Ever since I can remember, I routinely see the d

[decker]

Ever since I can remember, I routinely see the dreaded blue screen of death on my M4. Lately it has been becoming more apparent, I can't exactly reproduce the problem, but it seems to most often occur while playing video or games, or general use of the graphics card. Is this a systemic problem, or something I am facing on my own? I haven't been able to find any other reports similar to mine. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[ehammersley]

In the top left corner a couple of lines down the BSOD will list what caused it. Post what that says.

[Collegeonatablet]

I'm interested to see the exact message too. First thing I would do though is go to http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31872 and update to the latest drivers. If the problem still persists, try running a utility like powersrtip and actually underclocking the video card. This will tell you if the problem is caused by heat. If the problem still happens after these things, let me know, and I'll give you more idea's to try. Good luck, Brian Tate

[decker]

There are a couple different errors, the only one I can remember right now is: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

I'll repost next time I encounter them.

[decker]

Another error message is with the kmixer.sys file, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGE_AREA

[decker]

Here is the Microsoft report, from the third one I am after encountering.

Error type: Windows stop error (A message appears on a blue screen with error code information)

Solution available?: No (see Next steps)

What does this error mean?: Windows has encountered an error from which it cannot recover and needs to restart

Cause: Unknown device driver

Computer symptoms: A message appears on a blue screen with error code information (for example: e.g. 0x0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)


ALSO, I don't know if it is relevant, but I upgraded the ram to 1.5GB.

Thanks.

[ehammersley]

Three possible routes. Bad driver, memory issue or heat. More often than not IRQ and Kernel Exceptions are caused by bad drivers.

I assume you were getting the BSOD's prior to the RAM upgrade. For good measure I'd run http://www.memtest86.com/. It's quick, simple and will rule out memory issues.

If that passes I'd look closely at the video card driver. Download the stock driver from Toshiba, blow the current driver away and install the stock (albeit outdated) driver. See what happens. You can also follow the procedure on this board for updating the driver to the most curent level. I recommend against it at this time however. It would be better to troubleshoot with a known good driver set than hack an update. That is my personal opinion.

Last would be heat. Collegeonatablet's idea of underclocking the video card to reduce heat and seeing if the problem goes away might work. I don't know what other idea I might have other than that. Perhaps installing a hardware monitor and see if your GPU temp spikes prior to the BSOD might shed some light on it?

Oh, check your event log in Windows. Anything useful in there?

[decker]

You are correct, I did experience the BSOD prior to the RAM upgrade.

I have recently performed a system restore, so all drivers should be correct as per Toshiba's requirements. And I noticed no difference between post or pre recovery.

I am more inclined to go with the heat explaination myself. I recently got an external monitor setup, and upon doing so the rate at which I encountered the BSOD almost doubled.

Event log? I never knew Windows kept a log of event issues. Where would I find that?

If it is a heat issue I take it the problem is out of my hands and I need to bring it in to Toshiba?

[SimsHsia]

Hello,

You can access the Windows XP Event Viewer by doing the following:

Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer.

In the Event Viewer there are three or four logs, depending on your configuration. On my machine I have the following: Application, Security, System and Internet Explorer.

I would have you check the System Category and double click any types of logs that contain either Errors or Warnings that relate to nVidia in the "Source" column.

[JoM]

Try the simple things first. I had had to reload my M4 twice and call out the Toshiba warranty twice before the engineer and I decided over the phone that we ought to try new memory. The top 512 stick - factory fitted - was replaced and it has worked like a dream ever since

[ehammersley]

I agree with JoM. Try the www.memtest86.com I linked above. Bad RAM can do some crazy things. Since you had the BSOD issue before the RAM upgrade I would remove your new 1GB stick and run the memtest86 on your 512 stick. It's a simple test to rule out the RAM. While you're in the RAM bay reseat the 512 stick just for good measure.

Let us know if you need help with memtest86. The best way to run it is to download their bootable ISO and burn it to a CD. Then your system will boot to the memtest86 program to run its tests.

[decker]

When I checked the log, the following errors were present, but I don't quite understand what they mean. "Service Control Manager", "Tcpip", and "IFXTPM".

I am really inclined to think it is some how video related. I have dual displays, so whenever I do anything "challenging" video wise, like move a movie from one screen to another, or even while watching a movie, it more frequently crashes.

Could this be fan related therefore leading to over heating? Has anyone else experienced any over heating problems with their M4's? In really quiet settings I notice a low squeel coming from my fan, as if it is experiencing some difficulty, or friction point reducing its cooling capacity.

[m4_user]

I'm having the same problems(Arrrgh!). Instead of getting the BSOD (never seen it), it either freezes or shuts off.

Symptoms:
-Eventually happens during DVD movie play or HDTV video file such as an episode of "Without a Trace"

-Always happens when I start a video game. It will only play between 10 - 90 seconds and then it freezes (No exceptions!)

-Can happen with extensive real-time graphics rotation in 3D CAD (ProEngineer)

-When it freezes, the CPU fan goes into high-speed mode, indicating an error loop of 100% cycling

Notice that all of these are video related. For non-video activities, it's rock-stable. It's run for over 30 hours without a glitch.

All drivers are the latest but I'm noticing that video drivers for the 6200 have not been updated since March 14, 2005. This strikes me as being over-due for an update.

This happened before AND after upgrading memory. No difference. I suspected heat but it's not always warm or hot when it happens. I've checked the video chip fan thinking that it was stuck but it does spin.

Has anyone actually found out what is really happening? I love this machine otherwise, and I'm reluctant to even send it for warranty repair since I'm so dependent on it.

Heeeeelllllllp!

[duleb]

I have new (1 week)tecra m4 with same problems.
Freezing, BSOD, hibernation not working.
Reinstalled and problem still remanins.
Please, help

[spybyscript]

I would contact Toshiba and let them know of the issue. It can be overheating... back when I first received the notebook I had problems with overheating, which was solved somewhat by undervolting the cpu.

It's almost been one year now (May 26th would be a year) of having my Toshiba M4. I decided to send mine in a week ago because the heat problems were resurfacing (I had limited success in minimizing that over the time, but no longer able to).

The techs at Toshiba replaced the motherboard, said one of my fans (the one on the GPU) was not working, and the other was running slow. I don't know the results of their repair work yet, I'm getting my tablet back later today (their turn around wasn't as bad as I thought from reading posts by other people... sent it in on friday, received it back the very next friday).

I did not get the bluescreen issue, but I did get sudden shutoffs with the notebook refusing to turn back on for a couple of minutes, which is really, really indicative of the notebook overheating. This started happening in the last month or so.

[dceremuga]

FYI, I replaced my CPU recently from a 1.7 to a 2.1. I used ARCTIC SILVER 5, I also made the CPU heatsink mount a bit more secure. I notice it removes a lot more heat now and the CPU is running cooler.

I also undervolt.

No problems here. My system is now maxed out in every way and I love it. No need for a dual-core system. No lag, even multi-tasking. With 2 gigs of RAM, 7200RPM Hitachi 100 gig drive, every option including the newest Bluetooth module installed, this tablet PC is good for at least the 3 year warranty :).

[spybyscript]

Ok, 1 day after receiving my notebook back from Toshiba for a warranty repair.

In short:

1) No more overheating.
2) No more random rebooting.
3) I did not have bluetooth originally. For some reason I do now.
4) They replaced the LCD (listed on repair sheet) and it appears to be the wide angle display instead of the original. Another bonus!

So I had a real good experience with sending my M4 to the repair depot. One week turn around, my problems are fixed, and it appears that I got a couple of bonuses out of it.

[hardee2004]

I think you guys have the same problem as I do! I figured out what it was on mine. If you've ever had your M4 apart, you would have noticed that the corners of the GPU are epoxied to the mainboard. Apparently Toshiba was having problems with motherboard warpage during the prototype phase of these units. (When the motherboard gets hot it may slightly warp and break the connections between the mainboard and the GPU.) That is the reason they added the epoxy. Well, it turns out that the epoxy doesn't always do its job. Heres a suggestion: try removing all video drivers and run Windows XP without a graphics driver for a while. It DOES suck, and scrolling will be EXTREMELY slow, HOWEVER, it will help in diagnosing the problem. My M4 is out of warranty, so I'm SOL. I permenantly removed the drivers. If I even ATTEMPT to install them, the system will BSOD instantly. Without drivers, the system doesn't know how to utilize the GPU to the full extent and also doesn't know how to use the graphics memory, so it "fixed" my problem. Haven't had a single BSOD for the 3 months I've been running without a driver. And yes, I know it sucks, but I already purchased a Gateway M280 and don't particularly feel like purchasing a new motherboard for the Tecra M4.

[JoM]

Well done, guys, and I'm pleased the problems have been solved. Be aware that after three weeks with my new M4 about 15 months ago - BSOD, overheating, all other sorts of problems, a new hard disk AND three encounters with reloading Windows - the Toshiba technician and I agreed it might be worth swapping the RAM. The first stick went in and all the problems disappeared. Completely.

Try the simple things, and good luck

JoM