Blue Screen Blues

[Tbone]

Here's my situation - new laptop, a Dell M1710 bought off of eBay. Works great EXCEPT for these annoying blue screens I seem to keep getting, without much consistency as to when and why. The first two times was while I was playing a game (I've had two other times where it has frozen but no blue screen), but recently it's been happening while I'm afk (and usually downloading something). Without further ado, the screens:

BSOD #1 - I've gotten this once twice while running a game:

NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error
*** Hardware Malfunction
Call your hardware vendor for support
*** The system has halted ***

BSOD #2 - appears while I am afk, usually leaving the computer downloading

This blue screen blames kmixer.sys. I also sometimes see KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

BSOD #3 - new one I received while afk last night

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Stop 0x0000000A


Stop Errors Recorded

Got the last few days stop errors:
0x1000008e (0xc0000005, 0x805befa5, 0xb591cc94, 0x00000000)
0x1000007e (0xc0000005, 0xb353b539, 0xb4a24c18, 0xb4a24914)
0x1000007e (0xc0000005, 0xb2074f68, 0xb35d6c0c, 0xb35d6908)
0x1000000a (0x00000000, 0x00000009, 0x00000001, 0x805444ad)

Troubleshooting

Most of my research has pointed to either bad memory or corrupted device drivers. I was pretty sure it was my RAM, but after running all the tests Dell recommended I do, I received no errors (meaning Dell won't replace my RAM). I've also downloaded updates dealing with kmixer.sys (most recent blue screen didn't point to that file). I've run a complete disk scan. I've reseated memory. I've double-checked my pagefile size. I've defragged. I think my next step is going to be running the Windows CD and trying to repair the installation in case something happened there. I can't find a way to really pinpoint the source of the problem, and even if I do, I'm not sure how to fix it. Any help would be much appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Bad memory.  Get the bootable MS RAM checker CD, but I would wager you a few drinks it's bad memory

[Tbone]

I've run a few different memory checkers from bootable disk (memtest.org) as well as the tests that come with Windows (fn boot) and even done it alternating sticks of RAM. The memory passes every test - EVERY test. I was sure it was bad memory too, but I'm screwed if I can't prove it. There's also the possibility that it is not the RAM at all.

[likwidtek]

Just do a second repair on it (repair install).  Or if you can roll back your system before you made those driver changes.

If there is nothing that you need on the machine just format and reinstall.  If you get blue screen errors DURING a fresh install then it's bad hardware.  XP install is the best hardware checker around.

[Tbone]

Here are the last four minidumps:

http://liquiware.net/tbone/Mini102806-01.dmp
http://liquiware.net/tbone/Mini102906-01.dmp
http://liquiware.net/tbone/Mini103106-01.dmp
http://liquiware.net/tbone/Mini110306-01.dmp

Timestamp is part of filename, so you can kinda follow the odd pattern of crashes. Yeah, I think I'm about to try the repair of Windows and see if that does anything. It's hard to know for sure. I didn't have a crash for three days and thought I had fixed it, but suddenly there it was again. Perhaps those dump files will help someone determine the source of the issue?

[Anonymous]

Could be the RAM is overheating.  Could also be a faulty PSU of course

[Pirus]

yeah it sounded like to me it was a overheating type of problem weird crap happens when things over heat... had a message very similar to that when i was overclocking a bit over the limit and my memory was getting a tad too hot.

[Anonymous]

hmm well i asked him about things overheating a while ago...yes i am talking about the lappy

[Anonymous]

ok so i just looked at your auction you got it from.  did you get windows media edition or xp pro?  he said he was going to do a full system recovery.  something may have gone wrong when he did that.  maybe you should do a clean installation.

[Tbone]

I would think it would be more prone to overheat while in use rather than while it is idle. It's only blue screened on me twice while I was actually there at the computer.

[Tbone]

Well, repairing Windows officially f*cked my pc. It won't even load now. It goes straight to the blue screen "Hardware Malfunction" every time.

...

Oh, I also got errors when trying to install mscorwks.dll and mscoree.dll, though I don't think it has anything to do with this.

[Bellthazor]

If you have bad sectors it will cause it to lock up durning idle, as well as in use.

I have some software you can use to test..I'll dig it out and try to get it out this weekend, or Monday.

[Tbone]

I can boot in safe mode, but when trying to use System Restore, it simply doesn't work. It says there are no points for today and won't load up any other day and won't even switch to last month. Bahhh....

[Styan]

I know you hate it so I'm gonna hide it in a cough...

*cough*format*cough*

[Tbone]

Fixed the blue screen on startup. Had to reinstall all the Dell drivers from the Dell CD. Going through Windows Update now. Only time will tell if I did anything that fixed it.

*So take that you f*ckin format nazis!!!