Hello, I recently installed a copy of Windows 7 64 bit onto a friends Dell laptop. Everything seemed fine but my friend has reported back that every now and then the laptop crashes with a BSoD. there does no seem to be any trigger to activate this as it happens when surfing the net, using media player or any other app. I have not yet had the chance to grab the laptop back to download new drivers from Dell incase thats the issue, but i thought i'd ask here to see if anyone could suggest whats causing the problem. I have done a bit of research but can't see that there is a Laptop specific version of Windows 7 at all. Any advice or suggestions of where I should be looking when I get hold of the machine again would be gratefully received! Many thanks Leigh
Ask your friend what the error message is on the blue screen, that can usually tell you the reason its crashed. When you do get the PC, have a look at the memory dumps, that windows does when a blue screen occurs, this should tell you what application caused it. Doesn't really need to be a laptop version of Windows 7, laptop = pc only smaller. I've had random blue screens that turned out to be bad memory, and another random bluescreens due to a dodgy driver for the network card.
Yep, finding the error message is the first step. However, your problem is fairly common with laptops. For some reason, laptops generally only like the OS they are shipped with - changing the OS to something released after the laptop itself was often brings with it a whole range of problems - including BSOD's. I would try booting in safe mode and see if the BSOD persists. If so, then it probably is due to the fact your laptop just doesn't like it.
Heh years after 95's driver problems we still have that damn blue screen. Yeah sounds like driver here.
1- Assure that you have the latest BIOS for the laptop. 2- On Dell website, get all Windows 7 drivers for the laptop. If that doesn't solve the problem, it could be a memory problem. Windows 7 uses the memory differently than previous versions of Windows, and it could be fallen on a bad memory sector.
Thanks for the replies guys. I am reassured to hear that it probably is a driver problem. If no one else has experienced anything like this then drivers it must be - especially as it was running 32 bit Vista before. With regards to Shadows suggestion - I have never managed to read the error message from a blue screen, it all flashes by far too quick for me! Am I doing something wrong? :S Many thanks for all your help!
Here is a small guide, going you step by step to find the option to disable automatic restart upon a BSOD: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/automatic-restart-windows-7.htm Another guide: http://benosullivan.co.uk/windows/how-to-disable-the-automatic-reboot-on-blue-screen/
Thanks, Goodbytes! That will be very useful! Thanks to all for you for your comments. Enjoy the sun for those in Blighty (whilst it lasts)!
I find if you jot down the first group of the STOP error number and google it, it generally finds results on what the error is. I found when I swapped Vista 32-bit for 64-bit on my Dell Vostro that there was little or no 64-bit support for it, so I went to the various manufacturer's websites for the drivers, i.e. Synaptics for the touchpad, Intel for the chipset drivers, etc.
Thanks Kenco, that sounds very similar to this situation. Can I ask how long ago that was you had the problem? I am hoping that Dell have now centralised all drivers on their web page for all the componants of their laptops. Or would that be asking for too much? (I haven't actually checked yet. Getting the laptop back tomorrow so will sort it then. Hopefully!)
