X31 BSOD many times with different errors

[madmaven]

HI,
I have a X31 type 2672RHU running XP and it blue screens quite often. Messages have been IRQ not less or equal 0x00000007E one time. Caused by a Device or Driver. then Page fault in a non page area 1time 0x00000008E then caused by device or driver. once portcls.sys once all zeros.
First I changed the memoryused some old 256 pc2700 and that seemed to slowthe appearance of the BSOD down but it still blue screened so next I had the original hard drive with the original installed OS on it( I upgraded to another HD 21/2 months ago.) so I put that in and it ran good all evening and the next morning it blue screened within 5 min of booting. Put the updated hard drive back in and I checked the display driver and updated that b/c once microsoft said possible display device or driver when I reported the error. only one time though.
I also updated the audio driver but it keeps blue screening. I ran PC doctor and all the tests passed. no problems reported. Yesterday it bluescreened 2x back to back. I have had the problem in and out of the dock so ruled taht out. have removed the battery also, also installed speed fan and watched the temps . Seems to be independent of temp although it does run hot 45C with a load. Put a cooling pad underneath and it still BSOD. Scanned with malwarebytes and Panda no infections, and still get BSOD. also did system restore back to Feb when it was running well and still BSOD>.
Yesterday after the double crash, it would not boot at all. when you turn it on the power light came on and caplock and num lock briefly, no HD activity and then just the power light. this happened 5 or 6 times so I quit until this morning and replaced the replacement 2x256 chips with one original 512 chip and it booted. it is running now, played a little gam and got the temp to 42 been on about an hour and no blue screen yet but Iknow it will happen again and just wondering how I can isolate this problem?? It is driving me crazy thanks for any advice.

[jronald]

If you have a wedge load up the Linux CD of your choice. That will eliminate the Microslought issue and just leave you with hardware. It wont BSOD anymore but if it crashes theres a sign. On mine I swapped the HDD and the memory at the same time, and it went away.

Ron

[NIC Burns]

Do you have any minidump files we can look at? C:\Windows\Minidump\*.dmp That can help us narrow the issue down.

[sjthinkpader]

Run MEMTEST86 and PC Doctor to see if there are any hardware failures. Reapply heatsink paste on the CPU.

[madmaven]

Wes running real well, the temps seem high now. I have monitored them and the last crash I restarted and the APCI temp was 62C. this is on a cooling pad. That is pretty darn hot right?
I will need to find and downlaod Linux a bit embarassed to say I have never used it.. also ran PC dr. will try memtest and hunt up the dup files and get them posted. Will work on those suggestions and let you know
thanks
MM

[jronald]

There are tons of Linux Distros out there. uBuntu works well on this vintage Pad. It takes awhile for it to load from CD, but thats not a bad thing in this case, as you are stressing the laptop (somewhat) as it loads. I have not been able to load 10.04 yet but 9.10 will tell us what we need to know.

Ron

[caerbannog]

HI,
I have a X31 type 2672RHU running XP and it blue screens quite often. Messages have been IRQ not less or equal 0x00000007E one time. Caused by a Device or Driver. then Page fault in a non page area 1time 0x00000008E then caused by device or driver. once portcls.sys once all zeros.
<snip>
It is driving me crazy thanks for any advice.

I've been getting the same things happening with my X31. At first, like you, I thought it was memory so bought brand new RAM; then I wondered if it was Win7, so reinstalled XP; then I tried a brand new hard drive. In the end in desparation I bought a partly dismantled base with a (claimed) working motherboard off eBay. This exhibited the same problems (only worse).

So my deductions are that it may be motherboard-related, and my hunch is that it's a similar thing to the well-documented HP graphics chip issue, whereby the NVidia chip is so poorly cooled it overheats and breaks its solder joints. I've repaired these machines in the past with a hot air gun and some tinfoil to heat shield, so I will have a go at the scrap motherboard to see if this works.

Of course it's only my techician's instincts, and I could be utterly wrong. But it's gotta be worth a try isn't it?

Daniel

[madmaven]

Hi, I was probably watching that MOBO base on ebay. sigh. I had a toshiba tecra s1 which had video overheating problems and sent it out to reflow the video. no luck. it could be a graphics problem the memtest reports no errors as the Pc doctor. sure it has no errors until it does. I did not disassemble it it is under the bench for now someday when I am old and have free time, I will take all these damaged laptops and either fix em or toss em. I say I'll sell em on ebay as is for parts but lets face it I am just not motivated. I'll let you know if I ever fix it.