Hang up on startup - Windows Vista

Kirei Blossom

Posts: 172   +1
Hi,

I have a Windows Vista Home Basic Laptop about 2 years old. Today when I booted up my system, it got to the desktop screen and then the screen turned black and froze. When I switched it off and back on, the message came up saying that the system did not shut down properly and asked me whether I wanted to try safe mode: I tried safe mode, shut it down from there, then turned it back on. It took a Really long time to start up, and the welcome screen and desktop took a minute to load up.

There are now a lot of errors in the Event Viewer, and one minidump which I'm attaching here. Please let me know what the problem is. I once had a similar problem and had to reinstall my Dell WLAN drivers. Is it the same problem again?

EDIT: The minidump is 264 KB so its refusing to upload.

Trying to upload as a zip file.
 

Attachments

  • minidump.zip
    16.3 KB · Views: 1
Do you have ATI video on that laptop? If so, the minidump is reporting a problem with that driver
 
Today, the same problem happened again. When I rebooted my laptop after a freeze, the message: "Windows has just recovered from an unexpected shutdown" came up. There were options to view details so I did. It showed a lot of numbers and the only thing I understood was that a Blue Screen had happened because it said so (although I never saw a typical blue screen - my screen just turned blank and froze.)

The message also had the option "allow Windows to find a solution to this problem." I did that and it says:

------------------------------------------------

Address a problem with ATI Graphics Driver
ATI Graphics Driver has stopped working properly.

A driver update, if available, might prevent this problem from recurring.

There are several ways of locating and installing driver updates, but it is best to let Windows do this for you. Try the first step below, which describes the process. If it doesn't produce a driver update that solves the problem, then try the remaining steps in the order given.

Check for optional third-party updates

Even if all critical updates have been installed on your computer, optional updates might be available for ATI Graphics Driver that have yet to be installed. Here's how to use Windows Update to check for and install optional driver updates:

Windows Update

In the left pane, click Check for updates to see if there are any optional updates available for your computer.

If optional updates are available, click the link to view and select the updates to install. (If you don't see this link, you might have to click Check online for updates from Microsoft Update).

If no optional updates are available, go to step 2.

Select the optional updates you want to install (especially if they appear to be graphics related), click OK, and then click Install updates.

Try updating ATI Graphics Driver manually

If no optional ATI Graphics Driver updates were available in Windows Update, you can try updating ATI Graphics Driver manually.

Note
It's best to let Windows install drivers for your hardware automatically, as described in step 1 above.

If you decide to manually update ATI Graphics Driver, here's how to do it:

Click to open Device Manager If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

In Device Manager, double-click Display adapters, and then double-click the name of the device running ATI Graphics Driver.

Click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver.

When asked how you want to search for driver software, click Search automatically for updated driver software.

Windows will locate and install a new driver if one is available.

Check the ATI Technologies, Inc. website for driver updates

If no optional ATI Graphics Driver updates were available in Windows Update, go online to the following website to check for driver updates:

Click to go online to the ATI Technologies, Inc. website to find out if a solution or update is available
How to manually update a driver using a downloaded file

Click to open Device Manager If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

In Device Manager, locate the device you want to update, and then double-click the device name.

Click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver.

When asked how you want to search for driver software, click Browse my computer for driver software.

Click Browse, locate where you placed the new driver on your computer, click OK, and then click Next. Windows will locate and install the new driver.

Note
If you are running the latest version of ATI Graphics Driver and are still experiencing the problem, we recommend that you contact ATI Technologies, Inc. or the manufacturer for additional information and support.

Check your computer manufacturer's website for driver updates

If ATI Graphics Driver was preinstalled on your computer, check your computer manufacturer's website for driver updates.

How do I find my computer manufacturer?

Click the Start button , type msinfo32 in the Search box, and then press ENTER. Your computer manufacturer is listed as the System Manufacturer in the right pane of the System Information window.

Click to go online to see contact information for most computer manufacturers
How to manually update a driver using a downloaded file

Click to open Device Manager If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

In Device Manager, locate the device you want to update, and then double-click the device name.

Click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver.

When asked how you want to search for driver software, click Browse my computer for driver software.

Click Browse, locate where you placed the new driver on your computer, click OK, and then click Next. Windows will locate and install the new driver.

-------------------------------------------------------

I checked in Device Manager and I have ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 . Please help me find an update to this driver.

If this thread needs to be moved to the appropriate subforum, I'd appreciate the mods to do so. Thanks in advance!
 
I'm not really sure whether I have Vista 32 or 64 bit. Would it matter if I put in a different driver meant for a different system?

EDIT: Ok, I found out I have Vista 64 bit
 
right in that case on the second link just change the OS to VISTA 64bit.

the driver they give yhu is for bother Windows 7 AND Vista so their shold be no problems with it
James :)
 
I'm pretty bad at these things, but I'm worried whether this is the correct driver since it just shows "AMD Catalyst" as its name. Shouldn't it be showing the same name and number (ATI Mobility Radeon 4330 HD) instead?

For example, my last computer had a NVIDIA GeFOrce MX 400 card, and when I once updated the drivers, I searched and found an exact matching name...
 
Thanks. I'm downloading it from the softpedia link now. Is it really supposed to be 112MB? The link in your earlier post had the driver file for just 1.1 MB :)
 
yes it is sorry :/ its because it contains all drivers for ALL OS so at least if yhu decide to change OS or upgrade then yhu have a copy of the drivers :)

let me know if it works
James
 
Ok, I downloaded the file, but I'm having trouble installing the drivers. This is what I'm doing: From Device Manager, I choose ATI Mobility Radeon and go to its Properties. Then I chose Update Driver and chose the file downloaded. But then a message came up saying that the current driver is already up to date.

How do I proceed?

EDIT: I remember I used Driver Cleaner when I updated my NVIDIA drivers on my previous computer. Do I use that? Also, I randomly found this ATI Mobility Modder thing (http://www.hardwareheaven.com/modtool.php). What is this, and is it relevant?
 
Double click the downloaded file, and run the setup utility via there. It will install the required drivers and configure the system correctly for you.

Before installing the drivers make sure you have un-installed any previous versions first.

Use driver cleaner to remove your existing graphics chipset drivers. Reboot, and then double click the ATi Catalyst file you downloaded, and follow the setup instructions. You should not need to go via Device manager in order to install the drivers -- let the installer do it for you.
 
Okay, I removed two ATI files from the Control Panel, rebooted into Start Mode, ran Driver Cleaner (I had an old version on my laptop, and it sort of froze after removing 6 or 7 files). Then I rebooted normal mode and double clicked the new driver. It started, but then it gave me a message saying a file already exists, do I want to replace or not?

So this means DC didn't clean stuff properly? Where can I find a new free version to download? I went to there website but only saw a purchase option.

Also, on startup I got a Windows message: Windows could not find MOM Implementation file.

I think I'm messing things up here. Desperately need a detailed explanation of what, how, why and where.

So should I choose "Replace File" when I install the new drivers????

EDIT:

Anyone, please? I just really need to fix my laptop quickly, and just need a confirmation on how to properly install these drivers.

I decided to click "Yes to All" when it asked whether it should replace the existing files, however, after that nothing at all happened. So the driver didn't install properly.

Please I would really appreciate some help.
 
"So should I choose "Replace File" when I install the new drivers????"... Yes!
this was not an issue of the wrong video driver installed. It is an issue that something (some malware some hardware fault) messed up the correct video driver on your laptop. So you are attempting to re-install the video driver fresh. also be prepared to re-install Windows fresh. Back up what you can, if you can
 
"So should I choose "Replace File" when I install the new drivers????"... Yes!
this was not an issue of the wrong video driver installed. It is an issue that something (some malware some hardware fault) messed up the correct video driver on your laptop. So you are attempting to re-install the video driver fresh. also be prepared to re-install Windows fresh. Back up what you can, if you can

Ok, I did that. I chose "Yes to All" and then it started installing. After a while, the window which showed the progress went away and then nothing happened for quite a while. Then another window popped up saying the ATI Catalyst Control Center had stopped.

What's going on?

Your words about how I should back up everything sounds really serious - however I'm typing this from said laptop and for the time being nothing else has been going wrong except the freezes when I started it up from hibernation - I just stopped hibernating for the time being, and it looks fine.
 
"Your words about how I should back up everything sounds really serious"...

If you have important pictures or files on that laptop, I would strongly suggest that you back them up to a CD or flash drive. Everyone should do this regularly. Your laptop is not healthy... So think about what you would loose if it crashed
 
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