Please help analyze this blue screen!

Business with SP1
Sony laptop, fast core2duo, 4GB
Defender+Avast!
Working beautifully for many months, and then a few
weeks ago this began happening:

Perhaps 2-3 times a week, and with no consistency of
circumstances, a blue screen will appear. It might
happen while working or when returning from hibernate.
There's a countdown as memory is stored, and then a
freeze. The only way to recover is to do a hard OFF (5
seconds on the power switch) and restart.

When it first happened, I had not installed or changed
anything, so I was comfortable doing a restore. It
happened again.

It's confusing because the stated cause is inconsistent.
I've checked to ensure that all drivers are updated and
nothing that's contraVistarian is installed.

What analytical steps can I undertake to discover what's
causing this, and then to help me make the necessary
changes?

Thanks!

Hank

Hi,

It could be faulty hardware or flakey memory, particularly so if the
circumstances are not consistent. You might try running the memory
diagnostic tool (just type it into the start/search line to start).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Hank" <> wrote in message
news:g4c03o$gs2$...
> Business with SP1
> Sony laptop, fast core2duo, 4GB
> Defender+Avast!
> Working beautifully for many months, and then a few weeks ago this began
> happening:
>
> Perhaps 2-3 times a week, and with no consistency of circumstances, a blue
> screen will appear. It might happen while working or when returning from
> hibernate. There's a countdown as memory is stored, and then a freeze. The
> only way to recover is to do a hard OFF (5 seconds on the power switch)
> and restart.
>
> When it first happened, I had not installed or changed anything, so I was
> comfortable doing a restore. It happened again.
>
> It's confusing because the stated cause is inconsistent. I've checked to
> ensure that all drivers are updated and nothing that's contraVistarian is
> installed.
>
> What analytical steps can I undertake to discover what's causing this, and
> then to help me make the necessary changes?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Hank

Windows troubleshooting:
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussino...2/3065065.aspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Hank" <> wrote in message news:g4c03o$gs2$...
Business with SP1
Sony laptop, fast core2duo, 4GB
Defender+Avast!
Working beautifully for many months, and then a few
weeks ago this began happening:

Perhaps 2-3 times a week, and with no consistency of
circumstances, a blue screen will appear. It might
happen while working or when returning from hibernate.
There's a countdown as memory is stored, and then a
freeze. The only way to recover is to do a hard OFF (5
seconds on the power switch) and restart.

When it first happened, I had not installed or changed
anything, so I was comfortable doing a restore. It
happened again.

It's confusing because the stated cause is inconsistent.
I've checked to ensure that all drivers are updated and
nothing that's contraVistarian is installed.

What analytical steps can I undertake to discover what's
causing this, and then to help me make the necessary
changes?

Thanks!

Hank

On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:08:23 -0700, Hank <>
wrote:

>Business with SP1
>Sony laptop, fast core2duo, 4GB
>Defender+Avast!
>Working beautifully for many months, and then a few
>weeks ago this began happening:
>
>Perhaps 2-3 times a week, and with no consistency of
>circumstances, a blue screen will appear. It might
>happen while working or when returning from hibernate.
>There's a countdown as memory is stored, and then a
>freeze. The only way to recover is to do a hard OFF (5
>seconds on the power switch) and restart.
>
>When it first happened, I had not installed or changed
>anything, so I was comfortable doing a restore. It
>happened again.
>
>It's confusing because the stated cause is inconsistent.
>I've checked to ensure that all drivers are updated and
>nothing that's contraVistarian is installed.
>
>What analytical steps can I undertake to discover what's
>causing this, and then to help me make the necessary
>changes?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Hank

What was the stop error?

In article <g4c03o$gs2$>,
Hank <> wrote:
>
>What analytical steps can I undertake to discover what's
>causing this, and then to help me make the necessary
>changes?
>

Random blue screens are caused by a bad driver corrupting system
memory, OR physically bad ram. Since you're sure it's not a bad driver -
you HAVE updated everything, right? - try removing one of the installed
dimms and if the problem continues remove the other one and install the first
in its place.

It could also be your cpu but that's pretty rare. Or heat, but that's
seldom a problem in a quality laptop. Ummm, the little exhaust fan IS running,
right? Anyway, heat problems typically cause reboots and/or shutdowns.

Rick Rogers wrote:
> Hi,
>
> It could be faulty hardware or flakey memory, particularly so if the
> circumstances are not consistent. You might try running the memory
> diagnostic tool (just type it into the start/search line to start).
>

Good. Thanks. Apparently no problem there, which would
have been easy/cheap to fix.

Ringmaster wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:08:23 -0700, Hank <>
> wrote:
>
>> Business with SP1
>> Sony laptop, fast core2duo, 4GB
>> Defender+Avast!
>> Working beautifully for many months, and then a few
>> weeks ago this began happening:
>>
>> Perhaps 2-3 times a week, and with no consistency of
>> circumstances, a blue screen will appear. It might
>> happen while working or when returning from hibernate.
>> There's a countdown as memory is stored, and then a
>> freeze. The only way to recover is to do a hard OFF (5
>> seconds on the power switch) and restart.
>>
>> When it first happened, I had not installed or changed
>> anything, so I was comfortable doing a restore. It
>> happened again.
>>
>> It's confusing because the stated cause is inconsistent.
>> I've checked to ensure that all drivers are updated and
>> nothing that's contraVistarian is installed.
>>
>> What analytical steps can I undertake to discover what's
>> causing this, and then to help me make the necessary
>> changes?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Hank
>
> What was the stop error?

That's been inconsistent, as mentioned, and apparently
that very inconsistency is something of a diagnostic clue.
But thanks.

the wharf rat wrote:
> In article <g4c03o$gs2$>,
> Hank <> wrote:
>> What analytical steps can I undertake to discover what's
>> causing this, and then to help me make the necessary
>> changes?
>>
>
> Random blue screens are caused by a bad driver corrupting system
> memory, OR physically bad ram. Since you're sure it's not a bad driver -
> you HAVE updated everything, right? - try removing one of the installed
> dimms and if the problem continues remove the other one and install the first
> in its place.
>
> It could also be your cpu but that's pretty rare. Or heat, but that's
> seldom a problem in a quality laptop. Ummm, the little exhaust fan IS running,
> right? Anyway, heat problems typically cause reboots and/or shutdowns.
>

Fan spins away. Temps are fine, and I've recently
disassembled and cleaned the air path and heat exchangers.

Physical RAM checks ok.

Drivers are current but I'll recheck everything and
update if possible.

Thanks!

Hank wrote:

> Drivers are current but I'll recheck everything and update if possible.
>
> Thanks!



Control Panel > Device Manager > one item at a time and
UPDATE DRIVER

That's a painful process. Is there a better way? Perhaps
somewhere in the bowels of Vista is a button that says
"CHECK DRIVERS FOR CURRENCY"

No?

Is such a utility available?

If any codewriters are listening, here's an opportunity!

Hank

Well, it happened once again. This time I made notes.


It's claimed to be a driver conflict, but the specific
driver is not identified. Codes provided are:

STOP: 0X000000C4 (0X000000E3, 0X0012F5B0, 0X00000000)

WDF01000.SYS - ADDRESS 806735ED BASE AT 8060F000,
DATESTAMP 47919015

Cryptic. Mysterious.


I found an online reference to WDF01000.sys as
driver-related, and a potential problem, but it's
runscanner.net, the credibility of which is unknown to
me, and I am reluctant to do anything without guidance.