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    Inspiron 1520 BSOD's

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by AnthraX, Oct 8, 2008.

  1. AnthraX

    AnthraX Notebook Enthusiast

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    Over the past few months my laptop has been experiencing BSODs quite frequently. At first I attributed it to a possible bad XP install, then maybe I thought it was my laptop2go video drivers. Either way, I lived with it for a while because I did not use my laptop regularly enough at that time. Well, now I do use it regularly and regret not fixing it earlier.

    They can occur up to 4 times in an hour, sometimes right after a reboot from a crash. The following are the 2 stop codes I get:

    0x8e
    0x50

    I've read a little bit about defective nVidia graphics cards. Now, I know my card, 8600m, is effected by this but what does this mean? Is this what is causing my BSODs? 0x50 is attributed usually with faulty memory, but can this include the graphics memory? I've also noticed Dell has posted a "fix" for the graphics defect as a BIOS update. Will this help me if my graphics card is already affected? Should I just update anyway?

    Basically what I'm asking for is advice. I don't have a lot of time to research myself, what with school and a job. I have a 3-year warranty with Dell. Should I call them up and get them to fix it? How long would that take?
     
    AnthraX, Oct 8, 2008
    #1
  2. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Is there a Minidump Folder in the Windows Directory ?
     
    Andy, Oct 8, 2008
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  3. millermagic

    millermagic Rockin the pinktop

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    The 8600m in the 1520 shouldn't be affected.

    I can't answer what your issue is, but I've had drivers crash and cause a bluescreen on NV4Disp.dll ... I thought it may have been a bad card, but after changing drivers I had the problem. This might help is your bluescreen is nvidia related.
     
    millermagic, Oct 8, 2008
    #3
  4. AnthraX

    AnthraX Notebook Enthusiast

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    Andy - Yes. There is one .dmp file in there. Looked up some info online, about to analyze it.

    millermagic - The 1520 isn't affected? Really? I thought the defect was in all of them?


    I didn't mention in my earlier post that I just reinstalled XP.

    I'm going to run a memory test to see if it's one of the RAM modules.
     
    AnthraX, Oct 8, 2008
    #4
  5. Elmolivez

    Elmolivez Notebook Enthusiast

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    I ran into the same issue on mine using the laptopvideo2go drivers. Once I went back to the Dell drivers everything was good. I run XP and Ubuntu.
     
    Elmolivez, Oct 9, 2008
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  6. AnthraX

    AnthraX Notebook Enthusiast

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    Figured out the problem! One of my RAM modules was bad. Took the bad one out, I'll do fine with 1gb for now.

    Do you think Dell will replace just the RAM, or will I have to send in the entire laptop?
     
    AnthraX, Oct 9, 2008
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  7. epguy3

    epguy3 Notebook Evangelist

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    send the entire Dell laptop for repair, unless of course, you have the technical skills to remove and insert laptop memory chips.
     
    epguy3, Oct 30, 2008
    #7