BSOD - hal.dll+12a3b

Hey!

So, I've been having problems with BSODs lately. At first, after I bought Alienware 17, they didn't appear at all. Then, after inserting SSD drive to mSATA slot, everything was fine. After like a week of working on it, first bsod happened, and for like whole day they were appearing all the time. Then, for like a week I had had no problems, and after that - they started appearing again, and it's been lasting till today. I have no idea what I can do, everything points to hal.dll, but I've already tried cloning my drive to HDD, unpluging the power, disabling SSD in device manager, runing RAM tests(the one which is provided with Windows), runing Alienware PC Doctor(a few BSODs appeared then, but always on different components, but I managed to go through the whole test as well). I literally have no idea what to do, I can call DELL, but since I even don't know what part might be broken, I don't know what to tell them Ah, I don't overclock, it happens even if I have mIRC+chrome+steam, or sometimes even with only chrome! Guys, please, help me in solving it, I don't know what other tests I can do, ah, I also used recovery partition - the problem still happens. Have you ever had such problems, and even if not, do you have any idea for solving it?

0x00000124 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`09e74028 00000000`be000000 00000000`00800400 hal.dll hal.dll+12a3b x64 ntoskrnl.exe+7cc40

Regards,
Magic

 

Hi there!

No answers for you I'm afraid but I hope I can give you some idea of what to do .

The HAL.dll is the windows Hardware Abstraction Layer. This is the code that all drivers have to go through to access it's hardware. The only clue that provides is that it could be any piece of 'driven' hardware that is failing.

Time to get dell to sort it out I think, but first you can do what they will ask for anyway to speed up diagnosis. Remove the SSD, factory restore to original drive, update ONLY from the dell drivers list. Test.

Since you don't have any data or setup to protect this will be the best starting point when no single problem is apparent.

Good Luck

 

Ok, I will contact them, but one more thing - today's BSOD was of code 101, so I think I can have some problems with CPU, but for the god sake I've never overclocked, but I think getting other than x124 error is still something. Any idea on that?(bsod didn't manage to copy the whole communicate of error from memory so I can't access it :/)

 

You could try out 'whocrashed' ( Resplendence Software - WhoCrashed, automatic crash dump analyzer) which will analyse any bsod logs and offer suggestions - although very generic.

It could be as simple as a poor connection. Since you had quite a teardown job to put an msata drive in it could be just pulling it apart and reassemble, then seeing if it helps. Removing the SSD and factory restore should show if you have a different issue and let dell figure it out. What country are you in?

 

Yes, I've already used it to detect problems - but those suggestions are really poorly made, and I prefered microsoft website which explained it more complex(but still, not good enough to even get closer to the problem). I'm going to get basic configuration, make tests and call DELL. I'm from Poland, I've already had a few DELL laptops and in our country the warrianty where technician comes by with parts works very well, but the guys in call centre are not really IT specialists

 

I think that's the best plan.

Dealing with the first level guys can be frustrating but just go with their tests, it's all scripted and designed to find simple problems, even though you already know it's more than that!

Glad to hear on-site exists in Poland. I've found the further East you go in mainland Europe the less chance you have of getting it. Classic get-out to keep costs down is to find more than one piece of hardware that may be causing the problem. They can then request a return-to-depot legitimately .

 

Well, I need to admit that my expernience with laptops has started a long, long time ago, and when I got my first DELL(like 4 years ago), I was surprised when technician came with PARTS, not to take my laptop, but to fix it. Since then, I've always been recomending DELL laptops to people - they are just worth it. But it's my first time with Alienware, the software is just great(diagnostics, respawn etc.) - maybe it's a little more expensive than other brands, but they are built in soild way and they're upgratable in almost all way(also, pretty easy access - it's not like in DELL for business(XPS if I'm right), but it's just perfect for me). We will see what is going to happen this time

 

I don't know if you have thought of this but how was the ssd set up? As a boot drive or cache drive? And what is tyne model or brand of the drive and was it used.

 

SSD? I just cloned it from original drive(optimalized to SSD), and after a few first BSODs I used recovery and installed completly new system from it. It's SK hynix HFS128G3AMNM - 1010A AA (SSD Rate: DC + 3.3V 1A). Do you think it might be an issue?

 

Ok, everything reinstalled on original HDD, 1 bsod on windows update, then another, another and guess what? One more! Calling tomorrow, SSD/HDD2 both are out of Alienware. I'll keep you updated, just in case anyone has similar problem(I couldn't find solution to this one on google, so if I know what part is broken, I'll just write, maybe it'll help someone - hopefully).

 

Cool, I'll be interested in how it goes and what they find

Good luck.

 

Ok, after having reinstalled system a few times, after consultign with DELL support(nice support btw. - Alienware has better one than Vostro, that's for sure), disabling Windows7 updates, and installing only original drivers, bsods are still appearing. DELL's sending me a technician, let's see what he can do - my consultant mentioned that he thinks it might be motherboard, so I guess he might indeed exchange it. To be honest, I prefer it this way - if I had disabled win7 updated and bsods had stopped, I'd have been mad - c'mon, you pay a lot for laptop and you can't have updates, Microsoft rather wouldn't help, and DELL would consider it as software, so I really hope that technician will do fine.

 

TBH I was sure it was a hardware failure but hoped you might get resolution. The fact that the drives vanished from POST and PXE boot attempted to find a network says to me it's hardware (but exactly which? Sorry).

You've got dell on it now and I'm sure they will start with a MB - hopefully

 

One more question, if I told them I opened a laptop by myself, would I lose warrianty? Just curious if I'm allowed to by their ToS

 

It's not a problem. You can even change parts (as long as you can put the original ones back if asked)!

Check out the sig file of one of the AW reps that hang out here...

 

Hi MagicHereos,

As I was reading this thread, the whole time I was wondering if you used the clone software to intially install your SSD. I keep seeing something about cloning so I assume you DID NOT do a clean install of windows. Clean installs of windows is recommended for any HDD to SSD upgrade. You will lose all of the OEM software but it is possible to retrieve them. I've had many bugs fixed as soon as I did a clean install of my OS.

After reading the last post on the 1st page, I wasn't aware that you were having MS Update issues. I had a problem with my m17xR3 with MS updates not installing and resulting in BSODs. I am now free and clear of any issues with my rig after finding the solution. "Rootkit Virus." I would look into googling Rootkit Removal Software. Be very careful though because it is a .exe and I'm sure there are fake ones out there. But after running the software (I thought I was wasting my time), it said the virus was removed and cured. After running the software again, nothing was found. MS updates installed perfectly and I haven't had any issues since then! I hope this is your cure!

Note: This rootkit virus survived through reformats.

 

I did not only clone, but also used original CD + I tried 2 HDDs and 1 SSD to have system on it. MS updates are being installed without any problem in like 4/5 cases(all of them), only once bsod happened on one of them, but after restarting laptop, it continued with updates.

 

Motherboard changed - bsods are still appearing. I wonder what DELL will say

 

.

I guess they may try more parts or give up and get you a replacement?

Have you run whocrashed to see what the log files say? Resplendence Software - WhoCrashed, automatic crash dump analyzer