Major Geeks, performing a clean boot does require using MSCONFIG to do this.
Personally, it do not think it is a bad idea at all to itemise what item may be causing the BSOD issue.