My friend just purchased a Toshiba 2615DVD laptop yesterday. He was playing a CD in the drive while checking out what it came installed with and it locked up. He called me (he’s even more computer literate that I am!) and asked me what to do. I told him just to reboot it and it was probably an isolated incident. Apparently, it happened 3 more times since then, and is ready to take the computer back to the store.
Does anyone know why the laptop is doing this, or know any remedies I can pass along to him? Thanks!
The most rewarding part was when I got my money!
-Dr. Nick Riviera
BSD is a software problem. It could be the CD player software or an OS problem.
Returning it wont solve a thing unless your friend attempts a couple of things.
#1, find out what the BSD problem is stemming from. Most likely this is a VXD file that is corrupt. 95% of my BSD errors are VXD (virtual device driver) problems.
A simple reinstall of the CD software may help. If not, then a reinstall of the OS and all the drivers usually help.
On occasion, the factory has installed the OS from a bad copy of the software. (they do mass installs and load the OS directly from the hard drive rather from the CD that comes with your system.)
Have your friend try this first before returning it. If it doesn’t work then it time to call Toshiba’s support. It may be possible that the CD player software has a serious bug in it and they may have a fix.
Since the machine is new, reinstalling the OS and the drivers should be a pretty simple task. Also, keep in mind that if you do have hardware problems, most computers will show their evil side within the first two months.
My only thought to pass along will echo TC68’s (there’s something appealing about that username abr.). If it’s a new machine without any additional software/data history to speak of, I’d go for the fresh install over a patch. Different story if it was 18 months old and heavily used, perhaps.
The advice by techchick68 is sound, but keep in mind that it can also be a hardware problem. Don’t spend TOO much time trying to fix it. The other day I bought a new computer which would freeze after about half an hour of use. I spent a whole day re-booting, resetting to factory configuration, etc., and had no luck. The store replaced it and the new unit works perfectly. Though before they replaced it they insisted on verifying that the problem exists, which of course took half an hour…
I agree, however, if there is only one specific BSD then it’s usually a software problem (from my experience.) If you get continuous BSDs that aren’t related combined with illegal operations and the like, then a hardware issue is the culprit. Rarely have I come across a single BSD and not being resolved by reinstalling software.
But that’s just my experience. Also, like I said, usually if you are to have hardware problems with a computer it will show up the first 2 months use.
Thank you all who answered this question.
TC68, I am not a total computer illiterate, but I am not afraid to ask for assistance if I feel there is even a chance I’m wrong. Your advice is appreciated and will be passed on (with the proper credit, of course!)
The most rewarding part was when I got my money!
-Dr. Nick Riviera
In my experience laptop computers of all brands are far more likely to experience lockups than a desktop equivalent running the same software. They are also more likely to have unresolvable problems with OS installation (example, it is pretty well impossible to install NT 4.0 on an IBM Thinkpad 600 - the only way it can be done is to build an image on a similar configured laptop of different make, load it with Ghost and tweak it till it works marginally).
If anyone has extensive experience with a laptop brand that does not have this drawback I’d like to hear of it.
Which BSD are we talking about here? I occasionally get a blue screen when my Win 98 home system crashes or something locks up. But I have only heard of the blue screen that occasionally appears with NT as the BSD.
