Inspiron 1501 ATI Radeon Xpress1150 problems

[BooBear]

Hello. I really need some help from someone please. So here is the problem..... very frequently when I am watching videos (netflix, abc.com) the computer crashes. Sometimes the screen just goes black, sometimes black with a one inch cubed barcode, sometimes horizontal colorful lines, sometimes a blue screen. (Not really sure if the appearance of the screen is relevant) However, this is a very annoying occurance and I do not understand why it happens. I have been told it sounds like a driver problem. I have checked for updates for my ATI driver, but it says they are up to date. Any ideas would be helpful??? Thanks

 

[raybay]

Please give us the age and configuration of your Inspiron 1501... and how long this problem has been affecting your use of the computer. It would be helpful to know memory, hard drive, and what your computer is doing when the blue screen events occur.

 

[Archean]

In addition to ray's request; can you please attach minidumps for analysis with your next post; kindly zip them in a single file (if you have multiple minidumps).

You can find them in C:\windows\minidump. Regards

 

[BooBear]

The computer is about 3-4 years old and the problem has been happening since a few months after I got it. I contacted Dell about the problem and they told me to stop downloading windows updates because that was causing the problem. The memory is 1918 MB. The computer always and only crashes when using the internet to watch movies. working on getting the minidumps

 

[raybay]

But it does not crash when watching movies on a DVD?

 

[BooBear]

The dvd player has not worked for some time now....but I think I do recall the computer crashing sometimes when using the dvd player.

 

[raybay]

New optical drives are so inexpensive nowadays, that it might be a good time to try a new one. With a little luck you can find a replacement for the Inspiron for $25 to $35... not cheap, but reasonable compared to the $139 they once cost.