laptop problem

[Esk247]

why has my dell laptop decided to keep shutting down midway through doing something..e.g. browsing the web it will suddenly switch to a blue screen saying its encountered an error...is dumping virtual memory..then switches itself off...its happened 3 times today already!..any ideas?

 

[computaguy]

Just one.

Are you using the laptop on your lap? It probably has ventialtion grids on the underside. I have found that my laptops shut down when they get too hot... ie if the ventialtion is obstructed.

Make sure that if you use the laptop it is not sitting on fabric or any other material that can inhibit airflow. Resting iton a large book is good.

Try this and let me know what the outcome is.

 

[hugolong]

If the display chipset is nVidia like below

Inspiron 1420、Latitude D630、Latitude D630c、Precision M2300、Vostro Notebook 1310、Vostro Notebook 1400、Vostro Notebook 1510、Vostro Notebook 1710、XPS M1330 and XPS M1530

NVIDIA recognize that the G84 and G86 series notebook computer graphics problems and be prepared to 200,000,000 U.S. dollars of emergency funds, computer maker Hewlett-Packard and Dell confirmed the matter and gives the solution.

 

[Esk247]

i'll have to check the info on the chipset..could be over heating i suppose...don't have it on my lap all that often but it does sometimes get left on the sofa by someone when its on. i'll try those things out and see if i find an improvement.

 

[SocialMediaUncovered]

Just one.

Are you using the laptop on your lap? It probably has ventialtion grids on the underside. I have found that my laptops shut down when they get too hot... ie if the ventialtion is obstructed.

Make sure that if you use the laptop it is not sitting on fabric or any other material that can inhibit airflow. Resting iton a large book is good.

Try this and let me know what the outcome is.

Also, if this is the case - you can buy these really useful laptop fans - they sit under the laptop (about the size of a slim book) work straight off the usb connection and keep the laptop nice and cool.

I bought a few from ebay, I think they were about £4 each.

 

[computer storm]

Also have you installed any new software up updated drivers, this would also cause the system to blue screen, so the problem may not be hardware related.

 

[leemason]

Before you try to do anything dramatic to fix the problem make sure that you have a backup of all of your critical data. Even if you give it to someone who you think you can trust to fix it accidents can always happen.

Do you know if the problems started to occur after installing an MS hotfix of any sort or other software update?

 

[Subbynet]

Hi,

You should also look at the error logs as it may contain an indication for why its crashing.

Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer (Have a look for a error entry around the time of the crash.)

The Dump files will also contain info on the crash, but that can get a little confusing to explain (trust me I tried the other day to someone else - very messy lol).

 

[Big J]

Its software related - does it happen when you are trying to do the same thing?

 

[Esk247]

usually happens when on the internet..although it does seem random..happened when using word yesterday.

i don't have anything important on it, its a show laptop, i take it round to customers to let them see website ideas or i take it to photography sessions and we can upload the images straight to the website to see if they work or not.

only bought it a few months ago darn thing

 

[Encompass]

This is definitely NOT an overheating problem, so don't waste your money on an extra fan.

The blue screen is commonly known as the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). Fortunately it is not always that dramatic. The most common reason for this type of fault is software and formatting and reinstalling windows will solve it.

Unfortunately if this does not solve your problems there are many number of things that could be causing this problem. In order of likelihood they could be:

1) Memory
2) Faulty hard drive
2) CPU or Mother Board
3) Graphics Card (Unless it is one of the cards listed above, in which case this would be at number 1)

Like I said 95% of the time it is just software related.

 

[Big J]

Before doing a reinstall try and undo your recent system changes using system restore.

Also try and remove the last windows update.

 

[Esk247]

cheers people..i thought it could be a number of things..its a relatively new laptop but it has always had something niggly with it, i just thought it was because it was a dell..it does that start up thing with windows vista..screen comes up, icons come up, then it goes black for 2 seconds flickers and then stays on...until i get BSODs little brother and i have to restart everything.

i'll try the solutions as suggested.

 

[Subbynet]

Hi,

Honestly I think you should investigate the cause of the problem. Reinstalling the OS is no guarantee to fixing the computer. Likewise, the problem maybe easy to fix and not require you to go to all that hassle.

Download WhoCrashed


Run it, and then if you want any help with the resulting file you can email me to me or upload it somewhere. It should be fairly self-explanatory tho. This might help you indicate which piece of software/hardware is causing your machine to crash.

 

[Encompass]

If you have a newish dell, just call dell. Apparently they have a great tech team who try to figure out what’s wrong online and if they can’t find the problem they sometimes send an engineer to your home/work.

 

[computer storm]

If you go to the dell website, they have a 32 bit diagnostic tool that will test your machine, it is a ISO so you just need to burn it to a cd, You should have an asset tag on the laptop just put this into the dell website and it will tell you everything you need to know about your laptop.

Dell website = http://support.euro.dell.com

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

I have this with my Laptop. Have wiped and replaced OS, have installed new memory, and hard drive.

Still have the same problems.

It is complete PITA. Only ever happens when you're working on something important, no consistency about when it happens sometimes only when browsing, sometimes when working on office files. etc etc etc.

I think it is in part related to the screen hinge, when the laptop isn't balanced it seems more likely to happen, also if you move the screen down it's pretty much guaranteed to crash out.

As far as I know there are no (economic) cures for screen hinge related problems??

When you find the cure let me know.