Re: Major vista problems

Hi, Byakko.

From your narrative, I'd say your problem is almost certainly hardware, not
software. In other words, it is NOT a "Vista problem", major or otherwise.

How old is your laptop? Still under warranty? Have it checked out
thoroughly by a competent technician.

This may be as simple as a loose connection, as ashvin said. Or it could be
bad RAM or even good-but-mismatched RAM. Or out-of-date drivers. Or a
defective battery. Or an outside-the-case problem, such as RF interference
from some nearby TV or other electrical device. Or heat buildup, possibly
because of dust accumulation. Or any of dozens of other possibilities.

> These past two weeks the blue screens were becoming more and more
> numerous until they were garunteed to happen roughly 30 minutes after
> startup.

Aha! That makes heat buildup a strong suspect. Something in YOUR
environment is different from the environment in the campus tech department.
May still be RFI, though. But whatever causes the problem at home is not
affecting the computer at the shop.

You haven't given us ANY clue as to what the BSODs say. Those Blue Screens
of Death are trying very hard to tell you "where it hurts" - and you don't
seem to be listening to them. At least, you haven't told us what they say.

Windows is set, by default, to "Automatically restart" on "System failure";
this means that the blue screen flashes for an instant and then the computer
reboots - before we have a chance to read what it says. A simple reboot
cures many momentary glitches. But when it doesn't, we are left with no
clue as to the cause of the problem - unless we can read the often lengthy
and cryptic error logs.

A simple fix at the end of a long click-path will let you see what the BSOD
actually says. Click Start | Control Panel | System | Advanced system
settings (you'll need Administrator credentials to get past here) | Advanced
| Startup and Recovery / Settings. Remove the check from Automatically
restart, then OK your way back to the desktop. Next time, instead of
rebooting, your computer will "freeze" until YOU press the hardware Reset
button. You'll have all the time you need to copy the Stop Code and post it
here. Most of the BSOD is "boilerplate" that points in the wrong direction.
But the Stop Code - both the hexadecimal number and the name in ALL_CAPS are
important. You may also see a set of 4 more hex numbers and perhaps a few
words of text. It may be gibberish to you (and me), but it tells a lot to
those who understand it. Please post all that info from the Stop Code down
into your next message here and someone should be able to interpret it.

When we see random variable symptoms, we suspect hardware, not software. A
software problem would more likely result in a Stop Code that would probably
be more or less consistent each time. So if the Stop Codes are different
each time, there's not much point in posting them. Just get a thorough
hardware checkout from a competent technician.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"Byakko" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hello,
>
> My laptop, running Windows Vista Basic has had its share of blue
> screens, until recently when they started becoming excessively frequent.
> A blue screen would occur every 30 minutes (approx).
>
> A few weeks ago (before the blue screens became prominent) I took it in
> for repairs. I took my laptop to the campus tech department, and they
> couldn't find anything wrong with several hardware checks.
>
> These past two weeks the blue screens were becoming more and more
> numerous until they were garunteed to happen roughly 30 minutes after
> startup.
>
> I ran a chkdsk utility, and it told me there were errors and that it
> couldn't continue. I attempted to use the "restore" feature to set it to
> the 11/25/2009 restore point.
> ..
> Vista effectively imploded. When my laptop booted up it gave me a black
> screen, followed by a window with "This copy of Windows Vista is
> invalid" (I bought my laptop three years ago; it was registered).
> Followed by a request for a product key.
>
> The problem is, I don't have that product key anymore. I also don't
> know if I'd be able to download Windows 7 in Vista's current crippled
> state.
>
> I think Microsoft was offering a $30 discount for Windows 7, as a
> student discount, so I'm going to try to hold off from using my laptop
> until winter break.
> Is there anything I can do to fix this myself without having to pay for
> repairs?
>
>
> --
> Byakko