Inspiron 4100 laptop Windows Home XP crshes

[molyneux51]

Have had 5 or 6 crashes in the past 2 weeks on an Inspiron 4100 laptop ... laptop just got back from computer repair guy and has a new hard drive installed in it, so I discount hard drive corruption issues ... 1PW thought it could be hardware or driver issues ...

Laptop is used only as business backup for travel ... use the desktop 95% of the time ... laptop also serves as extra file backup location ...

Only programs loaded are what came with it (Windows Home XP, Office Suite with Word for Windows word processing and Works spreadsheeting <home Office suite, not the pro Office suite with Excel and upgraded suite functions>).. other than the fax modems, Roxio Easy CD, Dell support, & misc stuff and goodies that came preloaded from Dell, I have added only Adobe pdf Reader, Quicken QFP financial planner, and Microsoft Fix It ...

Anmd am now using Microsoft Security Essentials ... laptop came with Norton, but the Norton removal tool has been run numerous times and the hard drive replaced after that tool was run, anyway ...

Adobe and Quicken QFP have been on the machine for years ... only Microsfot Fix It is new since the hard drive replacement and reloading of Windows programs ... and of course MSE antivirus ...

I also upgraded the RAM chips from 128 mb RAM to 1 gig RAM ... laptop was seriously underpowered previously ...

I had no issues with blue screen crashes before the hard drive replacement ...

I did follow Malwarebytes exclusions and Microsoft Security Essentials ignore list per Malwarebytes forum information ... after the last crash, I even restarted in safe mode, uninstalled Malwarebytes, restarted in regular mode and reinstalled, updated, then enabled Malwarebytes ... 1PW seems to feel it is NOT MSE and Malwarebytes conflict related, apparently due to his review of attached blue screen file logs of the crashes ...

Since I really do not use this laptop for email at all (all business and personal email goes to the desktop so it is consolidated), yesterday I disenabled Malwarebytes and told it to not start when Windows opened ... then after the laptop booted up, I enabled it ... there is a spot somewhere in the forum where this sequence is also suggested to allay Malwarebytes and MSE conflcit issues ... perhaps not even necessary if there really is no MSE and Malwarebytes conflict ...

Am attaching the crash files from the 5 or 6 blue screens I have had over the past 2 weeks ... maybe someone can figure this out, I am a neophyte and useless for this task ...

The only blue screen crashes I recall ever having previously were when I tried updating the RAM chips 2 years ago ... those chips must not have been compatible and I ended up reinstalling the original 128 mb of RAM and just lived with it ... but the 1 gig chips now in the machine do not seem to have been indicated as being a problem that I can determine ...

There was one blue screen crash, the first, right after I got the machine back from repair .. I had an Axion flash drive that I inserted into the machine and apparently did not wait for the machine to install the new hardware before downloading files from the flash drive into the laptop ... and got a blue screen, machine did not like that ... that flash drive apparently was on its last legs, so I uninstalled it and threw it away ... bought a brand new Axiom flash drive and later installed it as a means to transfer business files from desktop to laptop ...

All subsequent blue screens have not had the flash drive plugged in ... 1 time when I was going to copy all business files to the laptop from the flash drive so make sure both desktop and laptiop were matching in files saved on each machine since the laptop repair and I had a freeze issue at that time, but no blue screen ...

Other blue screen crashs did not have the flash drive plugged in or anywhere near the laptop at the time ...

Anyone got any bright idears? ...BSOD.txt

[Firefox]

Hello and

Being that this is a Dell computer, have you ran the Dell Diagnostics Tool so that you can test your hardware, hard drive, memory, video card and motherboard?

[1PW]

Hello molyneux51:

If the Dell diagnostics, Firefox suggests, fails to provide additional information, you may wish to examine your hard disk drives' S.M.A.R.T. data for clues.

That model laptop also has an integral cooling fan that probably should be verified.

Even though the Dell diagnostics have a ram test, you might invest in making a bootable CD with Memtest86+. Running this gold standard test overnight might be helpful.

HTH

[molyneux51]

I ran the Dell Diagnositcs Utility CD last night ... the only errors (4 total) related to the disketter drive B and the CD drive CDRW ... but this laptop has 2 removable drives (diskette and CD-RW) ... and since the utility cd was in the CDRW drive to run the diagnostics, the diskette drive B was not installed, so it couled not be checked ... and sicne the diagnostics utility CD was in the CD-W drive, that drive could not check operations with a blank CD in it ... so I discount those errors are being relevant ... there were no other errors ...

As far as the SMART test and other stuff mentionhed in the most recent post, I have no clue as to any of that ... saying and doing are way 2 different things ...

The thought did occur to me, however ... my desktop is on a LAN cable connection thru Fairpoint Communciations, one of the very worst companies in the world ... this LAN connection does have to reload an open webpage (IE version 8) fairly frequently, something I attribute to an electronic hiccup in the LAN service connection ... I'll be reading email or soemthing and the open webpage behind the email will suddenly go blank and then reload ... so the thought occured that, since my laptop across the room is on a wireless card, is it possible that the electronic hiccup also causes the laptop PC card to hiccup and that the interaction between the PC card during the hiccup and the laptop hardware and drivers causes a blue screen error? ... just a thought ...

*******************

If the Dell diagnostics, Firefox suggests, fails to provide additional information, you may wish to examine your hard disk drives' S.M.A.R.T. data for clues. What is SMART data and how, precisely, does one xamine it? ... I am not a computer geek and would hardly know what to read or interpret, anyway ...

That model laptop also has an integral cooling fan that probably should be verified. And how does one verify a cooling fan, precisely? ...

Even though the Dell diagnostics have a ram test, you might invest in making a bootable CD with Memtest86+. Running this gold standard test overnight might be helpful. And how does one make a boot CD with Memtest 86 +, precisely?

[1PW]

Hello molyneux51:

A.) S.M.A.R.T.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

S.M.A.R.T. may be read with HD Tune or SpeedFan.

B.) Can you feel an air flow from the exhaust opening in the computer case?

Item #4 is the cooling fan. Your cooling fan should be visable in the far right-rear corner/underside of the case.

C.) Burning a bootable Memtest86+ diagnostic CD:

1. Download the zipped Memtest86+ ISO file. (memtest86+-4.20.iso.zip)
   
2. Unzip the memtest86+-4.20.iso.zip file.
   
3. Burn the memtest86+-4.20.iso file to a blank CD-R disc.
   
4. Boot-up from the now bootable CD. Run overnight.

HTH