Vista blue screen of death followed by non responsive display

[aatesin]

Good Day,

I have a 1.1 year old Gateway CX210X (2 Ghz Core2Duo, 2.5 Gb Ram, ATI X1400).

I have been having what seems to be a hardware issue with my computer. Basically last wednesday my computer suddenly froze (I could see what I was working on, but mouse and keyboard did not work). When I restarted my computer, although I could sense that windows was loading, my display was just blank (it seemed that no power was going to it). When I shut down the computer, wait and restart, sometimes the display would work, othertimes it would not. But invariably when the the display worked, it ultimately crashed before windows loaded completely with a blue screen indicating an error with the atikmdag.sys file. I have tried reinstalling windows vista from scratch twice since the problem started. The first time, everything was working nicely. I installed all the programs I use, and then the problem started again. On Saturday, I reinstalled vista. I installed all the available updates, firefox and avast antivirus software, but nothing else. The computer worked fine all day saturday and sunday. The network worked fine. I played a movie on my computer and that worked fine. I shut the computer last night, and this morning when I started my computer, it crashed with the same problems. Right now I am posting this message via an external monitor connected to my computer and in safe mode, as windows is not able to load in a normal fashion. Can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance.

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 09:11:34 -0500, aatesin
<aatesin.3c6ogg@no.email.invalid> wrote:

>
>Good Day,
>
>I have a 1.1 year old Gateway CX210X (2 Ghz Core2Duo, 2.5 Gb Ram, ATI
>X1400).
>
>I have been having what seems to be a hardware issue with my computer.
>Basically last wednesday my computer suddenly froze (I could see what I
>was working on, but mouse and keyboard did not work). When I restarted
>my computer, although I could sense that windows was loading, my display
>was just blank (it seemed that no power was going to it). When I shut
>down the computer, wait and restart, sometimes the display would work,
>othertimes it would not. But invariably when the the display worked, it
>ultimately crashed before windows loaded completely with a blue screen
>indicating an error with the atikmdag.sys file. I have tried
>reinstalling windows vista from scratch twice since the problem started.
>The first time, everything was working nicely. I installed all the
>programs I use, and then the problem started again. On Saturday, I
>reinstalled vista. I installed all the available updates, firefox and
>avast antivirus software, but nothing else. The computer worked fine all
>day saturday and sunday. The network worked fine. I played a movie on my
>computer and that worked fine. I shut the computer last night, and this
>morning when I started my computer, it crashed with the same problems.
>Right now I am posting this message via an external monitor connected to
>my computer and in safe mode, as windows is not able to load in a normal
>fashion. Can anyone help me?
>


I'd be finding out who made the hard drive and getting their
diagnostic to run. Sure sounds like the drive isn't storing things
well. I suppose it could be a problem with the main board, but that
sure sounds like something bad on the hd in the operating system area.

In news:k9s6741jkua02ln9encue23fjiutllg3tr@4ax.com,
Chris Hill <hillco@earthlink.net> typed on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:54:01 -0500:
> On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 09:11:34 -0500, aatesin
> <aatesin.3c6ogg@no.email.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Good Day,
>>
>> I have a 1.1 year old Gateway CX210X (2 Ghz Core2Duo, 2.5 Gb Ram, ATI
>> X1400).
>>
>> I have been having what seems to be a hardware issue with my
>> computer. Basically last wednesday my computer suddenly froze (I
>> could see what I was working on, but mouse and keyboard did not
>> work). When I restarted my computer, although I could sense that
>> windows was loading, my display was just blank (it seemed that no
>> power was going to it). When I shut down the computer, wait and
>> restart, sometimes the display would work, othertimes it would not.
>> But invariably when the the display worked, it ultimately crashed
>> before windows loaded completely with a blue screen indicating an
>> error with the atikmdag.sys file. I have tried reinstalling windows
>> vista from scratch twice since the problem started. The first time,
>> everything was working nicely. I installed all the programs I use,
>> and then the problem started again. On Saturday, I reinstalled
>> vista. I installed all the available updates, firefox and avast
>> antivirus software, but nothing else. The computer worked fine all
>> day saturday and sunday. The network worked fine. I played a movie
>> on my computer and that worked fine. I shut the computer last night,
>> and this morning when I started my computer, it crashed with the
>> same problems. Right now I am posting this message via an external
>> monitor connected to my computer and in safe mode, as windows is not
>> able to load in a normal fashion. Can anyone help me?
>
> I'd be finding out who made the hard drive and getting their
> diagnostic to run. Sure sounds like the drive isn't storing things
> well. I suppose it could be a problem with the main board, but that
> sure sounds like something bad on the hd in the operating system area.

If you can't find a diagnostic program, Windows surface scan should find
problems too if it is the hard drive. You didn't drop the laptop or anything
while it was running, did you? As hard drives don't like being banged around
too much while they are running.

Although if you are going to bang them around a bit, this is were SSD (solid
state drive) comes in handy. You can buy them to replace your existing 2.5
inch hard drive. Or get a computer that already uses them like the Asus EEE
PCs. They are perfect in areas like car travel where hard drives can't take
that much of a beating.

--
Bill
Gateway Celeron M 370 (1.5GHZ)
MX6124 (laptop) w/2GB
Windows XP Home SP2 120GB HD)
Intel(r) 910GML (64MB shared)

In news:4873804b$0$1344$834e42db@reader.greatnowhere. com,
BillW50 typed on Tue, 8 Jul 2008 09:57:14 -0500:
> In news:k9s6741jkua02ln9encue23fjiutllg3tr@4ax.com,
> Chris Hill <hillco@earthlink.net> typed on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:54:01
> -0500:
>> On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 09:11:34 -0500, aatesin
>> <aatesin.3c6ogg@no.email.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> Good Day,
>>>
>>> I have a 1.1 year old Gateway CX210X (2 Ghz Core2Duo, 2.5 Gb Ram,
>>> ATI X1400).
>>>
>>> I have been having what seems to be a hardware issue with my
>>> computer. Basically last wednesday my computer suddenly froze (I
>>> could see what I was working on, but mouse and keyboard did not
>>> work). When I restarted my computer, although I could sense that
>>> windows was loading, my display was just blank (it seemed that no
>>> power was going to it). When I shut down the computer, wait and
>>> restart, sometimes the display would work, othertimes it would not.
>>> But invariably when the the display worked, it ultimately crashed
>>> before windows loaded completely with a blue screen indicating an
>>> error with the atikmdag.sys file. I have tried reinstalling windows
>>> vista from scratch twice since the problem started. The first time,
>>> everything was working nicely. I installed all the programs I use,
>>> and then the problem started again. On Saturday, I reinstalled
>>> vista. I installed all the available updates, firefox and avast
>>> antivirus software, but nothing else. The computer worked fine all
>>> day saturday and sunday. The network worked fine. I played a movie
>>> on my computer and that worked fine. I shut the computer last night,
>>> and this morning when I started my computer, it crashed with the
>>> same problems. Right now I am posting this message via an external
>>> monitor connected to my computer and in safe mode, as windows is not
>>> able to load in a normal fashion. Can anyone help me?
>>
>> I'd be finding out who made the hard drive and getting their
>> diagnostic to run. Sure sounds like the drive isn't storing things
>> well. I suppose it could be a problem with the main board, but that
>> sure sounds like something bad on the hd in the operating system
>> area.
>
> If you can't find a diagnostic program, Windows surface scan should
> find problems too if it is the hard drive. You didn't drop the laptop
> or anything while it was running, did you? As hard drives don't like
> being banged around too much while they are running.
>
> Although if you are going to bang them around a bit, this is were SSD
> (solid state drive) comes in handy. You can buy them to replace your
> existing 2.5 inch hard drive. Or get a computer that already uses
> them like the Asus EEE PCs. They are perfect in areas like car travel
> where hard drives can't take that much of a beating.

Another idea just popped into my head. Make sure the CPU isn't overheating.
Something like BattStat v0.98 should do nicely to report the CPU and HD
temps.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 4GB SSD 2GB SODIMM 16GB SDHC
Windows XP Home SP2 - 10400mAh

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:31:47 -0500, "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote:

>In news:4873804b$0$1344$834e42db@reader.greatnowhere. com,
>BillW50 typed on Tue, 8 Jul 2008 09:57:14 -0500:
>> In news:k9s6741jkua02ln9encue23fjiutllg3tr@4ax.com,
>> Chris Hill <hillco@earthlink.net> typed on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:54:01
>> -0500:
>>> On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 09:11:34 -0500, aatesin
>>> <aatesin.3c6ogg@no.email.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Good Day,
>>>>
>>>> I have a 1.1 year old Gateway CX210X (2 Ghz Core2Duo, 2.5 Gb Ram,
>>>> ATI X1400).
>>>>
>>>> I have been having what seems to be a hardware issue with my
>>>> computer. Basically last wednesday my computer suddenly froze (I
>>>> could see what I was working on, but mouse and keyboard did not
>>>> work). When I restarted my computer, although I could sense that
>>>> windows was loading, my display was just blank (it seemed that no
>>>> power was going to it). When I shut down the computer, wait and
>>>> restart, sometimes the display would work, othertimes it would not.
>>>> But invariably when the the display worked, it ultimately crashed
>>>> before windows loaded completely with a blue screen indicating an
>>>> error with the atikmdag.sys file. I have tried reinstalling windows
>>>> vista from scratch twice since the problem started. The first time,
>>>> everything was working nicely. I installed all the programs I use,
>>>> and then the problem started again. On Saturday, I reinstalled
>>>> vista. I installed all the available updates, firefox and avast
>>>> antivirus software, but nothing else. The computer worked fine all
>>>> day saturday and sunday. The network worked fine. I played a movie
>>>> on my computer and that worked fine. I shut the computer last night,
>>>> and this morning when I started my computer, it crashed with the
>>>> same problems. Right now I am posting this message via an external
>>>> monitor connected to my computer and in safe mode, as windows is not
>>>> able to load in a normal fashion. Can anyone help me?
>>>
>>> I'd be finding out who made the hard drive and getting their
>>> diagnostic to run. Sure sounds like the drive isn't storing things
>>> well. I suppose it could be a problem with the main board, but that
>>> sure sounds like something bad on the hd in the operating system
>>> area.
>>
>> If you can't find a diagnostic program, Windows surface scan should
>> find problems too if it is the hard drive. You didn't drop the laptop
>> or anything while it was running, did you? As hard drives don't like
>> being banged around too much while they are running.
>>
>> Although if you are going to bang them around a bit, this is were SSD
>> (solid state drive) comes in handy. You can buy them to replace your
>> existing 2.5 inch hard drive. Or get a computer that already uses
>> them like the Asus EEE PCs. They are perfect in areas like car travel
>> where hard drives can't take that much of a beating.
>
>Another idea just popped into my head. Make sure the CPU isn't overheating.
>Something like BattStat v0.98 should do nicely to report the CPU and HD
>temps.

The key here was the atikmdag.sys error on the BSD.

That sounds like a video driver problem, try installing the Omega ATI
drivers. They are modified drivers that can have cured ATI video card
problems.
Also try to update the latest drivers from ATI or Gateway.
Now that you have got the BSD, also run CHKDSK.

samurai.