Ongoing BSOD Problem

[Mz32quick]

Please forgive me in advance as I am not as computer savvy as many on here but hopefully you can manage to help me out.

I've been getting the Blue Screen of Death for a while now and its pretty intermitent. I've been unable to pinpoint to any particular thing as it seems to be pretty random. I have tried using System Restore and going back to a point in time before I started having these problems with no luck. Obviously its very aggravating as it locks up my system completely and I have to turn it off manually which I hate.

Attached are my dump files. I tried downloading the viewer and understanding it but I have no clue what I'm doing! haha

thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Route44]

Your 4th minidump points toDisk Hardware error caused by MountMgr.sys which is a core driver of your Windows OS. You could be facing harddrive failure in the near future so I recommend finding your harddrive manufacturer's website and run a diagnostics.

However, your 5th minidump points to memory corruption and when you have faulty RAM it can give you all kinds of headaches. Before you do anything run a Memtest for your memory for at least 10 passes. This takes a lot of time so I suggest you start it a couple of hours before going to bed and let it run all night and check it in the morning.

Just google Memtest and follow the instructions. It is a free excellent little utility.

 

[Mz32quick]

Wow, neither of those sound good. This Dell laptop isn't that old either, although out of warranty of course. I'll try running that Memtest and see what comes up there. Hopefully the computer will stay running long enough to complete the test. Thanks for the help.

 

[Route44]

If it is memory it isn't hard to replace it. You might want someone to put in new memory -- if that is the issue. Seriously, corrupted memory can give all kinds of BSOD readings and corrupted memory is, unfortunately, a common occurance, but very fixable.

Let us know how you fair.

 

[Mz32quick]

Will do and thanks again! Hey, on the bright side the price of RAM is falling quite a bit lately so at least I have that!

 

[Mz32quick]

One more quick question - I let Memtest run for a good while and it never found any errors but just kept running. Does it ever stop or will it continously run until I stop it? Again, it didnt report any errors for the while I let it go.

 

[Route44]

MemTest will keep going and going and going...

The rule of thumb is a minimum of ten passes. This test isn't perfect (but still highly reliable). Another thing you should try is testing one RAM stcik at a time.

 

[Mz32quick]

To do that I would need to take one stick out, right? The only issue with that is that it's my laptop and I have zero experience working on laptops.

 

[Route44]

Yes, you would need to take one stick out and leave the other one in. Is this a newer laptop? The newer ones are much easier to work on. Get an online manual from your laptop manufacturer and they should show how to remove. It is very important to make sure you have NO static electricity built up in you because one little static spark can ruin a whole motherboard. Ground yourself by first touching a metal object.

If this isn't doable do you know someone who works on/repairs laptops?

 

[almcneil]

I'd suggest running a file system check (chkdsk) for good measure.

Although the dump points to memory corruption, that doesn't mean the memory is faulty. It's possible it is. But I've noticed a lot of BSODs are due to file system corruption. A chkdsk can usually fix these (quite nicely too!) I just noticed in the posts that you never ran one.

Another common cause of random BSODs is overheating. I'd install Lavalys EVEREST Home Edition and monitor the motherboard and CPU temps and see if they are rising before the BSOD. The best way is to run something processor intensive like an anti-virus or anti-spyware scan.

Which brings me to my next point. Malware (Virus or spyware) can easily cause BSODs. I recommend running an anti-virus full scan (just one anti-virus util will do) and the following 3 anti-spyware utils:

• Ad-Aware 2007
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• AVG Anti-Spyware

All are free.

So do the above before changing any memory and save you some $$$! Even if you do buy the memory and turns out that's not the problem, expanding your memory is a good idea as RAM gets exhausted over time as Windows and programs gets larger. All PCs come with extra memory slots to at least double, if not quadruple your system memory.

Finally, I noticed you said it's a Dell PC. All Dell computers come with a factory image that you can restore to if something catastrophic happens or you just can't resolve some software issue. The downside is that it wipes out all your personal files and programs you installed since you got the comp. It restores the system back to the way it was when you received it in the box (programs you ordered from Dell will still be there.)

 

[cpc2004]

The first minidump is crashed with registry corruption but it was occurred at 3rd July and I ignored this error. The last 4 system crashes are related to hardware error of the hard disk. Maybe the paging space is corrupted or the hardware error of the hard disk (ie hard disk error or disk cable problem). Redefine the paging space and run chkdsk /r may fix the problem. Run hard disk hardware diagnostic to check the hardware status of the hard disk. Can you attach the latest minidump here for further diagnostic.