Blue Screen of Death in Vista

I am using a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 9100. It gets blue screens of deaths constantly. I have no idea why. Today, it has blue screened at least 3 times. I do not want to upgrade anything in it because I want a new laptop soon. I can't find any good free programs for looking for problems on Vista systems. Should I go back to XP (don't want to). Fans are always on, and loud. Please help.

Specs are:
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
512mb of ram (2x256mb)
2.8GHz Pentium 4
40gb Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium (OEM copy)

Use I8kfan GUI to try and control temperatures and see load on ram. The blue screen has nothing written on it.

 

Try this...

In the start bar, where there is a search option, type "Rel" and the Reliability and Performance Monitor should pop up. From there, you should be able to get more information about those system crashes.

 

Since 6/3, Windows has failed 6 times.

Here is data for one day:

 

I would say your specs barely meet the requirements for Vista. Yeah, you meet the minimum specs, but thats not going to get you much of anywhere with a new and somewhat unstable OS. Stick with XP. This is the precise reason I did not upgrade my old system (with similar specks) to Vista.

Would you rather run an OS that your computer is exceptionally capable of (XP) or put strain on every component just to be up-to-date (Vista)?

My verbiage may be inaccurate but the overall message is intact.

 

512MB of ram is kinda cutting it with Vista. You need more like a gig or heck 2 to be really safe.

Mike.

 

The root of the problem, besides having only is 512mb of ram, is 0x829e7120. Anybody know what that is?

 

i recommend that u "stock" ur vista installation, meaning:
. keep it simple (rem any startprocesses/services that r not vista related; u can add them back later on)
. do not use any firewalls besides vista, do use a virus scanner (i use avast on mine)
. video working app can cause vista to bsod, make sure that they r "vista compliant/compatible" - there is a sticky in the forum that u can safely refer to.
. gpu driver uptodate? or r u still using vista stock on this?
. & yes, 1gigo ram would definitively do wonder for vista

cheers ...

 

Windows is saying a device driver is causing the BSOD's. Is there an easy way to test drivers for the problem?

As I was updating Avast Free antivirus, the computer blue screened. So now I uninstalled it and am installing AVG free. Could Avast have been causing the trouble? I had it before and it never did anything.

 

The BSOD that you got in the picture you posted:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/En-US/library/aa469194.aspx
Basically if you are overclocking, don't
Test your RAM
Update BIOS
Maybe try disabling dual core.

 

I had a lot of issues with USB connected hardware, and I traced it back to Vista and its various issues. Does it BSOD if you have nothing connected to the laptop except for the AC adapter?

 

Since you are getting a new notebook soon, get it with Vista preinstalled. The specs on your old Dell will not go well with Vista. There was an article from microsoft stating that the computers that were manufactured the last 3 years will run Vista Core experience, but your Dell is 4 years old.

 

95% of BSODs are caused by driver failures. Check your Event Viewer for details.

Matt

 

As of what others have said, I agree, why put in a new OS if it's pushing the limits of your hardware. Stick with the XP, and wait for your new computer to come in, then upgrade, or if it's pre-loaded with vista

 

You can always try disabling a lot of unnecessary services(processes) via msconfig. Works great with both Vista & XP.

 

Why not clean install XP. After 4 years you probably have a lot of junk programs and probably conficting with each other. It's recommended to clean install once a year to keep everything running well. Save your data files and what nots before you do a clean install.

 

BSOD's are caused by video drivers a lot of times. Seeing as you have an ATI card, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the issue.

You can always try going back to XP. If you don't have an XP install disc, you could try Linux, but it will have issues with graphics drivers as well. ATI isn't great with drivers for Linux either.

The link posted earlier seemed to indicate that you are having a processor failure. This could be an issue. I think the motherboard on my old Dell (also a Pentium 4) is going out as well. It may be about time to get a new computer. Even XP and Linux run slowly on that old Dell of mine because I've been having a lot of processor issues.

 

So far I've had no more blue screens since disabling the PCI modem, which never worked anyway in Vista.

Edit: Had a blue screen. Don't care. Thanks for the help. Hopefully will get new computer soon.

 

Yep, i also had no more blue screens in Vista after updating the Intel Wireless card driver. netv3w64.sys from the stock Vista caused the crash, so after updating the drivers and with a new copy of netw3v64.sys, it works like a charm now.

Never expected the wireless driver to be the cause (always thought the hardware would be the problem )

 

what version of vista is it that you have. if its not basic theres your problem you meet basic requirments not the premium versions hopes this helps if it happens again

 

I have Home Premium. I clean installed (for the 3rd time) and now everything is good. No more blue screens! Windows Experience Score has gone from 3.1 to 2.9 to 3.0.

Now only problem is that SimCity 4 won't install. Worked when I had XP.