Wirehead Studios

Yeah i recently got a new lapto and after playing Ut04 I usually get a blue screen (of death), i can't recall exactly what it says (and i'm not going to intentionally crash my comp unless i have to).

problem is that i kinda customized it specifically for gameplay i mean it runs most of the other games i have on it perfectly the only other games to crash like that were Armed and Dangerous and Unreal 2...

i know specs will help me get assistance so....

Gfx card:                       Nvidia GeForce Go 6800
HD:               70Gb
Memory:             1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
Proccessor:             Intel Pentium M 760 2 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB

I trust someone here can help me i tried dell tech support but they don't seem to want to help unless it's a game they sell...

Without knowing the error message there's not much we can do, although I'm sure Phoenix will have a few suggestions

Well, "Dell" and "support" are oxymorons. ;)

  BSD's are tough to pin down.  Without knowing what the error says there's not a whole lot I can suggest other than snag the error if and when it happens again, and try killing all non-essential applications before running the game.  Make sure your Direct-X and video drivers are up to date as well.  Best I can do without the error dump.

Crashing a comp is kinda harder when your're intentionally trying to kill it...

ok a copy of all the text

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

IRQL_NOT_LESS OR EQUAL

(Blah blah blah)

technical information:

*** STOP: 0X0000000A (0X9D066240,0X00000002, 0X00000000, 0X8050DF62)

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete
(blah blah blah)

yeah i think the blah parts are universal for all BSDs, contact tech support etc...

Ugh, this kind of error is difficult to pin down.  Here's some general info on the error:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000365.htm (http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000365.htm)

First off I'd run a memory check using Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) before doing anything else, just to rule out defective RAM.  If that's not it, It could be software, hardware... pretty much anything.  If you overclocked anything then undo the overclock, I'd suspect that first.  Heat build up could be another concern, so make sure the laptop is running nice and cool.

Since only two games are crashing the system, and you said it's after playing as opposed to during play, I'm wagering it may have something to do with a background application or driver acting up when the game shuts down, especially if it's immediately on game exit.  If it's some time after I'd suspect some kind of memory leak in either the game itself or a some other running task.  Try killing any unnecessary applications and playing the game in question several times to see if it keeps crashing.  If it doesn't crash that way, then reboot with all the apps loaded, and start eliminating them one by one.  Once you find a specific app that when removed no longer crashes the game you've found your culprit.  If you remove any unneeded apps and the games still crash, try disabling sound in the games.  I know some sound hardware has been blamed for this, so it's worth checking out.

also regarding Ut2004 don't reinstall and go from the base to the last patch, as i have done this and also ended up with blue screen of death

try reinstalling UT2004, then the patch before the ece bonus pack, then ece, then finally 3355 patch and i'm sure you'll find that it's working fine now

Two stupid questions

how do I make a bootable CD for that memtest prog?

and what is overclocking?

If you don't know what overclocking is, you haven't done it so don't worry about it.

Let me guess, you don't have a floppy drive, do you...

and also if you've never done overclocking don't try it until you've read up about it, i have lost plenty of processors that way

Unfortunately floppy disks are going out the window it seems, all i have on my laptop is a CD burner and a memory key.

Yeah, you'd have to attach a floppy for memtest86 to work.  It can't be run from Windows.  I'm not sure how you could make a bootable CD for it, or if it's even possible.

See this is why I hate the PC manufacturer attitude that "floppies aren't needed anymore" because they're very handy for diagnostics like this.

Well, there is the iso file listed 1/2 way down the page, you need to use nero or similar to burn it to cd, then boot up with the 'C' key pressed down.

This might not work with the memtest prog, but I have done this with other progs.

Overclocking? along that road lays madness. I old PC the 600Mgz is clocked at 803 mgz at the moment, and has been since I got a mate to biuld it for me. running at 133 rather than 100, with a slot 1 processeor, coppermine if I remember rightly. Plas gen at 1024x768 full textures 90plus FPS, and ut2004 mid textures at a decent speed.

Try the iso file. what have you got to loose?

Ahh, they didn't have an .iso when I downloaded it myself a long while back.  Aye, burn it and boot it and see if it works.

Well burning a CD isn't working, but i did find a diagnostic program already on my comp in the boot menu it probably won't be as good as memtest cause it was probably run before i got it but its something to do untill i can get a floppy drive

My Dell Inspiron 9300 did the same thing with the pre-June drivers.  Are you using Dell's drivers for your graphics card?

YOU HAVE A DELL ?!?! :!:

I upgraded the video drivers and i haven't seen a blue screen since so hopefully that was the problem  if not i'll post something here.

thanks for the help guys.