Bsod

I have gotten the BSOD
driver irql not less or equal
something like that a couple of times already.
I read on some places it could either be CPU overheating or faulty RAM?
The only problems I noticed before I got the BSOD were that my Wifi connection kept failing. I was playing Combat Arms online and my connection would get lost multiple times.
Edit: I was also converting a video in the background while gaming. Could this be a CPU overheating problem?
Anyone have any suggestions?
Update: Happened twice while gaming since my original post.

 

I have the same problem but never on gaming... While only surfing along. It comes suddenly without any stability issues. Shortly it comes out from nowhere I don't think mine is cpu overheating cause i have a BIG Zalman Cooler with full speed fans. Maybe a USB device i'm thinking of...

 

What OS?
It is happening sometimes for my laptop too , FX-7809, running Windows 7
Possible bad driver installed?

 

I am running windows 7 ultimate
Also my Wifi keeps dropping ever since I installed Windows 7.

 

Try a different video driver.
What wifi driver and utility are you using?

Don't wonder if a component is overheating, use software to make sure it isn't..
Most people use hwmonitor but there are tons of others out there as well.

 

Well I just installed Windows 7 so whatever wifi utility driver it came with, I'm using. Would you recommend any? These drops are getting really annoying, every couple of minutes. I never had this problem with Vista.

My CPU tops out at about 65 Celsius and my GPU at about 84 Celsius gaming. I used HWMonitor.
Edit: Right after posting this I got another BSOD arbitrarily.
Edit 2: twice.
Edit 3: I've noticed that my CPU starts to reach temps up to 58 just surfing the web. Then the fan kicks up on high I suppose. I don't recall the CPU doing this before
Edit 4: I get the error Program Windows not responding after another BSOD, I think I'm going switching back to Vista for a while to see if it this is a hardware problem or something else.

This is getting ridiculous I've had 15 BSOD today. -_- Vista here I come.

 

I've been using the 12.4.0.21 WIFI driver.

There's a newer one posted v12.4.3.9 http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=525X832&url=http://station-drivers.com/page/intel%20lan-wan.htm

See the sticky at the top (Definitive NVidia Driver Upgrade Guide) for a list of updated drivers (The thread title should really be changed because it's not JUST nvidia drivers).

ONLY use Windows Update for drivers as an absolute last resort. I have found SO many bad drivers through windows update I never use them and never recommend others using them. Find the correct drivers for the device and use those.

Those temps are slightly high, when is the last time you blew out your vents with compressed air? Our laptops need it every couple months especially if you use a cooler or have pets in the house.

You didn't mention anything about the video driver, if you downloaded that from Windows Update also and didn't try changing it you should defnitely do that before downgrading from Windows 7...

 

Well I reinstalled Vista but tommorow I will probably upgrade to Windows 7 again and try the WIFI driver.
As for the Video driver I didn't have any problems with it.
I haven't cleaned my laptop in about 6 months, I probably am going to soon, but I want to go to the store first and buy some IC Diamond 7 to put it on the CPU. Might as well since I'm going to open it up.
I read the guide to open up the laptop, but is there a simpler way of just taking off the back cover to clean out the GPU fan? if seems like overkill to take off the screen, keyboard, etc to reach it.

 

To clean out the fan you just need compressed air. I don't recommend using the spray cans, but if you have a compressed air line you can use it will work great just use it in short bursts and you'll blow all the dust and crud out and your temps will drop significantly if that's the problem. In about 4 months my temps climbed up close to 10°C and dropped back down instantly after blowing out the vents.

Are you using any other software that installs drivers? I know some antivirus programs conflicted with windows 7 betas, rc1, etc. due to the network driver used for the firewall, but I'm not sure if that's still the case now that Windows 7 has officially been released. The best thing to do would be to take things step by step, one at a time. Install 1 driver at a time, use the computer after installing the driver, and see if it blue screens. Use the absolute minimum you need to make it bluescreen to rule out that anything else is the problem. You may not think you had a problem with the video driver but it could just as easily be the problem..

Even if you have to do things 1 a day to be sure the changes aren't the cause, sometimes that's the kind of tedious troubleshooting needed to find the solution to the problem. Judging by your post yours seems to BSOD quickly, so I don't think 1 change a day would be necessary but you should understand what I mean.

 

Dude thanks for the advice. I guess I'll have to take out my air compressor, I usually use if to fill the tires on my car so I'll put it on low.
Hopefully with a clean install everything should be back to normal.
I'll try to watch all my driver installs more closely

 

Don't forget that it could be a driver that windows installs by default also, so the best way to start would be just using the computer after a 100% clean install without making any changes and seeing if you still get a BSOD. If it's been long enough and you feel you definitely would have recieved a couple by then, make 1 change.

BTW are you using a 78** series, or 68** series, or something else? The WIFI driver I posted was for the 78** series which has the Intel WIFI 5100. There's lots of people using many series successfully with Windows 7 so if there was a problem right away with a clean install I have a feeling it would have already been discussed and solved, so I'm guessing its something afterwards unless you're using a different series.

 

I'm using a Gateway p7085u
Actually I asked my brother if he noticed anything strange with my laptop lately.
He told me that he had unplugged the power chord or something while booting up.
That probably may have damaged windows files -_-
Well on Vista I haven't had any problems so far, hopefully tomorrow it stays that way when I install Windows 7, if I remember correctly I didn't really have any problems until recently, so I'm pretty sure it was something done afterwards the installation.

 

Unplugging the power cord while booting shouldn't damage windows files, but you also shouldn't do that since you want to be consistent especially when windows is booting and detecting devices. If the battery is dead and you unplug the cord and the power shuts off, that's a different story, and data loss in that scenario is an absolute risk.

 

Well now that I installed Vista I can't get my head phones to work.
If I plug in headphones or external speakers sound continues to come out of the laptop speakers. I tried the Conexant Audio driver from gateway's website but I get an error that it could not find the media device for this driver.

 

If sound is coming from the speakers the driver is installed. Use device manager to see what device drivers are/are not installed.

In Vista you need to go to the sound properties and change the default device to the headphones/external speakers when they are plugged in.

If the driver is throwing an error it's probably the wrong driver... make sure it's for your correct OS (Vista 32-bit or 64-bit) and of course make sure it's the correct device, since the same series of laptops often ship with some different manufacturer's components. Also be sure to right-click on the installer and choose run as administrator whenever installing something important that may require higher access for installation.

Use the sticky at the top of this Gateway forum for driver updates, they are also frequently updated when new drivers are released.

 

Ok so I went to my sound settings and made the headphone jack the default device.
If I plug my headphones in and open up say iTunes the music will play on the headphones.
If I unplug them, the music stops and won't play on the laptop speakers or if I plug the headphones back in.
Now if I close and then open iTunes and there are no headphones plugged in, the music plays on the speakers and if I plug headphones in it continues to play on the laptop speakers.
I guess its not that bad, Windows 7 didn't have this problem when I had it installed. Its only a minor inconvenience. At least I'm not getting epic amounts of BSOD anymore.