Laptop starts with a blue screen of death error (BSOD)
I have bought Toshiba Satellite a100-528. After a few weeks of using the laptop problems started. Blue screen appears (not windows-like blue screen), and is says that computer got to be shut down to avoid serious damage, and that problem may be caused by some lately installed hardware. After shutdown and another boot window shows message that system recovered after serious problem, it also says that graphic card (ati radeon xpress 200m) may be the reason of malfunction. I’ve been trying to install “normal” windows without installing video card drivers, and then installed drivers (only one that I found was on Toshiba website) – nothing helped… Currently I’m using software “Toshiba recovery tool” and still experience this problem.
From your description I understand that you purchased this laptop recently and the laptop might be still under the manufacturer warranty. If it is still under warranty, take it or ship it to Toshiba authorized repair center and let them fix the problem.
I would test the memory first. The laptop has dynamically allocated shared graphics memory; it has no dedicated memory and uses part of the main memory for video purposes. I guess if the main memory is going bad, you can get an error message related to the graphic card. For memory test I usually use Memtest86+ utility, it’s free and works really well. I am not familiar with this particular model (Satellite A100-528), but I believe it has 2 memory slots available for upgrades. If you have only one memory module installed, test it with Memtest86+ utility or try to replace it with a known good test memory module and see if it fixes the problem. If you have 2 memory modules installed, try to remove them one by one and start the laptop after each removed module. It is very unlikely that both memory modules fail at the same time and if your laptop starts with one module, most likely the second memory module is bad.
It is also possible that the memory slot on the motherboard is defective itself. Try to move the memory module from slot A to slot B and try to start the laptop. If the laptop works when the memory installed in the slot B and fails when the memory installed in the slot A, them most likely the slot A is defective itself and the motherboard has to be replaced.
Here is a disassembly guide for Toshiba Satellite A105 laptop. I think it would be similar to Toshiba Satellite A100.
September 18th, 2006 at 4:34 am
even i have come across the similar sort of a problem. i bought a Fujitsu Siemens AMilo Pi 1505 and within 3 days i encountered the “BLue Screen of Death”. as i was totally unaware of this, i switched off my PC immediately and rebooted it. however, it did not work the same way. the mouse was misbehaving, the windows became extremely slow and basically the charm of buying a new Centrino Duo processor was lost almost instantly!
i was just wondering if the manufacturer or the store would replace my laptop as it falls within the first 28 day period.
if anybody knows the answer or has encountered a similar problem, could you please let me know. i would really appreciate your reply as this would relieve me off a lot of tension!!
thanks.
September 18th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Abhishek,
Check the manufacturer and the retail store return policy for notebook computers. Some stores offer 15 days, some stores 30 days, so it depends. It’s hard to troubleshoot BSOD errors if it appears intermittently. It could be either software related or hardware related. The most common steps would be – reloading the drive back to original factory defaults, using a recovery media. Also, test the hard rive and memory for errors.
November 23rd, 2006 at 6:41 pm
I have a techra M2, and I am trying to update my BIOS because it keeps giving me the old blue screen. I try to install the BIOS update but it says I need to install the common modules. So I download the common modules, but running setup does nothing. Running setup -s does nothing. Does anyone know how to get common modules installed?
November 30th, 2006 at 11:52 am
hi i also have gotten a blue screen effect. i am running an old pentium 3 and i shut it off normally this morning but when i came back it gave me a screen that said boot failed and to check the hard drive and such but i cant even check it to my knowledge without it booting up
November 30th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Aaron,
If you want to test the hard drive, it’s not necessary to boot into Windows. You can test it with a free Hitachi drive fitness test utility (link on the right side). Download the utility, create a boot CD or floppy disk and start the laptop from the CD/floppy. If you have more questions on running the test, read user’s manual.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
hi, today for the first time I watched some video on youtbe and my computer just showed a blue screen error and it restarted, and tonight when i tried to play some other video again, it restarted again..i was wondering if there is anything i can do to fix it without rebooting my system?
December 14th, 2006 at 1:18 am
Aldin,
Test the hard dive and the memory module. For the hard drive test you can use Hitachi drive fitness test utility and for memory Memtest 86+.
January 19th, 2007 at 7:49 am
I’m having the same problem .. but i copied the hitachi drive fitness test to a disk and i was wondering how to make it load? my laptop is toshiba A25 and my F12 button is missing?
January 21st, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Krista,
Probably you downloaded a CD image (.iso) file. Now you have to burn this image on a CD using burning software installed on your notebook. After the diagnostics CD is ready, you’ll have to boot the laptop from this CD:
- press F12 on start up and select boot from CD/DVD, or
- install CD into the drive, reboot the laptop and press C key when Toshiba logo appears, or
- enter the setup menu and change the boot order. Make the CD/DVD drive the first boot device.
Read the user’s manuals for help with running this diagnostic utility.
January 27th, 2007 at 1:30 am
hi i have a compaq presario 900
it has started flashing me a blue screen. when i push f8 on start up it tells me that it is a 0210 key stuck error any ideas on how i can remedy this
February 13th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Toshiba 5105 gets a BSOD if I start it with the battery in, even in safe mode. On mains its fine. If I start it with battery out and insert battery while going it runs for 1&1/2 hours. Battery charges well and it shows fully charged.Have used recovery disks to restore factory defaults. Cooling module replacved recently. Can you help please
February 15th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Ken,
Not sure what’s going on with your laptop, it’s possible there is an issue with the motherboard. Try resetting the BIOS to defaults. Also try re-flashing/upgrading the BIOS.
Most likely you have a Toshiba power management software installed. Try uninstalling the Toshiba software and using Windows power management instead.
Check if there is an updated version of Toshiba power software available for downloads, upgrade it if needed.
November 1st, 2007 at 8:18 am
I have the same problem with the toshiba satalite a100/105. It has only gotten worse, my warranty ran out on me by 3 months. The screen just shuts off after it boots up, I might get 10 mins out of the comp if I am lucky. Anyone have suggestions??
November 12th, 2007 at 2:05 am
hi damon, i’m newbie for troubleshoot the notebook, but maybe it can help you out, sometime blank screen on notebook is came from bad memory, cause the memory is shared with vga, try to change your memory, or move it to other slot, if that my sugestion work than run memtest to test your memory, try to fit some heatsink to your memory chip, send me report if that my sugestion work
sory if my english bad
January 20th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Every time I start up my HP dv2000 laptop (with Vista) I get a screen that says It must check file C and gives me an option to cancel within 10 seconds. When I do, the laptop runs fine. I let it run once and nothing happened, I had to force it off and restart. I let my roommate use my computer and that is when it started happening so I have no idea what she did. What could be the cause and/or what can I do to fix this?
Thanks!
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I have HP inspiron 600m.I keep getting a blue screen with”WARNING SPYWARE DETECTED ON YOUR COMPUTER, INSTALL AN ANTIVIRUS OR SPYWARE REMOVER TO CLEAN YOUR COMPUTER.”iF ITS LEFT ON LONG AN ERROR MESSAGE COMES ON.hOW CAN i REMOVE THIS i HAVE SPYWARE AND ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE ON MY COMPUTER ALREADY? pLEASE hELP
tHANK yOY
kAREN
August 24th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
To karen…..
Your laptop is indeed infected with spyware/malware.
Unfortunately the message you are getting is actually being displayed by malware, it is common practice for these programs to pose as spyware removal applications when they are in fact the spyware itself.
There are not that many free or inexpensive tools that can remove modern malware, however I came across one a few weeks ago which has managed to clean some pretty mean stuff out of my systems.
The program is Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware, the basic version is free and can manually scan and remove a lot of problems, the pay version simply gives you an always-on scanner and the ability to schedule unattended scans.
LINK http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
November 6th, 2008 at 9:47 am
So was started reading this and I was getting the exact same error as the post that was put up originally. I came home and my computer was frozen, so I turned it off and tried to boot it up again. It will start to load windows then a blue screen flashes on for about 2 seconds, and it tried reloading all over again. This keeps happening until I shut it off. I have tried to reboot in safe mode but that does not work either. I see you guys told her to go on to a website and download a software, and she said that worked. But, if I can’t even get on the internet on my computer how am I supposed to do that? Please help, I appreciate it. Thank you!
November 7th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I have a Dell Latitude D600 and recently I began having the same problem,my laptop suddenly freezes,the blue screen appears and it turns off and restarts.I need help with this
November 17th, 2008 at 8:39 am
I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 that I’m working on as a side job. It bluescreens every time it boots. Turns out it’s the video drivers. Still working on resolving it, but…it’s got an ATI Radeon Express 200M in it and the 8.501.0.0 drivers appear to BSOD. I rollback to a previous driver and it’s fine…until the 8.5 drivers come back up via windows updates. In case it helps anyone.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Hello,
I have a Toshiba laptop (I wish I knew the actual model name but I don’t, I’m sorry) that I purchased in May of 2003 (yes it’s quite aged but I love that computer.) I have been experiencing the same problem as “Krysten”. I would love to get online to go to this site, named above, but I can’t even get on the internet to get to the site.
BTW, as a side note, not only do I see the blue screen of death warning me about the abysmal fate of my device but if I walk away for more than 20 minutes, there are roaches that appear on my screen and they start munching on my screen until it goes black and then my computer shuts off after the entire screen is black. Not only is this cause for worry as to how to repair my beloved computer, the roaches are down-right creepy! Please help!!
~Elaine~
November 10th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Hi..
Im using DELL inspiron 1525..from past 10 days I am having a problem with my laptop..It suddenly shuts down completly. Once the system repair suddenly appeared and it asked whether to fix the problem. I clicked yes still the same shut down problem occurs.. and showed me the below data
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 16393
Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: c000021a
BCP1: 8A694670
BCP2: 00000000
BCP3: C0000001
BCP4: 001005D0
OS Version: 6_0_6001
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1
Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini110809-01.dmp
C:\Users\Pisces\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-216997-0.sysdata.xml
C:\Users\Pisces\AppData\Local\Temp\WER15F0.tmp.version.txt
I am not able to figure out the problem. could some one help me please!
November 10th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
sa,
Can you boot is Safe Mode. Press F8 when Dell logo appears on the screen, select Safe Mode, press Enter and let it go. Will it boot to the desktop?
November 10th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
ya.. as you said.. when I operate in the safe mode, on the screen it appears that it is loading some values into the System32.. and then it will boot to the desktop.. I am worried whether it is a hardware or software problem.. Do I need to format?? Any other suggestion please!
November 10th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
sa,
At this point it’s hard to tell if the problem is software or hardware related.
You can run memory and hard drive test to find out if one of them is failing.
Here’s some other suggestions:
1. Try Last Known Good Configuration instead of Safe Mode. This should take your system back to the last successful login.
2. Try booting in VGA mode, it’s when all drivers are loaded except the video driver. If the laptop works in VGA mode try uninstalling and reinstalling the video driver.
3. Boot in Safe Mode and use System Restore to revert Windows back to one of the previous restore points.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
hey by the way.. what is this VGN mode you were telling.. Thank you so much for your suggestions.. I will try out!
November 10th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Firs of all, it’s a typo. It’s not VGN but VGA.
Second, I guess in Windows 7 (probable Vista too) instead of VGA mode it says “enable low-resolution video (640×480)”
May 5th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
i m using hp probook laptop.it is recently bought but blue screen error had appeared two times when i was working in laptop and restarted.please help me by answering what can be the cause.how it is possible for ram to become damaged so quickly.please help