Blue Screen O' Death ...

etsisk

etsisk

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Y'all said to copy the info next time it happened (which was today, dammit), so here is what my infernal-p.o.s.-notworthadamn-Dell-lousy-laptop had to say - amongst all the verbiage telling me how to do things to fix things, none of which I understood (what's a bios?), it said:

driver_IRQL_not_less_or_equal

afd.sys - address FF79187FC base at F790B000 date stamp 41107eb5

stop: 0x000000D1 (0x00000000, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xF17987FC)


Does any of that mean anything to y'all? Me? It couldn't mean less than if a blindfolded drunken monkey had been typing on my rotten-damn-dell!
 
What version of Windows?

Here is a KB article from Microsoft dealing with afd.sys which is what went south on you. Also, look in the even viewer, I bet there are lots of interesting details in there that can help with this.
 
um, where is an article?

and what's an even viewer? Don't know if I have one on this very odd laptop!
:D
 
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is a Windows error which is most often caused by some failure of the hardware. Either bad RAM or an overheating CPU.

You said this is a laptop. Does it get hot? Are the air intake and exhaust ports clear of dust or any other kind of blockage? If you can see dust on any of the grills where air is supposed to flow, then that port is blocked and this will effect cooling. Additionally, if there is an air intake grill on the bottom of the laptop and you're using it on your lap, it's possible that the intake is getting blocked which would lead to overheating.

You can also check your RAM. If you have two chips installed, try removing them one at a time and see if you still get the blue screen errors. If you do, it's probably your processor.

BTW if you have Windows XP, you do have an event viewer though it's not likely to tell you anything useful in this case. It's located in the control panel. Go to Control Panel>Performance and Maintenance>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer.
 
What Joe said. It's bad hardware. I would have looked for a bad I/O card.

If you have a PC Card in the laptop for WiFi or network (not likely these days, I know) , try working with it removed.

More likely is it's built in hardware and it's bad. Now just try to convince "Harrison" in Bangalore to swap your laptop.
 
It's event viewer, Tom. Start / Run / eventvwr .

I agree with the others in that most of the time, the driver_IRQL_not_less_or_equal error is hardware-related (usually RAM). However, in this particular case, the probability of a hardware problem is perhaps not quite as high as usual.

I say this because afd.sys is part of the TCP/IP stack. Specifically, it's part of Winsock. (In laymen's terms, it's part of the software that allows your computer to connect to a network or the Internet.)

Many, many things can cause problems with the TCP/IP stack, including network card drivers, virus scanners (which often install virtual devices), firewalls, viruses, spyware, old LSPs, some BHOs, etc. So I'm less certain that the error is truly caused by bad hardware when a TCP/IP component is involved.

In addition to the advice already received, I suggest you run a memory test. Typically this is done with a bootable utility that simply runs the memory through all sorts of tests. I like to let the tests run for several hours, even though they are repetitive, because sometimes physical RAM errors only occur once the RAM is hot. There are dozens of these tests out there; the one I use is included on pretty much any bootable Linux version out there. You would have to create a bootable floppy or CD to use any of them. (I can mail you one, if you like.)

If the memory test works out okay, I would use something like HijackThis to look closely for LSPs, BHOs, and other objects that might be causing issues, as well as check the registry for remnants of previously installed security software that may not have properly uninstalled. This might be something you'd want a pro to do, however.

I also would look at whatever security software you're using now, to see if there are any known issues. Possibly uninstalling and reinstalling the security software may solve the problem.

As a last resort, I would uninstall everything related to networking and reinstall it again to rebuild the entire TCP/IP stack.

Failing at all of the above, I would call George, Myron, Floyd, or one of the other tech guys in Bangalore and try to get the laptop replaced. If it's not RAM and it's not software, then it's either the processor or something on the motherboard.

-Rich
 
My extensive experience with Dell is that they will spend 42 hours on the phone with you trboubleshooting, none of which will bear fruit. Then they will tell you to send it in. Four weeks later, they will return it with a new motherboard and it still will not work. You'll call back. Four weeks later they will send you disks of the original software to reinstall, which of course will not work. Four weeks later they will ask you to send it back in again. Four weeks later they will send it back and it still will not work despite replacing the motherboard again as well as the wifi card. They will say you need a new hard drive. Finally, you will call the supervisor's supervisor's supervisor and that person will send you a "new" (refurbished) laptop that will work. You will find the person who had the laptop before you liked country music, as the MusicMatch Jukebox library has about 4,963 country music songs. Meanwhile, all of your files, email address book etc are gone.

(If you are really lucky, your warranty will run out midway through this process and so your calls will not go through to the warranty repair people, and instead to the folks who want to charge you 50 bucks to talk to you.)

Ask me how I know.
 
Yeah, Ken, Dell's support has really gone down the tubes, at least on the consumer-level contracts.

But even scarier, we've done data recovery jobs on hard drives from "new" Dell computers, and recovered data (pics, etc.) from the previous owner (that is, not our client, but someone who used the HD prior to it being installed in the "new" Dell PC). This means that Dell was using used or "reconditioned" hard drives in new computers -- and not even bothering to do low-level formats on them first.

Dell denied it, of course; but this has happened several times. I guess it's possible that the hard drive manufacturers pulled one over on Dell, but this seems like quite a chance to take with a big contract.

I know these weren't cases of our clients being embarrassed to own up to the pics. They weren't porn or anything like that. In fact, in one case, the pics were of a state police graduation ceremony. There was no doubt that the drives were previously used.

That really soured me on Dell, let me tell ya.

-Rich
 
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Yep, pretty much why I ditched Dell. Had a problem that was created after I sent my computer in to have a plastic part replaced (they wouldn't let me do it). After it returned, the mouse would occaisionally move around the screen on its own. I couldn't do a thing until control of the mouse was released. I went back and forth for several months on email support where they kept telling me to reinstall the driver and bios software. My last message to them was if they tell me to install the software again, I was going to buy another computer that was NOT a Dell and drop them as a supplier.

Their response was "Sorry for the problems you are having. Please reinstall the driver and bios software."

Three days later I bought a Gateway.
 
Oh, ick.

Well, great. It wouldn't surprise me if the thing was blowing its little brains out. Lord knows *I* want to blow its little brains out. :mad:

It shouldn't be overheating - when I'm working with it on my lap, I use a hard, wood-topped lap desk and put the computer on that, precisely so it will have circulation.

We have been doing semi-regular backups of the hard drive, so I shouldn't lose much, if anything.

Hey, if I get another computer, that means I can take this thing out back and shoot it with a pistol, right??? :D :D
 
etsisk said:
Hey, if I get another computer, that means I can take this thing out back and shoot it with a pistol, right??? :D :D
Click to expand...

Even better, you can display a full screen JPG of your least favorite whatever, and blow the living heck out of that at the same time. a true two-fer.
 
I have a Dell laptop which got at least three new motherboards before they traced the problems to the heat sink. Luckily I had the on-site warranty. The last time, however, I sent it in, and that was when they discovered the heat sink problem. They had it fixed and back to me in less than a week. That was about a year ago and it hasn't had any problems since.

The symptoms were a lot different than yours, though. At first it wouldn't charge the battery, then it wouldn't keep the clock set, then it wouldn't recognize the ethernet cable. Dell's solution for each of these events was a new motherboard. I should also mention that when the computer was about six months old the hard drive went bad. This was on a computer that just sits on my desk. The one that gets a lot of abuse because it travels with me has had no problems in almost two years since I got it. It is an Averatec which I had never heard of but bought on an impulse because it is nice and small.
 
Anymouse said:
I would highly advise you don't do that. Using a shot gun would be much more satisfying!!
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Yeah, really. But I think the shotgun would REALLY flip the dogs out, whereas the pistol would only mostly flip the dogs out.

Oh, did I mention that the warranty's run out? Did I mention that? :(

I sure do love my Dell computer! :no:
 
RJM62 said:
Tom, Did it EVER work right? -Rich
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Yeah, it's doing ok. I just reboot it (and by that I mean I reboot it) and it comes back fine. I fully expect it will happen again - it's happened before, so I'm figuring it's something that, while intermittent now, is slowly going south on me.

sigh.


Thanks for the help, y'all. I'll take it to a computer tech I know to see if he can exorcise it.
 
etsisk said:
Yeah, it's doing ok. I just reboot it (and by that I mean I reboot it) and it comes back fine. I fully expect it will happen again - it's happened before, so I'm figuring it's something that, while intermittent now, is slowly going south on me.

sigh.


Thanks for the help, y'all. I'll take it to a computer tech I know to see if he can exorcise it.
Click to expand...


Oooo Oooo, I'm a tech! And I have Primacord! Let the Exorcism Begin!!!
 
Henning, I'm likin' the way yer thinkin'!


Frank - mostly dead would suit me fine. Let the miserable s.o.b. suffer... :mad:
 
Tom,

Last time I was in the States (about two weeks ago) I saw some Toshibas at Circuit City for a fairly reasonable price (less than $1k). Just in case you wanted to sacrafice some air time so you could justify using your Dell as a clay pigeon.
 
Thanks, Andy, but at about $57/hr including fuel, that would be a LOT of air time!! I'd be well on my way to an instrument rating!

still, something to consider - but I'll wait till this one smokes itself. Keeping it backed up for now. ;)
 
I know that this will sound funny at first but, you have a leak. There is a memory leak in the TCP/IP management driver(s) that is causing you to run out of non-pagable, non-relocatable memory. When this happens, the memory set aside to handle the TCP/IP traffic(internet, email, security layer, etc) and management overlay runs out, and it either wraps, or it simply writes over existing memory stack data causing an memory exception, and this leads to the BSOD.

I don't work on MS stuff much(obviously) but it's gonna take a MS network guy sitting in front of your machine for a while to figure out who's causing the leak. The TCP/IP stack is pretty gruesome stuff in Win2000.

Here's some suggestions;

When was the absolute FIRST occurence? Have you installed any software that is related to network access just prior to that?

Do you have your computer setup with the checkpoint/restore? If so, you can go back to a checkpoint that was set prior to the FIRST occurance of the error(use eventvwr as above to search).

If you feel so inclined, you can install a trace/monitor program to watch the happenings of the TCP/IP memory stack by going here: 177415 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/177415/EN-US/) How to Use Poolmon| But this is kinda overkill.

It can be fixed, but it ain't pretty. What's more annoying is that you won't know it's fixed for sure until you've gone a few weeks with no BSOD and error code from afd.sys.

edit: I just noted that one of the articles at MS actually discusses a potential fix embedded in the latest service pack. Might give that look too: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260910/EN-US/
 
Spocks monitor on the Enterprise was blue and he didn't die. Well, not until one of the later movies.....
 

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Thanks, Doc - I honestly don't remember the FIRST time it happened - could be a few weeks ago, could be a few months ago, unfortunately. I always expect the worst with this thing, so when it happens, it's sort of business as usual.

Maybe I'll just get me a Non-Dell Tablet Notebook ... then I could get some o' that fancy flyin' software! :D
 
Also check (or search) for files ending in TMP and delete them. Too many of those files can do some pesky things that make no logical sense when it comes to computers. I've seen some drives that have over a hundred MB worth of tmp files. :eek:
 
battmain said:
Also check (or search) for files ending in TMP and delete them. Too many of those files can do some pesky things that make no logical sense when it comes to computers. I've seen some drives that have over a hundred MB worth of tmp files. :eek:
Click to expand...

As well as emptying the Recycle Bin. My office PC slowed to a crawl because MS-DOS(sic) was clawing through the disk directory to find the place to add the next deleted file.

System Cleanup (right-click a disk->properties) takes care of a lot of that.
 
mikea said:
As well as emptying the Recycle Bin. My office PC slowed to a crawl because MS-DOS(sic) was clawing through the disk directory to find the place to add the next deleted file.
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That sounds like an old fashioned Defrag would help, too.

-Skip
 
Nope, none of this file management stuff will have any effect. your confusing level 3 memory with storage. The OS has a memory manager, and it partitions the contiguious memory as needed by the services that are demanded by the OS itself and the apps being supported. The afs.sys file is one of the system drivers that reserves and uses part of the non-relocatable memory for TCP/IP services.

One more thing. Have your system checked for a BOT or Trojan Horse that has infected the system. Sometimes a hacker will install his own IP access using a well-known port. This can stress the IP stack while goobers out in cyberspace download porn from your laptop. if you don't think it can happen to you, it's happened at Lawrence Livermore Labs, and that's no spit.
 
docmirror said:
One more thing. Have your system checked for a BOT or Trojan Horse that has infected the system. Sometimes a hacker will install his own IP access using a well-known port. This can stress the IP stack while goobers out in cyberspace download porn from your laptop. if you don't think it can happen to you, it's happened at Lawrence Livermore Labs, and that's no spit.
Click to expand...

Yep. Open a .pdf or get an electronic greeting card lately?
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080207-black-hat-storm-worms-virulence.html

It just occurred to me with Putin playing like he longs for the days of the cold war, having several million bots at your disposal could be a good weapon. :hairraise: I wonder if answer to the question if the Russians behind these are mafia/KGB/government is there's not much difference between those.
 
wait, Doc, yer saying that someone could be using my laptop, remotely, to download porn? Wouldn't that, then, look like it was ME doing it??? :eek:
 
etsisk said:
wait, Doc, yer saying that someone could be using my laptop, remotely, to download porn? Wouldn't that, then, look like it was ME doing it??? :eek:
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No. They use you to HOST porn (as the web site) ..and send spam to get more victims and attack sites in a denial of service attack. The bot YOU run can be commanded by them to do about anything.
 
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^^ What Mike said, you become the host for all kids of crappy things in cyberspace. News accounts show that more than 700,000 home computers have been taken over by a remote BOT recently.
 
mikea said:
No. They use you to HOST porn (as the web site) ..and send spam to get more victims and attack sites in a denial of service attack. The bot YOU run can be commanded by them to do about anything.
Click to expand...

Note that if that happens with your PC and it's kiddy porn or you enter Canada with your laptop and don't disappoint Canadian customs' expectation that all Americans have porn on their computers...
 
That's why I don't want to write off the laptop yet. There are so many things that can mimic hardware problems when you're talking about the TCP/IP stack that I hate to declare a machine dead until everything else is ruled out.


-Rich
 
mikea said:
Note that if that happens with your PC and it's kiddy porn or you enter Canada with your laptop and don't disappoint Canadian customs' expectation that all Americans have porn on their computers...
Click to expand...
Hmmm. A bit of thread creep, but please indulge me:

I am going to the UK and Europe in about 2 weeks. Taking my laptop with.

I know of no porn or other bad stuff on it. I scan regularly with AVG anti-virus and AVG anti-spyware. Is there anything else I should do before leaving?

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
Hmmm. A bit of thread creep, but please indulge me:

I am going to the UK and Europe in about 2 weeks. Taking my laptop with.

I know of no porn or other bad stuff on it. I scan regularly with AVG anti-virus and AVG anti-spyware. Is there anything else I should do before leaving?

-Skip
Click to expand...

Make sure you have 3 backups at home before you leave.

You can see any pictures anywhere by searching for *.jpg and *.gif

There have been cases where US and foreign customs confiscated laptops for investigation and the owners never got them back after years.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/10/25/laptop.privacy/index.html
 
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