Blue-screening

[Sydney]

Hi, I feel quite embarrassed even posting, simply cause I hardly know where to start.
Basically, my T61 keeps blue-screening. The message I get is "page fault in unpaged area". It typically happens when using Firefox and having a lot of tabs open for a long-ish time. Randomly, the blue-screen will pop up, the computer will re-start and then work just fine. Which is why I am not overly worried, but it is annoying as I have lost data in the past (e.g. working on a document at the time and not having saved it).
I bought my T61 in Oct 08 with XP Pro and SP2 installed, upgraded to SP3 right-away. As far as I remember, the blue-screening commenced around 5-6 months ago and I do not recall more events than maybe one/month (but I might only remember the really annoying ones). The first incident was not related to any installation of any new programs. Neither were the subsequent ones. Of course I kept running all possible anti-spyware/malware/virus etc programs but nothing was ever found.
Finally, I asked for help in a general computer support forum and was told that this was likely a driver problem as some drivers are from 2001 ?? And that I should update my drivers.
Sure enough, I had not updated any drivers in the past, but since I bought the computer not even 1.5 yrs ago, I would have thought that the drivers were reasonably up-to-date when I got it ??
In any case, I simply do not know what to do now. I have never done anything of this sort and am worried +++ to do something to my system that will stuff it up.
I went to the lenovo-website and there are lots of drivers, but I don't even know where to start, let alone how to go about it. I have no idea which ones of my drivers are how old, where I can look this up and which ones I should start with/which ones are the most likely causing my blue-screening.
Accordingly, I have no idea what other information to post here in order to get some advise or at least an idea of what to do next ??????
Hence any help would be greatly+++++ appreciated.
Thanks so much
Sydney (computer-rookie)

[Harryc]

As far as drivers go, if you install (and run) System Update 3.14 it will pull down the latest ones for you.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... PDATE.html

[Sydney]

Great ! That's just what I needed ! Thanks so much. I have run the Bios and Rescue&Recovery updates for now and want to see if that solves the problem. If not, I'll go ahead and update the other drivers as well..... Thanks again. Syd.

[Raiden1969]

Hallo,

As far i can see, it is perhaps not a driver problem if you have not updated since your purchase. I mean, if the factory installed drivers are present, with only the Windows XP updated to SP3, it does not seem to me that it is a result of some driver conflict. Perhaps, you could disable the automatic restarting of windows @ BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) arrival (My Computer --RC-> Properties --> Advanced --> Startup & Recovery --> Settings). RC --> right click using mouse.
a) Uncheck automatic restart
b) Enable small memory dump
Then restart and continue working. If you get the BSOD again, the system should not restart, but it will stare at you after the physical dump is complete. You could note down the hexadecimal addresses, along with the description of the fault on a notebook/piece of paper. Next, power off the machine manually, and start it once again. Use Google with the hexadecimal string and/or the fault descriptor as the search key and look around for answers. This is perhaps one way of learning things, if you can spare the time!
To have a detailed look, you may have to install the debugging tools from official Microsoft site ( it might check for Windows XP authenticity) and then use Dr.Watson to read the memory dump file.

Code: Select all

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/Debugging/default.mspx

Please note that usually, after the system restarts (or you restart manually) post a BSOD, a text box may show you where the dump files are located. ("Windows has recovered from a serious error" : this message might pop up). You must not close this dialog box, but navigate to the file locations (dump file as shown in the text box) and immediately copy it to another drive or USB stick. Else, if you acknowledge the fact that "Windows has indeed recovered...", then Windows will immediately purge the dumped files. This would render the effect of enabling the memory dump (step b) useless.
This set of files (*.dmp) and the (*.txt) file may be investigated. Please report your findings, in case your problem is not solved.

I had this BSOD from Day 1 on my T61. The problem was: I don't have an integrated WebCam, but the system came installed with its software. Every now and then, I used to get BSOD. And the Sonic software did some stupid conflict with my CD-DVD drive. This also added to my woes. Finally, I did a clean install of Windows XP SP2, and I never had a BSOD till date. All my drivers are up-to-date; however, I ask you to exercise some caution with graphics drivers. In 2008, my graphics driver was conflicting with McAfee Virus Scan, and used to freeze my system after booting!

I am sorry that I have written a long story; just wanted to share my two cents!

Please do report back!

Raiden
P.S: Most of the latest drivers require you to possess the latest BIOS version. Please be careful; if you have not performed a BIOS update before, I would not recommend you to do it lest you may render you system non-bootable. ( I am very careful though!). It is safest to write the BIOS image file onto a CD, and then boot from that CD --> then flash the BIOS. Ensure that the battery is 100% charged and you are plugged into power supply!!