Beatnik

Has anyone received this popup/error repeatedly? I'd been gettiing them on my laptop, followed by a couple blue screen crashes upon startup, with the message that a memory dump was in progress.

Thinking it might be an issue with bad RAM (I have an additional 512 MB of Kingston DDR2 plugged in with the original 512 that came with the laptop), I removed the RAM and the problems stopped. I could boot up just fine into windows and do everything normally, just...slooower.

So I put back in the extra RAM, and no more hard crashes/blue screens. However, those damn Delayed Write Failed popups have started appearing again.

I've googled the issue but it seems most other "DWF" issues revolve around copying large files. This only happens when small cache files are being written in the background with me - I've been able to transport large media (movie/music) over my network with no problems.

Any ideas for troubleshooting/resolution?? Thanks!

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Tempus

I saw this before on one of my computers.. I think it had to do with bad mobo chipset drivers. I would give updating them a try.

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Is it an ATI video card? I've heard of older version of the Catalyst drivers causing Delayed Write Failed messages. I'm not sure if they've occurred on laptops though. Updating the Catalyst drivers fixed the problem.

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Beatnik

Ok - yeah I should have included the system specs:

Dell Inspiron 6000
Pentium M 1.8 Ghz
1 gig DDR2 memory (1 stock 512MB, 1 Kingston 512 MB)
ATI X300 Mobile
80 gig stock HD
etc.

No idea what the mobo chipset is, but the Dell site should have that info. I'll also see if I can find an update for the X300 Mobile drivers.

This is just an anxious issue right now, as I'm about to get on a plane home for xmas in a few hours, and having a broken laptop (i.e. no internets for 2 weeks)...raises some serious (and most likely unfounded) internets separation anxiety. lol

Thanks for the replies so far... any and all other input is much appreciated!

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BHack

sounds like bad RAM.

Google and run "memtest86"

That will tell you if your RAM is ok or not.

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Sparticus

also you could try taking out the origional ram and keeping the new ram in and see if you have any issues, also make sure that the clock and cache latency is the same on the RAM.

Example
DDR2 667 CL4

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jmaker

Well take out the new ram and see if you are still getting the delayed write failure error messages. If you're not then you're just going to have to live with one 512mb stick until you can resolve this issue when you get back home. But hey at least your laptop will work until then.

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Beatnik

Cool - I'll try the RAM test. I've run it with the old RAM re-installed a bit so far and nothing major, other than the one DWF incident. I've had the Kingston RAM for about as long as I've had the laptop (~18 months), so hopefully it hasn't turned south. Thanks for the memtest linkage - I totally forgot about that utility!

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Beatnik

This problem has gotten worse on my laptop over the past few weeks. I've switched out both RAM and still get the crashes with either one alone in the laptop. It constantly (multiple times a day) crashes with a Hard Error blue screen that says something like "A process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated."

When I restart it, it doesn't see the hard drive (or bootable device), but after a few minutes it boots fine. I've updated my BIOS and updated the chipset drivers. But I still no idea if this is a software or hardware problem.

My question is: Does anyone have any other troubleshooting tools or ideas on what I can do to identify the problem before finally reformatting the drive?

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Beatnik

Argh. The issue continues. After 7 hours reformatting the HD (which took several attempts due to repeated breaks in the initial Windows Setup process), re-installing windows, and getting my laptop back in order, I got another BSOD crash today. So it looks like the best case scenario is that it's a HD problem, worst case is it's either CPU memory or Video Card memory that's gone south. I finally got memtest working, so hopefully that can confirm (or not) that either my RAM, video memory or CPU memory are all working (or not).

Any other ideas on what I can do to hardware troubleshoot this? I need this laptop for work on Saturday (since my awesome employer doesn't provide me with a PC to use in class), and my urge to kill is rising by the minute...

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Dick Blonov

Memtest is not very forgiving; if it passes, chances are, RAM, CPU, and chipset (at least Northbridge) are OK. Since a harddrive is, well, mechanical, it's most likely the culprit.

You may be able to grab some HD test utility, but I think at this point, all points to the HD.


Cheers.

DB

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Beatnik

Thanks DB. Just talked to an old friend who works tech support and has to deal with lots of Dell notebooks and he just said the same thing. Delayed Write Fail + lots of hard errors + system not seeing bootable devices on restart = (most likely) bad HD. Looks like the best possible problem, since I can upgrade to a larger HD for $80.

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