Vista Crashing

[Benjiman]

My dell laptop running vista crashes about once a day. It 'll be completely unprovoked, and can happen in any situation (whilst surfing the internet or watching DVDs). When it crashes it goes to a black screen with a small square full of stripes. Where I have to hold down the on button to restart the laptop.

Has anyone else ever had this problem? Does anyone know if this is caused by a bug?

My brother suggested it could be caused by it overheating but it sometimes occur shortly after being switched on. If it is overheating does anyone know a way to stop this happening?

Thanks

Ben

[MrBounty]

How long have you had the laptop?

[Benjiman]

about 18 months, it's been crashing like this for probably the last 7 months

[MrBounty]

And you've put up with it crashing every day for 7 months??
Daaaamn!

Anyway, i wouldnt say it was caused by a "bug" in the OS - could be in relation to something you have installed, could just be a dodgy machine.

I would uninstall any software you dont use on the machine, run a defrag, disk clean up, etc.....if it still happens, i would maybe think about a re-install of the OS.

If that doesnt do the trick, it's more likely to be a hardware problem so, you'd probably be best to get it checked out.....

[ChuckFickens]

it sounds very unlikely to be an overheating problem though, if it was it would just shutdown, not go to a black screen with a small square.

Do as MrBounty says above and also goto http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/inde x.aspx?s=gen&cs and download + install all the latest drivers for your model of laptop (starting with the graphics as a hunch!)

[Benjiman]

Thanks Guys :)

[R1Geezer]

first clear out all the start up crap you don't need, then consider upgrading the memory if you haven't already. Mine pretty well doubled in speed when I did this. Vista needs a squillobyte of memory to run, the more the better. If you are competing with 15 process that started themselves as well then Vista may well paint itself into a corner and give up the Ghost.

[WhiteBear]

i've always had problems with my Dell Laptop ever since i bought it in 2008. i called the Dell support they managed to fix it but after a couple of weeks it started happening again. i think its to do with the hardware that's conflicting with Vista.

now i hardly use it! lol what a waste of money :-P

which model do u have? mines Inspiron 1520

[Benjiman]

I have the vostro 1000

[icemaiden]

I had Vista on my desktop Pc and I had the same problem. I was told that I needed to increase my memory, so I added another 1GB.
This has now cured my problem and my Pc runs perfectly.

Apparently Vista needs 1GB just to run on it's own!
How much memory do you have? Could this be your problem?

[Benjiman]

I have 1 GB of Ram on this laptop, so it sounds like you're right and I could need some more. Is it possible to add more ram to a laptop?

Ben

[ChuckFickens]

yes, normall under a flap on the underside.

However most laptops only have 2 slots for ram, so if your current 1gb is made up of 2x �gb chips then you will have to ditch at least one and replace it with a larger one.

[Benjiman]

Cheers Buddy