Blue Screen of Death. Please Help.

[Margarita Skies]

I've dealt with BSOD's before, but today I had my first one with this computer. I was just wondering, is there any way to fix the BSOD without having to download or use any additional software? The specs are as follows.

AMD Athlon Processor
Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
3 GB RAM / 250 GB HDD
Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5974


Any advice or opinion is appreciated.
Best Regards
Magali.

[fourlittlebees]

I'll bite back my "Yes get a Mac" smart@ss remark (oops, sorry :D) and ask what happens if you try to reboot? Endless BSOD loop?

[Margarita Skies]

When I try to shut the computer down, the BSOD comes up and then the computer restarts. In other words it won't let me shut it down.

[zanzjan]

Hard-power it off. Most systems will let you do this by holding in the power button for about 5 seconds. Then once it's completely down power it on again. Sometimes a BSOD is a one-off thing -- lots of things can cause them, but what matters is if it keeps happening over and over again. If it BSODs again, try booting in safe mode (not sure if Win7 has that capability, I'm still on XP, but it should) and see if it boots, or if it gives you any more specific information about what's crashing it.

If it does boot, make a backup of your data ASAP, just in case.

HTH,

-Suzanne

ETA: did you just recently install any software, hit any dubious websites, or open any suspicious email attachments? Any changes to your system you're aware of? Do you have good (ie, not Norton or McAfee) anti-virus software?

[Mark W.]

Sounds like bad RAM to me depending on the BSOD code.

[cbenoi1]

BSOD is invariably related to a bad driver, usually graphics. Microsoft has had two major patches in as many months, so it's possible you also need to upgrade the graphics drivers as well.

Also, make sure you run hard disk diagnostics at thorough examination settings.

Hope this helps.

-cb

[Phil_Hall]

We'd need to know what the BSOD actually says, but as cbenoi1 mentioned, usually it's because of a driver issue; however, if it's something like "Page fault in nonpaged area" or the even less fun "IRQL not less or equal" it will take time to diagnose.

[Margarita Skies]

I brought a few screenshots of what happens when I log on to my Windows account after the computer is turned on and it boots. I hard-powered it off last night because it was the only way to turn it off, and I turned it back on this morning and got the "Windows did not shut down correctly" message and chose to "Start Windows normally", but I am going to try to shut it down again just to take a picture of the BSOD message because it pops up every time I shut it down and after that, the computer restarts on its own. I am going to post the screenshots right now and after that, hopefully, I'll be able to catch that bloody blue message because it only appears for a few seconds.


http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff452/krysstalpearl/screenshots/errormessage1.png


That's number one


http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff452/krysstalpearl/screenshots/errormessage2.png


And that's number two.

I will be right back, and maybe I will post a the picture of that sucker. Wish me luck with that.

Thanks for the advice and the help.

[Margarita Skies]

http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff452/krysstalpearl/pictures/windowsdidnotshutdowncorrectlymessage.jpg


There's the Windows did not shut down correctly message...


And here is the BSOD. It was very hard to catch. I had to shut down and reboot the computer 4 or 5 times just to take a picture of it with my camera. Hope it's legible.


http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff452/krysstalpearl/pictures/bluescreenofdeath.jpg

[Margarita Skies]

So what do I do? Is a system recovery an option, a destructive one? I am losing it here, folks. I want my machine to get back to normal.

[cbenoi1]

It looks like a hibernation problem. You are putting the laptop into hibernation and W7 first checks if the hard disk has the correct information, and freezes with a BSOD if it doesn't.

Make sure you have the latest Windows patches installed, upgrade the graphics card driver, and check the disk thoroughly.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942524

Hope this helps.

-cb

[Phil_Hall]

This error is caused by the hibernation file size being is too small for the current memory requirements of the computer. To fix this problem, increase the size of the hibernation file by following these steps:



Click the Start button.
In the search box, type command prompt.
In the list of results, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
In the Command Prompt window type:

powercfg /hibernate /size <size%>
where <size%> equals the size of the hibernation file in percentage of total physical memory.
The default size is 75% and can be increased to 100% with:

powercfg /hibernate /size 100

[Margarita Skies]

Hi.


Thanks for your responses. I formatted the hard drive again to out-of-box-state. I will favorite this thread for future reference. I hope that solves the problem. This is the second time I've done it since I bought the machine. At the time that Phil_Hall left his last reply, I was just finishing up the process of "preparing Windows for first use." I got desperate and I didn't know what to do, but now I know for the next time I get that sucker. I had stuff to get rid of anyway. Oh, and I have Ad-Aware Internet Security Free Edition.