I got this message a few minutes ago:

BLUE SCREEN
hardware malfunction

call your hardware vendor for support

*the system has halted*

so I just took the battery off my laptop and let it restart? Was does this message mean?

Hello, sorry to hear about your problem. Could be your hardware going or a faulty driver. Was there any other information included in the BSOD? You should be able to check in your event viewer. Copy and paste the error back here. Also what were you doing when this happened? Has it happened before / again?

KM

where can i find the event viewer?

Also, I wasn't doing anything this time, My laptop was on, and I was in the other room for a few mins., came back to get online and it was like this?!

You can find the event viewer my right clicking on 'my computer' and selecting manage. The event view can be found here. The error should be listed under the application log or the system log.

The previous system shutdown at 8:15:38 PM on 4/1/2008 was unexpected.


that's the only error I see.

Here's how to get the Blue Screen to stay so you can read the information on it:
Go to Start and type in "sysdm.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter
Click on the Advanced tab
Click on the Startup and Recovery Settings button
In the System Failure box, uncheck the box that says "Automatically restart"
Make a note of the location of the Dump file (you'll need it if the Blue Screen doesn't give enough information)
Click OK to exit the dialogs

The next time the computer crashes, it'll stop at the Blue Screen. There you'll be able to give us the exact error message and any file names associated with it. For more info, here's a link with a picture showing the different pieces of information: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/top...tml#entry409491