IE8 and BSOD

[EduTech]

*Dont Take this as a fact, but it might be the start of something*

It goes a little something like this,

Have been running windows 7 on my laptop for a few weeks now, no problems at all installed IE8 when it was released no problems, but every now and again i kept turning my laptop on and i got BSOD happend a few times but in the end decided to revert back to windows vista as i did not want to walk into work one day with a dead laptop.

So, Installed Windows Vista in my laptop again everything running fine but after a few days i started to get BSOD again, kind of curious to what the problem was but google never really helped much few restarts and booting into safe mode and i finally managaed to log back in it happens every now and again but mainly when i turn the machine off so i tend to put it into stand by now.

And then today came when i brought a dell laptop from a friend of mine who never really used it, so i took it off his hands as it is smaller then my Dell Studio 17 so it would be better for work, installed Windows XP this time installed IE8 and it happend again BSOD, sometimes i could get to the login screen but it just crashed.

So i booted into Safe Mode uninstalled IE 8 and it booted up fine no problems at all and it seems stable again.

Now i dont know if this is just me and something i am doing wrong, but if this does happen to anyone and you have IE8 installed try uninstalling it and see how you get on.

BSOD Error: page_fault_in_non_paged_area

and sometimes

BSOD Error: Cant remember, but i'll dig it out as i did write it down

For the record though, like i said i might be totally wrong in what i am saying here but it does seem like its an IE8 problem as uninstalling that solved the problem but i suppose it could be a number of thing.

James.

[Michael]

That error is pointing to a hard drive failure. Having you tried running scandisk?

[EduTech]

Yeah i tried scan disk, this is what made me think twice

Scan Disk never did anything as it continued to bring up the same error, but installing IE8 seem to stop the evil BSOD.

Hey maybe it has nothing to do with IE8, just dont know what else it could be with it happening to two machines (both DELLS)

[Michael]

I have seen IE8 behave strange with an old version of the Google Toolbar installed, but it didn't create a BSOD. Uninstalling the toolbar cured it.

Are you re-installing the Dell's with the supplied disc or an OEM disc out of curiosity?

[EduTech]

I have seen IE8 behave strange with an old version of the Google Toolbar installed, but it didn't create a BSOD. Uninstalling the toolbar cured it.

Are you re-installing the Dell's with the supplied disc or an OEM disc out of curiosity?

The Laptop i got today yes i re-installed with the Dell OEM Windows XP Pro inc SP3 disc.

My other laptop is running Vista x64

[Michael]

In my experience manufacturers like Dell, HP, Compaq etc... always install software people don't want or tweak various registry settings. As a result, making a copy of drivers and then installing a generic OEM version of Windows usually does the trick.

If you have the time, take an image, format the Dell and install as new and see if you have the same problem(s). Thinking about it more, if uninstalling IE8 solves the problem, it must be software related rather than hardware (logically thinking)

[EduTech]

Well yeah i should think it is software related, Logically.. the version of windows i installed was just plain Windows XP SP3, I had to insert another CD for the Drivers (there was no software disc in the box as i had it all removed).

But i will try what you have said at some point.. i'll update this thread if it happens the second time round.

James.

[EduTech]

Ok so i installed XP SP3 on the Dell Inspiron, installed all my software no problem updated windows with all the security patches and software updates etc Excl - IE8.

Eventually installed IE7 but i have not bothered installing IE8 yet! and everything seems to be running ok no BSOD or anything.

The only thing i did differently this time round was, i did a full format instead of a quick format which does a chkdsk i believe. (so technically, micheal you could be right and it might of been a hard drive issue). - i am sure we will find out when i attempt to install IE8 tomorrow.

I came home this evening though and booted my Dell Studio 17 laptop, BSOD again and the error it gave was

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

So this could also be the same issue, but this cant run XP as hardware is so new, so will try a re-install of vista x64 and do a full chkdsk before install.

James.

[Michael]

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is caused by a corrupt driver usually. Try pressing F8 at boot and select Last known good configuration. If this doesn't work, try going into Safe Mode and checking out the event logs.

When you visited Windows Update, did it offer you any driver updates? Sometimes it does, but other times it doesn't. It really depends on your hardware. I would recommend you check Dell's website for updated drivers for your model.

[EduTech]

Oh right ok that makes sense i mean c'mon it is vista i have tried F8 - Safe mode and last known config.

I will check dells website and see if there is a driver update for vista, i did notice in the event logs something to do with the graphics so i am guessing it has something to do with that.

[Michael]

Within Safe Mode, navigate to Device Manager then highlight and delete your graphics card from the list. If there are two entries, delete both in turn then reboot.

This will then force Windows to detect and reinstall the drivers as new. Then you can surf the web for updated drivers.

[srochford]

This will then force Windows to detect and reinstall the drivers as new. Then you can surf the web for updated drivers.

I've found that that won't always work - Windows will scan the contents of %windir%\inf to see if there's an INF file that matches the card. If it finds one but it's for the wrong driver then it's likely to install it.

I always remove the card like you suggest but before that I go through the inf folder and check out any oem*.inf files - delete anything which refers to the graphics card (or other hardware - this is a good trick for cleaning up any drivers). If you find (say) oem25.inf is the one then also delete oem25.pnf (it's a "compiled" version of the inf file). Now delete the file infcache.1 - this forces a rescan of all the inf files and finally delete the card from device manager.

[Michael]

That is possible I suppose, but interestingly, I have only ever had this problem with onboard Intel graphics and the above technique does definitely work across a wide range of hardware