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    Weird BSOD. O.+!?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by ShimmerArc, Nov 3, 2010.

  1. ShimmerArc

    ShimmerArc Notebook Consultant

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    After playing Warcraft III for a couple of hours, the screen blacked out. At first, I thought I must have alt-tabbed accidentally, then this BSOD came up.

    It was weird. It says.

    STOP: c00006a4 Unknown Hard Error
    Unknown Hard Error

    It was a hard lock. Can't even get the caps lock to work. So I proceeded to hold the power button til it shuts down. After restarting, I get a loud beep and an error message. (Black screen)

    It says:
    Error 0253: EFI Variable Block Data was destroyed.

    ? That sounds disastrous. Any help would be appreciated. Never had a BSOD like this one. Dx
     
    ShimmerArc, Nov 3, 2010
    #1
  2. DR650SE

    DR650SE The Whiskey Barracuda

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    Hmm, try an unplug the CMOS battery for a few min and see if that changes anything. I'm sure you've done the power drain (remove battery/unplug AC adaptor, Hold power button for 20 Sec). I would try those two things to start off with.

    It may also be a currupt display driver. So if the first two options don't work, I would boot in safe mode, uninstall your GPU drivers, and reinstall them again. Have you updated to the newer vbios?
     
    DR650SE, Nov 3, 2010
    #2
  3. ShimmerArc

    ShimmerArc Notebook Consultant

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    For now, it looks fine. No more BSODs, at least for the past few hours. Monkey Island 2 refuses to start in full screen mode though. Tried the -fullscreen / -full command line but to no avail. Odd. *shrug* Might be a separate incident.

    I'm currently on A09 BIOS and the latest VBIOS. Did the clean removal + safe mode thing using CCleaner and DriverSweeper a few weeks ago. Will reinstall the drivers if I get another BSOD. Well ... hopefully not. >.<
     
    ShimmerArc, Nov 3, 2010
    #3
  4. johnsmor

    johnsmor Notebook Geek

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    Ahhhhh I had this issue as well as others a few weeks ago. I had to completely reformat my comp, happened shortly after i did the new AO9, New GPU Drivers and BIOS.

    After a clean install everything has been amazing! MAy have to do a clean reformat to get things back to normal!
     
    johnsmor, Nov 3, 2010
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  5. ShimmerArc

    ShimmerArc Notebook Consultant

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    O.O Aiks. I hope I won't have to reinstall everything again. I have 500 gigs+ worth of games. >.<
     
    ShimmerArc, Nov 3, 2010
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  6. Harryboiyeye

    Harryboiyeye Notebook Deity

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    Are you able to get onto the desktop?

    I would suggest, if you have a 2nd HDD/SDD to install windows onto the secondary and then boot up and try to copy files from the main HDD/SDD onto an external source if worse comes to worse

    Cheers
     
    Harryboiyeye, Nov 4, 2010
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  7. ShimmerArc

    ShimmerArc Notebook Consultant

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    Something happened today. Whilst I was browsing the web, an icon popped up at the toolbar, the one with time / date etc.

    It looks like two cylinders, side by side, one yellow, one red. It says:
    Volume inaccessible: Reinstall hard drive or something along those lines.

    I went to My Computer and tried getting into C:/ but it only shows an (unknown) icon. The white one with a rectangular square at the middle.

    I can't access any programmes, not even the task manager at that point. So I held the power button til it went off. Restarted, and then the dreaded message came on again: Operating System not found.

    Knowing the drill, I restarted again and hey presto! everything recovered. WEIRD. -.- Guess I'd better start backing up my files.
     
    ShimmerArc, Nov 4, 2010
    #7