BleepingComputer.com: Random Vista Crashes

Hello,

I've been experiening random vista crashes for a few weeks now. Ive been trying to find the solution online but it seems the reasons and solutions for vista crashing are many. I was wondering if anyone could give me some support in stopping this extremely annoying problem.

Problem Summary: Today my computer crashed after around 3 hours from startup. Usually you can still move the mouse icon, however today not even that was working. You can still see the screen it does not go black, however all sounds stop and ctrl alt del does nothing. The only way to switch it off is by holding down the power off button. When I check the Event Viewer logs, nothing is logged at the period it crashes, and only returns an unexpexted shutdown at the time of logging back in. I can always tell when its about to crash because one of the windows will stop responding, then illl be able to move to another window, then ill only be able to move the mouse, then nothing.

Specs:

OS Vista 32-bit Home Premium

Dell Inspiron 1520
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A09
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU T5250 @ 1.50GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.5GHz
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1431MB used, 2898MB available

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
Driver Version: 7.15.0011.7597 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 6/9/2008 07:23:00, 5877760 bytes

Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5560A ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]
ZY3032Y DEE100D SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
ST9160821AS [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0

Board: Dell Inc. 0KY768
Serial Number: .6FD8C3J.CN486437CE1635.
Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
BIOS: Dell Inc. A09 07/11/2008

Software:
McAfee Security Centre
SpyBot Remover including SD resident

Some of the solutions ive tried:

Error Checking (the C drive one) : found nothing

Defrag : Actually often crashes before I can complete one however is scheduled to run everyday at 12 midday. (Today the computer crashed at 11am).

Memory Diagnostic tool: found nothing

CCleaner: cleaned registry and all temp files etc

Virus scan with mcafee : found nothing

Spybot remover scan : found nothing

Updated Ndivia drivers, chipset drivers, windows update

If you need any more information just ask, id really like to get this fixed.

Thanks for your time,

-Aaron

Are you using the laptop on a hard surface (to ensure that the vents aren't obstructed)?
Have you blown out the vents with a can of compressed air (to see if it's dust causing an overheating condition)?

Hey, thanks for the reply,

Well actually today when it crashed it was on my bed. However it has crashed before on my office desk.

I contacted Dell and they made me run a number of hardware diagnostics, Ive also downloaded the NVidia nTune and have run the stability tests. However no problems have been found. I asked Dell if it could be an overheating problem and they are confident that it is a problem with the operating system and that any hardware problems would have arrisen in the diagnostics.

They have suggested to do a factor restore, I would preffer to only do that as a last resort. They have given me the number of their software department and so tomorrow ill be contacting them.

If anyone else has any ideas let me know, if not ill post up what Dell say tomorrow.

-Aaron

A factory restore will either rule out or confirm a hardware problem (if all's well after the restore - it must've been software. If it's not, then it must be hardware).

I think a factory restore has a good chance of fixing the problem however its not an ideal solution.

At the moment I am turning off starting applications and running the bare windows system. If it doesnt crash ill slowly introduce other applications in hope that its one of them causing the crash.

My temperature reading for the GPU is 50C-53C

I can empathise. Vista crases all the time for me as well. Usually when playing video, but at other timed as well. To behonest I couldnt even be bother looking for a solution as when i restart it it seems to run finr again (until the next crash). Good luck.

Well im happy to say that today its been running for over 7 hours, a record I think. If this keeps up for the next couple of days I will conclude that it was one of the programs that I deselected on startup. My money is on the SpyBot teatimer, I have a feeling that it is conflicting with Mcafee. Only time will tell.

Ill keep you posted

Well it seems it was Macafee causing the problems. It was conflicting with something. Anyway, Ive removed it from my machine and my computer is running better then ever. To be honest I was looking for a reason to get rid of it, its such a memory hog and was causing slower start ups and general running.

Thanks for eveyrones support