Technology, Support, and News Forum

[phileysmiley]

I hope someone can help.

My Vista Home Premium 64 installation has been BSOD the last couple of days. It happened 2 times yesterday and once today so far.

Here is the log:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: d1
BCP1: 000000000000001C
BCP2: 0000000000000002
BCP3: 0000000000000001
BCP4: FFFFFA6001077514
OS Version: 6_0_6001
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini072709-01.dmp
C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-57065-0.sysdata.xml
C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Temp\WER696C.tmp.version.txt

I have not installed any new software or hardware in the last few days. The BSOD itself is a driver IRQL not less or equal error. But I have not installed any new hardware drivers recently.

[ar1stotle Profile ICQYIM]

Are you doing anything specific when it happens or does it seem to be pretty random? You might want to try just running a chkdsk /F, as sometimes the hard drive just gets corrupt data which makes Vista act terrible.

[Grav!ty Profile]

I think try finding new chipset drivers Larry. That error message you're getting can also be caused by a damaged swap file (virtual memory) or mismatched RAM. It can also be a hard drive going bad. Do you have identical memory sticks in the system? Probably the easiest thing to check is the swap file. I'll boot to Vista in a bit a see how to delete it and and then recreate it.

[Grav!ty Profile]

You can delete the swap file by going to right click Computer>Properties>Advanced>Performance>Settings>Advanced>Virtual Memory>Change

From there Uncheck Automatically manage, select No paging file>Set and then follow the steps from there and OK out of the Properties.

You then need to reboot and go back there and select Automatically manage again and reboot to get a fresh page file created.

EDIT: I see ar1stotle also suggests the HDD

[JabbaPapa Profile]

It was often the case when I have had a new Vista setup, that I would get a few BSODs during the first 1-2 weeks before it settled down.

One good thing about the OS is that it automatically sends an error message to MS about the crash, and more than once I have had feedback appear on my desktop which has helped to resolve certain issues.

Vista is more stable than XP despite some common suggestions to the contrary, however some BSODs can be caused by software conflicts, usually involving software that is both written originally for XP and running continuously in the background. 3rd party firewall and AV software spring naturally to mind, but they are not the only potential culprits.

But the most likely cause of Vista BSODs is that it's still a relatively new system, and that data indexing and system optimisation tasks are still ongoing which can cause I/O conflict in some cases and therefore BSOD.

[phileysmiley]

Are you doing anything specific when it happens or does it seem to be pretty random? You might want to try just running a chkdsk /F, as sometimes the hard drive just gets corrupt data which makes Vista act terrible.

It's been pretty random.

I think try finding new chipset drivers Larry. That error message you're getting can also be caused by a damaged swap file (virtual memory) or mismatched RAM. It can also be a hard drive going bad. Do you have identical memory sticks in the system? Probably the easiest thing to check is the swap file. I'll boot to Vista in a bit a see how to delete it and and then recreate it.

It is a brand new laptop -- I've only had it 2 weeks -- so I hope it's not the hard drive going bad. I assume the memory sticks are identical. I haven't changed anything.

You can delete the swap file by going to right click Computer>Properties>Advanced>Performance>Settings>Advanced>Virtual Memory>Change

From there Uncheck Automatically manage, select No paging file>Set and then follow the steps from there and OK out of the Properties.

You then need to reboot and go back there and select Automatically manage again and reboot to get a fresh page file created.

EDIT: I see ar1stotle also suggests the HDD

It was often the case when I have had a new Vista setup, that I would get a few BSODs during the first 1-2 weeks before it settled down.

One good thing about the OS is that it automatically sends an error message to MS about the crash, and more than once I have had feedback appear on my desktop which has helped to resolve certain issues.

Vista is more stable than XP despite some common suggestions to the contrary, however some BSODs can be caused by software conflicts, usually involving software that is both written originally for XP and running continuously in the background. 3rd party firewall and AV software spring naturally to mind, but they are not the only potential culprits.

But the most likely cause of Vista BSODs is that it's still a relatively new system, and that data indexing and system optimisation tasks are still ongoing which can cause I/O conflict in some cases and therefore BSOD.

I sure hope your first statement is the case. It does make sense.

Since you mentioned it...I am a little confused about the "sending to MS" dialog. It does not have the option "send now." Only "check later" or you can cancel it. Am I supposed to get some kind of message back? Because every time this dialog box has come up but I never get anything back afterward. I haven't gotten any feedback.

I hope it's just "settling in," as it were.

------------------------------------
EDIT: I just deleted/rebuilt the swap file.

I'll see if it happens again and then I'll run chkdsk /F if it does.

Thanks!

[Grav!ty Profile]

Another thing that is probably a good idea is to install Vista Service Pack 2 X64. It corrects a lot of the latent instabilities of Vista.

[phileysmiley]

Another thing that is probably a good idea is to install Vista Service Pack 2 X64. It corrects a lot of the latent instabilities of Vista.

Hmmm...how do I know if I have that?

[Grav!ty Profile]

I'm not in Vista so bear with my description In the search thingy on the Vista start menu, type run and then click on the Run dialog icon that appears. Type winver in the run dialog box and press Enter on the keyboard. That should mention SP2 or SP1 as the case may be.

Oh yeah, how I picked that up was from your error report at the top of this thread:

OS Version: 6_0_6001
Service Pack: 1_0

[JabbaPapa Profile]

Since you mentioned it...I am a little confused about the "sending to MS" dialog. It does not have the option "send now." Only "check later" or you can cancel it. Am I supposed to get some kind of message back? Because every time this dialog box has come up but I never get anything back afterward. I haven't gotten any feedback.

Yes, it is a little confusing I'm afraid -- the fact is that sometimes you get feedback, sometimes you don't. You shouldn't cancel them though, well not unless you solve the issues and want to avoid the feedback lol

Graham's right about the SP2, but if you have run Windows Update then you most likely have it already.

Start > Computer > right-click > Properties should tell you if you have SP1 or SP2 running.

You should use msconfig to try and reduce to the absolute minimum the number of active icons in the notification tray (part of taskbar with clock etc) loaded at boot, as they are buggy in Vista and contribute to system slowdown.