New laptop BSOD error

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by noelg24, Aug 11, 2005.

  1. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    ok a friend of mine went and bought a laptop from PC World (yeah I know I had a go at her too!!) anyway its an Advent 7077 P4 3.4GHz machine with 512DDR shared RAM (with the graphics of upto 64MB) 80GB HDD and DVD RW and the usual whistle and bells...now the problem is 2 days after she had it she says it was crashing on her. I now have it with me and have experienced the same problem. the big problem is it only displays the error for at least 2 seconds then the system reboots...even if I hit the pause key it dont make a difference. the funny thing is the error looks similar to one my ex-fianceés mum had after I built her PC a year ago. so I am guessing its a hardware problem, cos I have done system restore to when she bought the machine and the problem still occurs. anyway my question to you guys is how do I reinstall the whole OS on the system? its an 80GB HDD as I said before but 10GB of that is hidden...so I want to know how do I get into that 10GB and restore the machine to how it was when she bought it. I warned her not buy one but she went ahead anyway...your help is greatly appreciated people...thank you...
     
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  2. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Don't do a darn thing to it. If she's had it for only a few days, she should take it back and demand (nicely, of course) that they either fix it or replace it (after all, the warranty must *still* be good). I agree that it sounds like a hardware problem. I had a similar problem with my Dell laptop (though it was a good deal older than two days when it happened) and it turned out to be a motherboard issue. Dell replaced the motherboard and it was good as new (well not quite, but that's a long story and I fixed the rest of it myself).
     
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  3. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    ok. well I have undone the system restore, I will put some other stuff back on that was on there in the first place but wont reinstall the OS...I will go with her to PC World and make sure they dont pull a fast one...thanks Trip mate...
     
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  4. mojorisin

    mojorisin Kilobyte Poster

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    I had a friend that asked me to look at her pc after she had taken it back to pc world (think it was an Hewlett Packard) they come with a red floppy disk that you boot from to restore the OS which is stored on a section of the hard drive that is hidden

    Well she had problems with it and had an extended warranty so she had spoken to the technical dept when she had problems and they suggested hosing the OS (long story) which she did but it kept bombing out at different stages

    So to cut a long story short i tried and got the same results i said that the hard drive was goosed and told her to goto the shop and not except anything but a replacement hard drive (as they had already palmed her off with a replacement boot floppy)

    This they did after she mentioned that the drive was faulty and not the floppy disk !!!!


    always good to go armed somethimes to these places :biggrin

    After 2 days i would expect a brand new replacement !!
     
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  5. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    well thats exactly what I will be expecting too...for some reason my mind keeps going to the memory...not sure why...but I will be armed cos I know my friend will be told a lot of crap...at least I have done the system restore a few times and that dont fix it at all...so here's hoping...
     
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  6. Jakamoko
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    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    I think PC World is getting a bit of a bad wrap here, actually <pauses to appreciate gasps of disbelief from audience>

    I may be wrong here, and it's only my opinion as always, but while it's true their techs may have occasional holes in their knowledge base, I don't think it's fair to say they are deliberately out to pull fast ones and rip customers off.

    Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you're right, but something within me is trying to defend the techs against a bad wrap, and also says they genuinely do sell good products in good faith.

    Hope you get is sorted NoelG - (I'm sure your usual diplomacy will save the day) :)
     
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  7. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    well I aint blaming them entirely but I have had a few people come back to me with some real horror stories and I have been on the receiving end of a few in my time dealing with the PC World...but I hope it gets sorted...thanks man....
     
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  8. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    I bought my HP Lappy in PC World 4 1/2 years ago and I am still using it, in fact typing this post on it. So, they can't be all bad :biggrin

    You can stop PCs re-booting after a BSOD if you go to system properties > advanced > start up and recovery and untick automatically re-boot. That might give you a chance to read the stop error and be more specific.

    Otherwise I agree, it's too new to put up with this, so take it back.

    Pete
     
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  9. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    cheers for that bluerinse...really helped now here is the error message:

    DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

    then tells me about software or hardware that may not be proply installed the usual blah blah blah
    but its this message that intrigues me:

    STOP: 0x000000D1 (0xC0300804, 0x000000002, 0x00000000, 0xEE881BBC)

    vsdatant.sys Address EE881BBC base EE8611000, DateStamp 40d01b2a

    so there you have it thats the error message I am now going to do a safe mode start up and see what I can do there...be back to report later...

    UPDATE: I am unable to start up in safe mode. whether I choose Admin or my friends login it wont boot into safe mode. on both occasions it flashes up some message but before I could read it the system reboots again! This is really starting to tick me off now. Well guess PC World will feel my wrath and my friend will also get an earful from me for not listening to me in the first place...but she wasnt to know so I cant be too hard on her...
     
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  10. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Could be zone alarm or other firewall software causing this stop error. If zone alarm is installed get rid of it ;)

    Look here mate

    Pete
     
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  11. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    its funny u mention Zone Alarm cos I did install it, and each time I try to uninstall it it was showing that error...didnt really think it would have that effect...so I did a system restore and its now ok. but I am still not convinced that the problem is over cos after doing the restore, I opened up the search box and before I could type what I wanted to search it showed another error message similar to that of Zone alarm...so what do u think? Should I risk it and give it back to my friend and tell her to hang fire for now? Or do we go to PC World and find out why this is happening?
     
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  12. mojorisin

    mojorisin Kilobyte Poster

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    Dont get me wrong i wasn't slagging off PC World dont have a problem with them either way just mentioned thats where the pc came from it was more the fact that the tech tried at first to fob her off with a faulty boot floppy when it clearly wasnt (Hard Drive was also making funny noises) which was mentioned to them

    I was just saying that it is easier if you can go in and roughly state what is wrong with the pc rather than just accept there verdict when you know it to be the wrong one

    sorry for any offence to PC World who iam sure do a marvellous job :biggrin
     
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  13. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Take the damn thing back! Zone Alarm or not, it should not behave this way. Proceed with the original plan. The more you try to repair it, the greater the risk of you invalidating the warranty.
     
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  14. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    ok Trip...yes sir yes sir! will do that sir! *salute*
     
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  15. Phoenix
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    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    PC world does not employ techs Jak, it employs teenage sales folk armed with screwdrivers, and armed is the right word here the damage they cause!!

    so no need to 'defend' them :)
     
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  16. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    Phoenix I didnt wana say anything earlier for fear of getting ripped to pieces but I sooooo agree with you there....and here's why, 3 times I have applied to work for them and 3 times they have turned me down...now why would that be? cos muggins here is too 'over qualified' for them has so much technical expertise than all of them put together (well where I applied)...so I think they didnt want me to show them all up...shame really, they could have learnt a thing or two about how to really solve a computer problem...right said my piece now I can relax...ahhh
     
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  17. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Sorry. Didn't mean to come off so aggressive. I know that since we are all techs (in various stages of development), our natural tendency when we encounter a tech problem is to try and solve it.

    If it is our job to solve it, that's one thing, but in this case, it''s not. When my laptop went toes up, it was still under warranty. I did the troubleshooting I thought was necessary to see if I could do a quick fix but when it became apparent that the problem was serious, I was more than happy to let Dell fulfill their obligation to me (though I had to deal with several support people on the phone and jump through their hoops before convincing them that they should just let me ship the thing to their repair center).

    If it's your job but bust your buttons trying to troubleshoot and fix a sick machine, then you have the responsibility. However, if it belongs to someone else, don't hesitate to let them do their job. Think of it as your car making a funny banging noise under the hood. Unless you are an ace mechanic, you'll probably just take it into the garage and let somebody else diagnose and fix the thing...especially if the warranty will pay for it.

    Again, I apologize if I came on too strong. My bad. :oops:
     
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  18. Pete01

    Pete01 Kilobyte Poster

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    Haven't they got those service desks where you can take it in and they'll look at it. My mother insists on buying stuff from PC world, when we bought her new laptop from there I went with her just to make sure she didn't get sold loads of extra bells & whistles she didn't need and would never use. I found it quite interesting when the sales guy was convincing her that if she didn't get Norton internet security that was it she'd be completely vulnerable to outside attacks and viruses. I explained that she's got quite a decent firewall in her ADSL router (Linksys 54G), but no he wasn't having any of it.

    Apparently you can be behind the most serious hardware firewall available (not claiming the Linksys is but just repeating what he said) but if you don't have Norton internet security you're gonna get haxxored!! Ohh no!!!1111!!

    I appreciate that a lot of the techs and sales guys at PC world are just starting out and they deserve a chance but using these scare tactics to try and sell a product is what gives them their reputation. I asked him if he thought I should get norton for myself and he said 'oh yes you're completely wide open without it you should buy it now RIGHT NOW!' I lied and told him that I had a Cisco PIX firewall at home that my work were no longer using -he said that's not sufficient enough to protect me from the nasty beastly hackers and script kiddies and spyware and lions and tigers and bears oh my!

    Norton Internet security may well be a great piece of software but I didn't buy it for me or my mum just on principal of the sales tactics being used.

    Take the laptop in I'm sure some tech on the helpdesk will appreciate the experience :p
     
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  19. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    Trip mate no hard feelings man...haha. Pete I like your style...my friends laptop also has Norton Internet security, I took this off but put it back on as I am going with her to PC World to sort this out. I will also lie to them and make out I dont have any security software and see what they tell me...if they turn round and tell me yeah u need Norton I will basically say, bunch of liars...I have been learning about PCs for 7years and have built a number of PCs in the last 3 years and none of them I have had to install Norton and not one has had any security problems...well I wouldnt call them liars but I would tell them exactly what security software I have used and what ones have worked and what ones dont...including Norton...haha...it would be nice to see the look on their faces...isnt ignorance just pure bliss?
     
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  20. noelg24

    noelg24 Terabyte Poster

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    ok lateste update people...my friend ended up getting a replacement machine cos even after I did the restore the laptop was still crashing loads on her. she has now got a replacement machine and dropped it off this morning so I can do some quick checks to make sure it dont crash on me...or on her at all...so far she says its ok but is still kinda scared...bless her...anyway just thought I would let u all know...cheers :D
     
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