weird...

postingalwaysposting

Every now and again usually around once every two/three weeks my lappy would frezze (while on the internet) and then the scren would go blank and a blue screen would flash up wth loads of info and at the bottom it says 'begining physical memory dump'.

Now last week I instaled more ram and now this happen at least once a day its usually when i am on the internet (today this is the secound time i less than 3 hours).

I use bt as my web browser and have norton anti virus installed which does a weekly scan on fridays.

I havent a clue what it is but i just turn my lappy off and on again and it works. My brother says its nothing to worry about but now its happening all the time and its worry me

losername

Howdy.

I'm afraid this could be something to worry about. The screen your describing is known in the trade as a BSOD (blue screen of death). Depending upon the specific error message and what you're doing at the time, this could be related to all sorts of things.

However, a common reason (and quite likely given that you have just upgraded) is a hardware problem - frequently memory. I actually suffered something v.similar due to some crappy ram I had in my system about a month ago. On the basis that you've just upgraded it, I'd start there. Try this utility - It extracts to a floppy disk which you boot from. Allow it to run for a while and see if it flags many errors. Post back and I'll be on hand...

It's not life threatening, but I'd give it some attention!

-TangleFoot-

There's a list of STOP errors and a brief explanation of each on this page.

decanay

How long have you had your laptop?

If you’ve had it a while, it could be an over heating problem.

If all else fails in terms of software/memory trouble, try using a can of compressed air and firing it through the intake vent.

postingalwaysposting

Hi everyone, thanks for your replys, after posting the message above it did the same thing so i gave up lol.

loser, when i click your link there are things to download which one do i do and i have no floopy drive so i have no clue what i am doing sorry

albertross, hiya again , oh dont feel guilty, no i didnt walk along the carpet with it, i take all my mail to my desk, i then opened it and fitted it. whats a dos memory scanner? sorry i have windows update to tell me when something is ready to download (bubble in the right hand corner of the screen) but it has never downloaded anything (that i know of). Also albatroos this blue screen stays there untill i physicall turn my lappy off. When it happens again i will copy most of it for you .

decanay i have had my lappy since october 04.

albertross_2

Ok, without a floppy drive (USB ones are about £15ish), you'll have to create a bootable CD (I Hope you have a CD-Writer?)!
Download this


http://www.memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.iso.zip

, unzip it, and double click on the iso file.

Hopefully some Cd-Writing software (Nero, EasyCD etc) will launch, and let you burn the CD

Assuming that worked, then you need to leave that CD in the drive, and reboot.
If all is well, the memory tester should run, if not, come back, as we may have to go through some more steps to get the laptop to boot from the cd..

Do you have a security center icon in control panel? If so, turn on the automatic updates, and set the time for the next hour.

If you don't have that icon, goto https://www.windowsupdate.com, and run the express option. It should download and install any pending updates. Reboot, and then run that howsafe link in my previous post - This will scan you PC for other nasties..

postingalwaysposting

albetross, thanks i have just downloaded it, yes i have got a cdrw but how do i unzip it?

i didnt have a security icon in my control panel so i used that link and did the updates then about an hour later it told me (usuing a bubble in the right hand corner) that there was more so i did them too (by clicking the bubble).

I am now running that protection thing (the link) on your post above, it is taking ages but getting there

thanks

albertross_2

If you have XP, it should have built in unzipping abilities, just by clicking on the zip file, failing that https://www.winzip.com

You might want to install a spyware scanner as well, e.g. microsoft anti-spyware beta, from microsoft.com.

Some links here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=133269

Toxteth_OGrady

Or download Ultimate Boot CD and run Memtest from that.

:cool:

TOG

postingalwaysposting

well i have just finished this:

albertross wrote:

Another thing you could try is a general anti-virus/spyware/patching check like this "Protection Scan"

http://safety.live.com/site/en-US/center/howsafe.htm

and it found 3 viruses and 5 infected files, it has removed the viruses and cleaned the files but how did they get through my anti virus :mad:

so albertross after i have downloaded it how to i get in onto a disk?

albertross_2

No anti-virus product finds everything, and they need to be constantly updated. Is your Norton still being updated automatically, or has your year run out.

I'd use one main scanner , and occasionally do manual scan using a couple of other products (like the one you have just done) to keep safe.

Same applies to anti-spyware scanners, have the Microsoft one running all the time, and use ad-aware to do manual scans..