Crash Dump-Dell

I have a Dell PC (bad choice!) It died after 2 months, was repaired under warranty (needed new motherboard) and now 6 months later I have similar problems. The system won't boot in normal mode, but will in safe with networking. Unfortunately I bought the system through Best Buy and while still under warranty both BB and Dell have demonstrated a level of astounding incompetence. This computer is my livelihood and I fear sending it off to dell only to have a complete crash again in 6 mos. It seems unlikely they replaced anything last time since the same problem is repeating itself. Is there a way to diagnose the problem without dell so that when it is returned from them I can check to see if they fixed the real issue? Or can I bypass dell all together and fix it myself?

I have attached 2 minidump files, one from first thing in the morning and one from the evening. Your help as ALWAYS is overwhelmingly appreciated.

Beth

System specs:
Win. vista
System Model Inspiron 531s
System Type X86-based PC
Processor AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+, 2310 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. 1.0.8, 11/19/2007
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB
Total Virtual Memory 6.07 GB


Oh one last blast at dell, call them.. call India, can't understand them? Well this wonderful company will give you a person with a strong command of the English language but first you must pay for premium customer service!!! Are they kidding me? Can someone please tell me of a more user friendly and dependable computer company?

 

The easiest thing you can start with is a malware check. You can do it in safe mode w/networking: just go to bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html with internet explorer and start the scan.

If you find anything serious, here is the Majorgeeks malware removal guide:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407
and you would probably want to re-post in the malware removal thread. That is...if you find anything with the bitdefender scan.

 

Thank you for responding Senlis. I did as you suggested but nothing showed up. I'm not surprised though as I tend to keep my computer clean and do regular scans. Is there a way to confirm whether it is the hard disk and/or motherboard as I was told the first time? Any other suggestions are most appreciated.

Beth

 

The easiest way to find out if it is a hard drive or motherboard problem is to wipe/reload windows on the computer. When you delete the existing partition and create a new one (in windows setup), it will eventually ask you to format it. Don't select quick format, since the long format is more likely to find the problem if there is one. If it is a motherboard problem, then your existing problem would persist when the wipe/reload of windows is complete.

Another option is to connect the hard drive to another computer as a secondary drive. Boot that other computer off of it's original drive. When windows loads, install seatools and then use it's long generic test on the potentially malfunctioning drive.

I would say that since you can boot into safe mode, it is probably not a hard drive or motherboard issue. If it were a motherboard or hard drive issue, your computer would probably be malfunctioning in safe mode also. There are a few things you can do that may narrow down the possible problems.

run Passmark's burn-in test. This will test all of your hardware (except hard drive).

run a chkdsk in a command prompt. This will scan your system partition for any filesystem errors and correct them. command: "chkdsk c: /r" (do not enter quotes)

system restore. This will restore your system to an earlier point in time, if the system has restore points.

startup repair. Usually doesn't work, but worth a try.

I can speculate on whichever one you want to try. The last three options can be found by pressing F8 when the computer is booting and selecting the top option: repair your computer (or something like that)

 

Good Morning and thanks again for your help. I ran BurnIn Test and was treated to a large flashing window yelling FAIL, when it was done. I have attached the log file. Seems it has more to do with the video cards? I'm also going to run a chkdsk momentarily and will post results.

Beth

 

It looks like your 2d graphics and your sound failed the burn-in test. I assume you ran this in safe mode, which is probably why those particular tests did not pass. I have never ran
burn-in test in safe mode before, but I assume that is why those two tests failed.

However, your processor and RAM passed and did not overheat. That is good news. Lets see what the chkdsk does.

 

I ran chkdsk and I got the message: chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked next time the system restarts? I restarted it and the computer froze while it was scrolling through the files in dos so I restarted again after waiting about an hour. This time it started in normal mode, but when I try to run chkdsk I get the same error. What is in /r? and what do these errors tell me?

Thanks for sticking with me through this.

Beth

 

Good Morning,

Since my last post I ran chkdsk overnight and the system rebooted itself properly. I opened the event viewer to look for errors in the the log but unfortunately I don't know what most of it means rolleyes

I've attached a log of errors for this month and am hoping your technical prowess enables you to decipher it.

So far today the system seems to be working, but my concern of course is the stability and DEPENDABILITY of the computer. I have no faith ...

Thanks as always, Beth

 

Sorry about the delayed reply. I am working on a program for my father and it is consuming a lot of my time.

the /r in chkdsk /r tells checkdisk to start in repair mode.

I am concerned that you said it "was scrolling files". It usually doesn't show any file-names unless it found something wrong with that file. I have seen computers that seem to "scroll files" and that usually means there was a heck-of-alot of errors. Also, it should not have taken so long to complete. Should have only takes a couple of hours at most.

What I would be concerned about is imminent hard drive failure. What I would do (If I had limited equipment for testing) is to find a second computer and install seatools: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

After you have installed seatools, start the computer with the drive in question as a secondary drive. In other words, take the hard drive out of the Dell and connect it to the computer with seatools. If they IDE, you may have to change jumpers so the Dell hard drive is a slave and the hard drive with seatools is the master. If they are SATA, you have to go into the BIOS and change the hard drive boot order. If one is SATA and one is IDE, the IDE will boot first. You may be ably to change that in BIOS.

Regardless, after you boot the hard drive with seatools, you should be able to open seatools and see your Dell hard drive in a list (probably the only hard drive in the list). Select it and run the long generic test. I would trust whatever results seatools comes up with (program is made by seagate after all).

Feel free to ask any other questions. I tend to respond faster on the workdays.

 

Hello again. Thanks for getting back to me. I'm a bit lost when it comes to removing hard drives etc. The computer is still under warranty and I wouldn't want to compromise that.

I have been using it for a few days now and haven't had any crashes, however as you point out my concern is for an any moment hard drive crash. I have managed to back everything up to an external drive (idrive) and I have another system I am using for work right now. I hate the idea of running this thing back to best buy for service from dell because it took them months last time to get it back to me.

The other system I have belongs to my employer and I can't use theirs to install and fiddle with mine. Is there a way to run seatools on this system? What are the risks and would I be compromising my warranty?

Thanks again, Beth

 

With my experience with seatools, it tells me you cannot run diagnostics on the hard drive you are running your OS on.

Check your bios setup. There may be a hard drive diagnostic test there.

 

I would recommend using Ultimate Boot CD to run some hard drive tests. It can be downloaded and used for free.

Just do a google search for it and burn it to a CD using an .ISO burner. Then reboot from CD and use a hard drive test to check your drive.

 

you can use seatools from a boot CD or floppy-
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=201271

 

I've downloaded seatools for windows. Should I be using the DOS version? I read the tutorial and it says it can be run directly from the drive it's on. This is contrary to what you're advising. I'm going to run it tonight because it says it can take up to 4 hours, any thoughts before I do it? Have you ever run it on the same computer it's installed on?

Thanks, Beth

 

Actually the tutorial doesn't give contrary advice. The version that will run from within Windows is for checking external hard drives. It wasn't asked anywhere in this thread, but do you have a CD/DVD burner in your computer? If so, then download the ISO version of SeaTools and burn the file to a CD. This is a good application for doing so and is freeware, http://www.majorgeeks.com/ImgBurn_d4870.html. Please note that it must be burned, with an application that supports ISO files, to a CD before it will work properly. Just copying the file to a CD will not work! Hope this helps!

 

Forgot to add that you will probably have to go into your BIOS and change the boot order to boot from CD first, as most recent Dell's have this as second or third option from the factory.

 

Thanks for replying. I have Roxio so I can burn an image, but forgive my igornance, I just can't seem to find the ISO download on their site. Do you have a link? Also, again my ignorance is rearing it's ugly head, but how do I change the bios and then afterward how do i change it back?:confused

Messing with the bios is unnerving me ...

 

No need to worry about inexperience, as everyone has been there at times. This is the link to the SeaTools for DOS, any you will need to enter an email address before you can download it. http://download.seagate.com/seatools/registration.nsf/eula/desktop. The ISO file is on the right hand side of the screen.

As for BIOS, there should be an option on your boot screen, usually at the bottom on Dell, to press a certain key to enter set up. Once in there, go to the boot order menu and change it to boot from CD first. Hope this helps!

 

I found out that you can scan the hard drive Windows is running on with Seatools for Windows....sometimes. Not sure if it is the operating system influencing it or hardware architecture. You might download it and give it a try; It worked that way on my Vista tech machine.