The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Laptop Blue Screen multiple Times Within Week

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by AlienCorgi, Sep 9, 2012.

  1. AlienCorgi

    AlienCorgi Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi,
    I just got my new m14x R2 a week ago after losing my last laptop. I was so happy to get a new one, and especially one that I trusted would work great with games and all around performance, BUT here I am, not even getting that out of it, really. Well, the all around performance is great! But it's starting to act more strangely.
    What keeps happening is this: yesterday I was talking to a friend about a game called Grand Chase that is nothing near a great quality game, but it brings back some awesome memories between the two of us, so we decided to download it. Everything went smoothly, that is until I actually tried to start the game. It downloaded and patched just fine, but then the very moment the game began to open, my entire computer crashes and blue screens. It was very alarming to have something happen so soon, but I tried again. It happened again. So I gave it a break and just settled with trying a new download for the night. Today, I tried the NEW download. Again, it went fine until the game started, then the blue screen comes again.
    I figured it had something to do with the game maybe. I was gonna come here to be sure anyways, but now I'm deciding this problem is more urgent now that, with only my browser running, I came here to sign up and post. As I did, chrome froze, then I got blue screened again... So I know it's not my game making the issues.
    I'd really love any help I can get. I'm not the smartest when it comes to computers, but I looked up the problems and some people suggested updating drivers, but I have no idea where to find where I could do that. I tried, but couldn't get it. If you all think that's what I should try also, could you point me to where I could do that?
    I also tried a different version of NVIDIA. Many people were saying that the latest version has been giving everyone problems similar to mine. WhoCrashed also said the crash was from NVIDIA. BUT. Now that I have the older version, it's still blue screening, but it's saying it's because of ntsokrnl.exe and occasionally ntkenlmp.exe. That's been 7 times so far I've blue screened. I'll give the dump information and local info below. Please, please try to help me!
    Also, here's where I read about the older version of NVIDIA primarily: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/673332-m14x-r2-bsod-regular-296-16-nvidia-driver.html
    --------------------
    Here's some of my specs. If you need anything else, just ask:
    SYSTEM INFORMATION (Local)
    computer name: BEN-PC
    windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601
    windows dir: C:\Windows
    CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz Intel586, level: 6
    8 logical processors, active mask: 255
    RAM: 12782465024 total
    VM: 2147352576, free: 1944371200
    --------------------
    CRASH DUMP ANALYSIS (Previous 3)
    On Sun 9/9/2012 9:15:34 PM GMT your computer crashed
    crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\090912-16192-01.dmp
    This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0)
    Bugcheck code: 0xF4 (0x3, 0xFFFFFA8010B4DB30, 0xFFFFFA8010B4DE10, 0xFFFFF80002FC7510)
    Error: CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION
    file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
    product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
    company: Microsoft Corporation
    description: NT Kernel & System
    Bug check description: This indicates that a process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated.
    This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
    The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
    --------------------
    On Sun 9/9/2012 9:15:34 PM GMT your computer crashed
    crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
    This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
    Bugcheck code: 0xF4 (0x3, 0xFFFFFA8010B4DB30, 0xFFFFFA8010B4DE10, 0xFFFFF80002FC7510)
    Error: CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION
    Bug check description: This indicates that a process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated.
    This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
    The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
    --------------------
    On Sun 9/9/2012 9:04:22 PM GMT your computer crashed
    crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\090912-16364-01.dmp
    This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0)
    Bugcheck code: 0xF4 (0x3, 0xFFFFFA8010DAE060, 0xFFFFFA8010DAE340, 0xFFFFF80002F86510)
    Error: CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION
    file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
    product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
    company: Microsoft Corporation
    description: NT Kernel & System
    Bug check description: This indicates that a process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated.
    This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
    The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
    --------------------
    CONCLUSION
    8 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. No offending third party drivers have been found. Consider configuring your system to produce a full memory dump for better analysis.
    Read the topic general suggestions for troubleshooting system crashes for more information.
    Note that it's not always possible to state with certainty whether a reported driver is actually responsible for crashing your system or that the root cause is in another module. Nonetheless it's suggested you look for updates for the products that these drivers belong to and regularly visit Windows update or enable automatic updates for Windows. In case a piece of malfunctioning hardware is causing trouble, a search with Google on the bug check errors together with the model name and brand of your computer may help you investigate this further.
    (Note that I don't have the original conclusion from when it said NVIDIA was to blame.)
    Thank you everyone for taking your time out to help!
     
  2. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

    Reputations:
    3,658
    Messages:
    6,874
    Likes Received:
    969
    Trophy Points:
    281
    All you need to do is to get back to the DELL (most stable) drivers. Just enter here, input your tag and download them. Make sure you have your games running under the correct optimus settings also.
     
  3. PyroDonkey

    PyroDonkey Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    10
    Messages:
    126
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Uninstall your old drivers. When you are finished, download, install, and run Driver Fusion in safe mode (Restart the computer and press F8 then select Start in Safe Mode). Next you will want to download and install the latest nVidia drivers. Hopefully that should help you with your problem.