Blue Screen of Death & Freezing

My Alienware M15x laptop has had some problems for the last week now.

When I play world of warcraft if freezes about once every hour, sometimes the sound continues, other times it rips for a bit then continues.
If I have the game in windows maximized mode, the image will freeze for about 10 seconds then recover as normal. If it's in normal windowed mode or full screen mode the screen will go black then show the desktop with the game minamised with no way to bring it back. I have to Ctr+Alt+delete to shut it down and start it up again.

Today I was watching videos on youtube and the whole computer screen froze but the sound continued as normal, then recovered after 5-10 seconds.
The second time it froze about 10 mins later I got a blue screen of death.. Saying something to do with a memory dump.

When I booted the computer up again I got this error report along with the "check for solutions" button:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA8003CE6010
BCP2: FFFFF880048DF490
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000002
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\081710-30045-01.dmp
C:\Users\BenStyles\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-50715-0.sysdata.xml

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The problem appears to have started when I started using my external monitor, an Asus VH242.
I've tried setting it to both "duplicate these displays" and "extend these displays"
When the freezes happen, they also happen on my M15x's monitor.

Will try playing with just my laptop tomorrow without the external screen though really would like the problem fixed rather than not using my new monitor.

The laptop feels kind of hot, I did a temp test while it was playing World of Warcraft saying an average of 60 degrees which seems fine and i doubt it would overheat just from running youtube videos.

The dell site can be a bit confusing for drivers though I don't think I've installed the wrong drivers as normally the software warns me. But I doubt I have all the drivers possible for the laptop, I normally give up. Seems to run fine not counting the blue screen and freezing..

I hope thats enough info to direct any1 with suitable knowledge the the cause of the problem. Any questions feel free to ask.

Thanks.

 

I used to have problems with my M15x as well. Similar to the ones you have. I then upgraded to the lastest NVIDIA drivers from NVIDIA.com. This seems to have got rid of my problems. You could give it a try. 258.96 is the latest one and thats the one I am using right now.

 

I tried the latest nvidia drivers but the problem still persists, although I think that the freezing doesn't happen as often now, (twice in about 6 hours) and theres no more audio tearing, but it still freezes for about 3-4 seconds.

 

not sure if the above is the windows dump log. try Who Crashed which might give us a better idea of the problem.
run it now but also after each bsod as well and post the logs here.

 

I was playing wow today, alt+tabed out to youtube, then got a black screen and 1 second of no sound, then the computer recovered again, for a second the video was green and the rest of the website gray then back to normal. I got a error message at the bottom right saying something about the nvidia kernel. that basicly the graphic card crash and had recovered.

 

will try the software out later tnight

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.


On Tue 17/08/2010 23:20:49 your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA8003CE6010, 0xFFFFF880048DF490, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\081710-30045-01.dmp
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
product: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 258.96
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 258.96



On Fri 06/08/2010 07:47:16 your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe
Bugcheck code: 0x1000009F (0x4, 0x258, 0xFFFFFA8003B68040, 0xFFFFF8000411A510)
Error: Unknown
Dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\080610-42494-01.dmp
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect, possibly the culprit is in another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. Note that it's not always possible to state with certainty whether a reported driver is really responsible for crashing your system or that the root cause is in another module. Nonetheless it's suggested you look for updates for the products that these drivers belong to and regularly visit Windows update or enable automatic updates for Windows. In case a piece of malfunctioning hardware is causing trouble, a search with Google on the bug check errors together with the model name and brand of your computer may help you investigate this further.


I gave a rather general answer of Drivers i guess..
Although still not sure which driver is wrong and which drivers I need to download for my M15x...

 

dont know about the second one but the first one is the nvidia driver 258.96 you have loaded.
are you running vista or windows 7

might be worth trying another graphics driver from HERE

 

How do you mean another driver? I'm using the current driver specifically for the GTX260m so i doubt trying a driver for other graphics cards would help,
And i'm running windows 7

 

no i mean back track to use an earlier driver.
ive found the best one by far was 186.81 released last august.

try it and if you dont have any crashes then you know its the driver.
then move up to the next whql driver which is 195.62 and keep going until the driver starts crashing.

hopefully nvidia will release another one soon. then you can try that.

im running the older 9800GT and had not one problem with 186.81
updated to 197.16 and it bsod every other day.
then tried 257.21 and it blue screened once so i tried the latest 258..96 and havnt had a problem so far. its pure trial and error.
hope that helps.
if youve not changed graphics drivers before just holler and ill post a walk through.

 

186.81 doesn't work with windows 7 64 bit apparently and 195.62 doesn't appear to be compatible with the notebook version.
Also i'm not sure how to navigate the Nvidia website to find older drivers

 

nvm about the last bit, I've found the driver archive now

 

What do you mean there are no 186.81 driver for windows 7 64 bit. Here is the link NVIDIA DRIVERS 186.81 WHQL.

 

beaten too it. cheers cloudbyday

 

I think the problem has been fixed =)
3 hours of gaming and no freezing tnight. Hope that will be the end of it.
Thanks very much for you're help =D

 

Erm had another freeze again, froze for a split second twice then completly froze, this time just the game crashed and not the computer, gna try other drivers, do i have to completly uninstall the latest drivers before installin old ones?

 

Here's a step by step guide on the best way of updating the drivers:

Download driver cleaner HERE
this is a great program which will delete all traces of drivers as sometimes when you uninstall them they leave behind files which can cause issues when you come to install new drivers. We’ll use this in a minute

Download the latest drivers for your operating system 32/64bit

Extract/ copy the files to a temporary directory such as c:\temp


Go to the control panel > program and features > scroll down the list and find NVIDIA > then select NVIDIA and click uninstall. It will ask if you want to restart the system.. click yes

Press F8 on startup and go into windows in safe mode.

Run driver cleaner and select NVIDIA drivers.. then clean.

Go to the control panel > system> device manager > graphics card. Right click on any present and click uninstall

Restart the system and go into windows normally. Install the NVIDIA drivers listed above which you put into a temporary folder

Restart the system.. and fingers crossed all should be well!

 

I tryied to uninstall the nvidia drivers, but at the stage where I restart the computer, (not sure safe mode worked, though was spamming F8) It said at the bottom right of the screen that the drivers for the Nvidia gtx260m were being installed automatically. Should I and how should I stop this from happening when trying to manually install a clean version of the nvidia drivers?

 

Hi

I seem to have the same problem too with my m15x. My specs seem to be exactly the same as mevlar's and the crash dump analysis report is as follows:

Code:

On Sun 1/30/2011 5:06:15 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\013011-24492-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys (nvlddmkm+0x75A028) 
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA8007354380, 0xFFFFF8800A575028, 0xFFFFFFFFC000009A, 0x4)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
product: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 260.99 
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 260.99 
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed. 
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 260.99 , NVIDIA Corporation). 
Google query: nvlddmkm.sys NVIDIA Corporation VIDEO_TDR_ERROR




On Sun 1/30/2011 5:06:15 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: dxgkrnl.sys (dxgkrnl!TdrResetFromTimeout+0x214) 
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA8007354380, 0xFFFFF8800A575028, 0xFFFFFFFFC000009A, 0x4)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: DirectX Graphics Kernel
Bug check description: This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed. 
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time. 

Did replacing the old drivers work? I'm going to try that now and will report back.

 

its trial and error. what works for one person wont work for someone else with the same computer.
if the latest drivers bsod then the only option i would use is back track to a previous driver.
there are lots of people that use modified inf drivers from laptop video to go but if your not sure what your doing then its best to stick to the official ones.

 

I uninstalled the Nvidia driver using your previous post:

Here's a step by step guide on the best way of updating the drivers:

and installed the v186.81 drivers. System's working well now..no weird clicking noise coming from the laptop nor are there any freezes on BSODs. Will keep you guys posted if anything happens.

Edit: Its been 12+ hours...System running smoother and cooler than b4...GPU temperature seems to be lower as well..Thanks a lot for this!

 

glad it sorted it for now.
as ive said all along, the 186.81 has been the only driver which i never had one problem with.