E1505 crashed, potentially from Bluetooth? HELP!

I've been around and around with this thing since last night.
Here's what happened:

First I recieved the laptop on Friday (4-7), and removed all bloatware, etc.
Then I used Dell's remove restore utility to get my 4 gbs back.
I installed a few progs (itunes - you've got to hear RadioLeo, antivirus, Firewall, FairUseWizard, etc).
I had an issue playing DVDs inside windows (choppy, etc) and in desparate attempt, "upgraded" windows with the disk I bought from Dell. Worked like a charm, DVDs played nicely, all was well.
Then last night I decided to add Office XP 2003 Student and Teacher edition (I bought it when I was a student, and my wife is about to go to school, so there...)
install goes okay, and everything is fine. However after the "upgrade" Windows keeps recognizing my BT card as "new hardware", and asking me to install it. Despite the fact that BT is working fine, I let it search for the components, it finds them, and brings up a dialogue telling me NOT to install it, this may cause system instability, etc, etc. Anyway, I get tired of the New Hardware notifications, so I decide to install it (did it once before anyway).

Everything seems to be going fine, wife and I are on the hotel bed, I've got a DVD being encoded for play on my Palm LifeDrive, and she is typing a resume. Then... restart.

That's odd, I think, but okay. Open Word, recover document, type a minute, restart.

Okay, maybe I need to update this new Office...running Windows update... restart.

Well, this is crazy... Pull out handy disk, and proceed to boot from disk. Attempt to repair Windows... nothing. Run prelim diagnostics, nothing wrong. Check BIOS, nothing. Safe Mode doesn't even work...

So I decide to go ahead and Format :::gulp::: this should fix it.

So, delete partition, format partition (quick), begin Windows install, get to ~37 - 35 mins remaining...restart.

Repeat

Try to format Long ... same thing.

Run more diagnostics, nothing.

Come to work, spend 45 mins on chat with very nice Dell person, do same things, but at least now (since I disabled BT radio) I get error screens. Before, no error, just restart.

SO I start again, format long, install windows... same thing.

This is really bad. So I go into BIOS, disable all BT related items, restart...voila! Windows installs.

Get all the drivers updated, flash BIOS, Windows is up and running... finally. However, now at various odd times it still restarts, and I don't know why. So far it's restarted with MediaCenter, and while adjusting display properties. Also I went to add / remove programs and clicked on windows components to get rid of Messenger, and it restarted.

What is causing these random restarts? I have a clean system, squeaky now. I even reflashed the BIOS after I got Windows working again. Will an update (once I get to the net with it) help? Is this a sign of a deeper underlying problem? Please help me!

P.S. Will the CyberLink, and Sonic cd's cost anything from Dell? How do I request them?

Thanks in advance

 

For the disc question, no it won't cost you anything. Call or chat with Dell's Tech Support and request the two discs. You should receive them via UPS/FedEx/DHL within 2 business days.

It the BT driver was causing a problem, that that could be the reason for crashing. If you go to control panel-->administrative tools-->event viewer-->system, you'll see a list of errors and codes that were logged into your system when your laptop crashed. I can't remember exactly, but I think you can double click on the error and it will give you more information. If you can tell us source, category, and event hopefully we can figure it out.

 

Thanks SG,
Well, it's been through about 6 formats since then. I'm on it now, hopefully it'll stay soon.

Edit: It did crash once since I got it back up, and this was the only warning...
The server could not bind to the transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{7027D45D-6EF2-4222-97F1-CB3ED611294F}.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Does that help?

 

You probably already know this, but Dell has brand new driver and firmware for Bluetooth 350 on their website, which might help if the BT is the source of the problem. My BT acted weird right out of the box, until I installed the update, but it never crashed like yours. The only crash on mine occured while loading a VPN client... completely unrelated to the BT issue. Good luck figuring it out.

 

Okay, another crash, this time two errors and two warnings.. the errors are on service control managers and say The ScRegSetValueExW call failed for Security with the following error:
Access is denied.

One warning is on BThusb and says
Windows cannot store Bluetooth link keys on the local transceiver because it cannot determine whether proper security is enabled for the device.

and one is the same as the last one... what can I do?

 

Is this the one you can download from the drivers page for E1505? If so, that's what I just ran, and it installed a firmware update. It is acting somewhat better, but seems prone to restart at any moment!

 

Another crash... this time I get an errror with this message:
The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer TOSHIBA that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on transport NetBT_Tcpip_{7027D45D-6EF2-4222-9. The master browser is stopping or an election is being forced.

One new warning says:
The browser was unable to retrieve a list of servers from the browser master \\TOSHIBA on the network \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{7027D45D-6EF2-4222-97F1-CB3ED611294F}. The data is the error code.

One says:
A request has been submitted to promote the computer to backup when it is already a master browser.

And two new warnings, along with all the others I've mentioned.

 

Forgot this one:
Printer Driver Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Driver for Windows NT x86 Version-3 was added or updated. Files:- mdigraph.dll, mdiui.dll, mdiui.dll.

 

I did some searching and found some info on similar activities from Windows, and I think I may have fixed the problem, I had to set the Computer Browser to manual after running services.msc. Do you guys know anything about this? I also added some more software from Dell's site. I've somewhat taxied what had been crashing the system, and it seems to be working fine... thankfully. Thanks for the info on looking up the error codes, I didn't know anything about that!

 

I think, from the research I found that what was basically happening was that bluetooth was acting like another computer on the network and was trying to be "master" of certain areas... Windows didn't like that, and it would restart. Last night I got it to crash while updating, but only got a Windows Update error. The BT error hasn't shown up again. I've had some seemingly related warnings, but a few days of use should show me how it really is acting.

 

A Google search turned up a few similar problems, and they were related to AVG and/or ZoneAlarm. You didn't happen to install ZoneAlarm or AVG, did you? If so, try removing one at a time and see if your problems stop.

 

Hmm, I have both! But I've used them for years without issue. It was grashing yesterday with nothing installed though, so that's why I'm really leary of BT. I think it may be stable now, but if not, that's something else to look into...thanks!

 

Update again...
Wife just called, she turned PC on, (turned off BT Mouse, but not BT) and clicked "Start", it restarted.

Then she opened Word 2003, clicked on New Document... it restarted

She's currently using it, but for how long, I don't know. She checked the error log for me and nothing was there... I'm at my wits end!!! Anyone have any ideas? Is Office 2003 not compatible with MCE? Do I need to return this laptop?

 

Have you run the full extended diagnostics from the utility partition ? That is the one that lasts about 2 hours.

 

yeah, I did that one night, but it didn't really tell me anything. Here's one more bit of info. After I finally got Windows running, it kept coming up with some new hardware called "Base system device" or something like that, but it couldn't find the driver for it... anybody knwo that that was, and how I could get it working? Also, it still crashes (when I say crash, I mean unexpectedly restart... it just shuts down, and pops back up, no windows is shutting down or anything, just blip, gone.), but there are no more warning or error messages she's telling me.

 

Did you ever install the notebook system software and chipset drivers?

 

Yeah, I installed the notebook system software last night (maybe I should do it again?) And I installed the chipset drivers from Intel, but not the other ones, I think tonight I'm going to reinstall the first two, and install the second chipset drivers. Maybe that'll handle it.

 

If you haven't read the sticky "Reformat and Reinstall XP on Dell Laptops", I highly recommend doing so.

 

I skimmed through, This isn't my first install, and I started with a crippled BIOS (at least I'm pretty sure that's why it wouldn't finish installing the first few times until I disabled bluetooth in the BIOS), but I'll check it out again. this is my first install on a notebook, so...

 

Okay, wish I had read that more thoroughly... so, if I don't install the notebook software, and chipset first, then could that be causing these issues? I installed the video driver first, and notebook last... man, maybe time to do yet another format / reinstall.

 

It's very important to install drivers in the correct order. Follow the guide, and hopefully you'll have a fully functional laptop again.

 

do i need to reformat, or can I "repair" windows

 

If you mean choosing the recovery console option during the install process, then the answer is no. That boots to a DOS prompt, which won't help you much. I don't know if the repair install would completely overwrite what you've done - I would do a quick format and a reinstall.

 

Quick Format it is! Much better than the two to three long ones I've waited through already!
Hopefully I'll be letting you know how it worked tonight!

 

Yes, it is very important for you to do a clean install if you didn't install the so called Dell Notebook system software at first. That is the first one you need to install because it fixes a lot of bugs....

Here is the Correct order:

Notebook System Software
Intel® Chipset
Video
Audio (sound)
Input Drivers (keyboard/mouse)
Modem
Network Card

 

I'll try that order DSCE. I installed it again yesterday Per SG's instructions, and al was well until late last night, this time when it crashed it actually gave me the optio to choose where I boot, but wouldn't let me into anything but safe mode, and nothing I did would let me into full windows. So, formatted again. I reinstalled overnight, and am finishing now... This is the first time I've almost trhown a $1300 (before taxes) piece of electronics through the door to claim my accident protection.

I can see it now...
Dell: What happened sir?
Me: Well, I was on the 5th floor of the power plant, near the window, surfing and enjoying a beautiful day when a pigeon came through the open window, scared me, and I accidentally dropped it out the window. I can send you what's left, but it won't pack nicely in the box anymore.

 

I'm really starting to suspect Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003. The only warnings I had upon restart were from "print", other than "Safe Mode" not allowing things to start.

This all started after that install, so I'm highly suspect. It also started while ripping a DVD with Fair Use Wizard, but there have been no errors attributed to that. Someone suggested ZoneAlarm and AVGAntivirus (both of which I use) so I'm now leary of them.