Hi,

I'm not brilliant with Vista I admit hands down! I told my sister to stay clear of it when she bought her laptop about 2 years ago - she refused and is now getting blue screens! :thumbdwn:

I asked when it happened - she says there isn't really a pattern. I have pulled off the files that the bluescreen advises to look at - and they don't mean a lot to me.

The first one "Mini011209-01.dmp" - seems to mention some driver files on vista in the windows directory.

The second one "WER674A.tmp.version.txt" - says - "Windows NT Version 6.0 Build: 6000

Product (0x2): Windows Vista Home Basic

Edition: HomeBasic

BuildString: 6000.16754.x86fre.vista_gdr.080917-1612

Flavor: Multiprocessor Free

Architecture: X86

LCID: 1033"

The third one is a huge xml file - "WER-144082-0.sysdata.xml" - which seems to list every single driver used in Vista.

It appears to have blue screened about 14 times since October last year. :eek: We have backed up all of her files - and I said we should format and start again. She wasn't too keen on this! She is going to see how it goes and let me know if it dies.

Any help greatly appreciated. I can send the files to anyone who may be able to shed some light on this.

Hello,

This was a problem for me a while back. I don't know if this will work for yourself but this is what fixed it for me:

http://connect.microsoft.com/

Then go to Microsoft download site & get the "Windriver Beta pack" or you could just set ur Apps & drivers to "XP compat mode".

There is alot of software with problems with vista at the moment - This includes:

*Zonealarm

*Adobe Reader

*Itunes 8

- I don't suppose she was installing them at the time either? Was she installing the updates and shut-down part way?

Just a few ideas from me at the moment - Let us know if the driver Beta Pack works.

Hope this helps,

Rob

Edited 17 February, 200917 yr by Robshaw

Also Nvidia drivers and vista can still be an issue in some builds, even after all this time!

Thanks guys - I will check with my sister to see if she has installed anything new to make it crash. I will also get her to download that update you mentioned. I will post back when I hear from her. Thanks.

Hello,

This was a problem for me a while back. I don't know if this will work for yourself but this is what fixed it for me:

Microsoft Connect

Then go to Microsoft download site & get the "Windriver Beta pack" or you could just set ur Apps & drivers to "XP compat mode".

There is alot of software with problems with vista at the moment - This includes:

*Zonealarm

*Adobe Reader

*Itunes 8

- I don't suppose she was installing them at the time either? Was she installing the updates and shut-down part way?

Just a few ideas from me at the moment - Let us know if the driver Beta Pack works.

Hope this helps,

Rob

Hi - thanks for all of your advice. I have checked with my sister and she doesn't have any of the applications installed that are listed above. I am beginning to wonder if it might be hardware related.

I am sorry I couldn't find the link to the Windriver beta pack you mentioned. It takes me to the Microsoft site however I couldn't locate the download. Do you have a more direct link I can follow so that I can point my sister in the right direction?

Many thanks Rich

These things are usually hardware related, especially if nothing has changed. However it could also be a virus or spyware thats not vista friendly and causing the machine to crash. I would use a decent scanner whilst the machine is running and see what it throws up.

If a lot of updates have taken place, usually it'll be graphics.

Thanks for the replies. The frustrating thing is now she 100 miles away in Swansea so I cant easily look at some of this stuff. I have asked her to do a virus scan when she has some free time. Cheers Rich

Why not use the remote support feature in windows messenger?

So long as she's a admin, then all she has to do is ask you for help, then you request full control and it's like you're there

It's how I support urgent stuff for the outlaws

my laptop is getting to a couple years or so maybe more now and it bluescreened a few times very recently running windows 7 and very shortly after windows told me my battery was up the creak and since having a new battery it lasts far far longer(obviously), slightly faster and has no hang ups or crashes

Well usually if you get the BSOD there is an error code, a 0x000000(here is a number/letter at the end) Tell me what that is and ill try to help you out. Also incase you believe it to be software when did the problem start? did it co-incide with a update from a program or windows update? Is there any external devices connected to the laptop at the time? You could disable all the startup applications that load in the system tray. go to start > run > type msconfig and then select Diagnostic Startup and then press ok and select restart. Also if you dont get a chance to read the BSOD to disable automatic restarts you need to right click my computer, select properties, go onto the advanced tab, click onto settings for startup and recovery and uncheck automatically restart. Vista is still XP really just has a fancy gui. I've not loaded up my laptop with Vista on so i've based this on xp but this is general fault finding. Or the other answer is to reformat the laptop. Most laptops that you buy today come with a ghost partition that the manufacturer installs and on startup there is a button you press usually like F10 and then it goes into recovery mode and then follow the onscreen instructions. Hope this helps, If you get more info ill try my best to help. Ryan

vista isn't XP, it works differently.

Recovery mode would equal factory level, as in all data being lost.

Vista event viewer is quite good for those not technically minded, and actually hold you hand to fix most things.

I'd be looking here first for the date/time of the last hiccup, and see what vista says re fixing it.

Thanks for the replies - I did a bit of searching on the Internet for the codes that came up on one of her BSOD's but I couldn't find much. I said we need to start from scratch and wipe it clean although she isn't very keen - well not til she is back at Easter. Least most of her stuff is backed up should the worst happen.

Thanks gadgetman for suggesting about taking over her laptop whilst on MSN. I shall try that when she is next online.

I will post the code for the last BSOD when hotmail decides to work again! Looks like its on a go slow atm.

Have you tested the memory?

Do that first.

Google for "Memtest86+"

Thanks for the info - I have pointed her back in the direction of this info. If anyone is interested this is the blue screen of death information that she sent me -

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BlueScreen

OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.2

Locale ID: 2057

Additional information about the problem:

BCCode: 44

BCP1: 844EEDB0

BCP2: 00000E71

BCP3: 00000000

BCP4: 00000000

OS Version: 6_0_6000

Service Pack: 0_0

Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:

C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini021009-01.dmp

C:\Users\Michelle\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-160525-0.sysdata.xml

C:\Users\Michelle\AppData\Local\Temp\WERBE2F.tmp.version.txt

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Microsoft Online Crash Analysis

Why hasnt she got SP1?

you say its started since october last year and she has vista home basic, same here since about that time mine has started crashing and i have done a fresh install which can mean for days its fine then suddenly will crash 2 or 3 times a day or restart or freeze. Im guessing it must have been a microsoft update that has caused it.

the info extracted doesnt look like a BSOD to me, that information youve collated and provided almost looks like a MS error report and that information has been obtained by clicking show more details? Or am i wrong?

Ryan

Thanks for all of the replies. I will get her to get SP1.

The behaviour is as you say smstext - though she hasn't wanted me to reinstall things yet!

fabia_uk - she said it was a BSOD error - though prehaps not - shes not overly great with computers!

Try flashing the BIOS to the latest version.

Updating drivers

Windows updates

Disk check

If it still crashes you might have to uninstall some stuff prob AVG, Zonealarm and whatevers in the startup.

If Vista has a safe mode boot to that and if it doesnt crash then its a software/driver glitch somewhere.

I had to reformat and reinstall on my main pc after it randomly rebooted but it corrupted a file and XP wouldnt boot. Now using Zone alarm and Avast no random reboots so far.

In Vista you can disable stuff easily from starting for your, and all profiles from within defender>Software register

Two things I'd try.

1 - Do the graphic driver, as said earlier.

2 - Firefox addon's, having said that I'm finding Firefox a bit flaky myself lately.