Laptop Issue

[Midknyte]

Ok good. So it is sounding more like a software issue. I wonder how Best Buy determined it was a bad drive?

You can use Bluescreenview to look at the dump files. That should give you a better idea of what could be causing the BSODs.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

You might also want to run Memtest86+ off of UBCD on the laptop. It's possible that there is a bad ram chip. I typically let it run for at least 2-3 full passes.

[TonyMan]

Yeah, I was a little suspicious of that myself, that is why I held of on getting a drive after the reading I did made it seem like the issue might be a driver. I ran the MEMTEST already but will run it a few more time.. I'll also check out that site since I have a ton of dump files & can pretty much create a new one whenever I start it. If any of this doesn't yield any clues then my plan is to format the drive (she has the data off it already), install a clean Windows with the disk I get from Toshiba. I am going to turn off automatic Windows updates and if it runs for a few days & many reboots without problems, slowly apply updates to keep track of them, and the same for the Toshiba driver update application. I've got a couple of full days coming up, so may not have an update till Monday.

Thanks again for the all the help, I'll let you know how it goes.

[Train]

I killed the Toshiba updates after I saw everything was running right.
Fact is I disabled almost all updates in scheduled tasks.

[SpywareDr]

Many problems cause an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error.

[TonyMan]

Capture.JPGAttached is the result of looking at the dump file & what is says is responsible. To me, at least, it's not giving a whole lot to go on.

However, I remember that she had virus issues a few months back and after that was cleaned up I loaded the Norton stuff that comes free with Comcast because she had nothing installed. I just uninstalled that and have made 3 good restarts without an issue. I'm not ready to say that was it, but am going to try to do maybe 30 restarts over the weekend to see what happens. If it always reboots clean then I will re install Norton to see if it has an effect But, it does kinda stymie me that Norton could cause such an issue. Will update later this weekend.

[Train]

Norton over the years has caused all kinds of hair pulling errors.

Just be sure to use their Removal tool to clean up the mess it leaves behind when uninstalled.
https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/...rProfile_en_us

[TonyMan]

I've removed every trace of Norton & it's been running fine all weekend, no BSOD. I turned the driver verifier back on to see if that will force any issues, but it's been fine. I am going to leave it running over night, do a few more restarts in tomorrow, then re-install Norton and see what happens.

As far as the question on how did the guy at Best Buy come to the conclusion the drive was bad - I haven't talked to my sister, but my daughter was with her when they went there. She says the guy booted it up, saw the IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, and told her it was most likely the drive, saying they typically don't last over two years before going bad. He then quoted charges for pulling her data off, installing a new drive, then re-installing windows somewhere between $300 & $400. When my sister told me about the charges I was under the impression they had kept it & run diagnostics. Whether or not Norton brings the problem back, I believe it's time for some contact with manager of the Geek Squad at that store!

[SpywareDr]

Guesstimate

Diagnostics $30
Pull data off $30
New drive $120
Install drive $30
Reinstall Windows $120
Restore data $30
Total $360

[TonyMan]

Well, I've been playing with it for a few days. I installed Norton and still have no problem. Got me wondering what was causing the BSOD. Only theory I can come up with at this time is that maybe something got corrupted in Norton & by uninstalling & running their Removal tool that took care of it & the new install has no problems.