DVDizzy Forum

Hey guys, my laptop keeps crashing on me. I keep getting a blue screen and it says it's doing a "memory dump". This is really freaking me out because I haven't downloaded anything weird or done anything wrong with it (I've only had it since May! =/)

I did a Google search but I couldn't really find a good answer, I think it'd be better if I got some first-hand responses.

Has anyone delt with this? I REALLY need help, I don't wanna spend another $1300 to get another laptop, not to mention lose all the stuff I have saved on it.

You've got the dreaded "blue screen of death." Unfortunately this could be from any number of things. Next time this happens, write down the code given on the screen, that may be able to help pinpoint the problem and what needs to be done.

Do you happen to own a Sony VAIO? I used to have a laptop like that and I got those blue screens over and over again. Like you, I did nothing weird with it, and yet... I brought it back to the store where I bought it, and they said I had to send it back to Sony, so they could repair it (put in a new harddisk). They did, and it worked allright for abou two weeks, and then it started popping up again, and I went back to the store. This time, they send it back for me (relieving me of the trouble)... and the damn thing never came back. So I got to choose a new laptop and I choose a Toshiba and that has been working great ever since.

It's not a Sony, it's a Dell.

Now I'm not even getting to the Blue Screen anymore, it gives me a screen that says "windows is loading files..." and then goes to a screen with just the mouse cursor on it and nothing happens.

I'm freaking out here, I really hope I haven't lost all the stuff I had saved, but I think that's probably what's gonna happen

I don't think you can do anything yourself at this point, you should probably try calling Dell.

You might want to get an external hard drive to back up all of your files just in case something bad happens.

your computer hates you.

kenai3000 wrote:You might want to get an external hard drive to back up all of your files just in case something bad happens.

I would, but I can't even get to anything on my computer. That's what I'm gonna do in the future though. This is terrible

rexcrk wrote:

kenai3000 wrote:You might want to get an external hard drive to back up all of your files just in case something bad happens.

I would, but I can't even get to anything on my computer. That's what I'm gonna do in the future though. This is terrible

I've found that it's pretty easy to grab files off an internal hard drive, no matter what problems the drive's computer may be experiencing. If you get yourself an enclosure (you need to know the type of drive), it's pretty straightforward to convert it to an external drive, whether it can be reliably used as that or not.

Can you get into the laptop using safe mode instead?

Repeated BSOD usually mean bad memory or a failing hard drive. If the system was dumping out stuff when it was erroring before, then the files for such usually end up in C:\WINDOWS\MINIDUMP directory. If you can get access to them or get them off the hard drive, you might be able to examine them to get some more information.

A basic guide to having a look...

Could be anything from a bad driver, virus, etc... to a failing component (motherboard, memory, hard drive).

What OS are you using? I'm assuming Windows 7 if you bought it recently.

My friend recently had a similar problem on his older Windows XP Dell. We ran some diagnostics and determined that his RAM had went bad. Once we replace it the problem disappeared. I've also had a bad video card driver that caused a Vista machine to constantly crash and blue screen. Updating the driver fixed the problem.

One recommendation is if you have to take it somewhere to get fixed avoid places like Best Buy. Try to find someone local (a shop, friend, etc...) to get the work done. You'll save a ton of money. Anyway it might be a very easy/inexpensive fix. Don't worry you shouldn't have to buy a new computer.