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Blue Screen of Death on Dimension E521
I just got my Dimension E521 on the 5th of February of 2007. It came pre-loaded with Vista Home Premium. I have had a blue screen of death almost every day since I got it. It seems that the only thing in common with every instance is that I am using Windows Media Center either watching or recording a show. This is very irritating considering it is a new system I've had less than 2 weeks. I checked for updated drivers and such but everything including the BIOS is up to date.
Has anyone else had this issue with their system? I was trying to send an email to tech support but it seems that they are having technical issues with the support site tonight. I guess I will try that tomorrow. If anyone has any help it would be greatly appreciated.
Shane
Madcatsden
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Posted February 16th, 2007 16:00
If you end up keeping the system and need help repost your intention. I'd be happy to help.- I contacted support via live chat. The technician I worked with checked my computer remotely and he came to the conclusion that it was a software issue and not a hardware issue. Upon researching on my own I found that the blue screens started happening after I installed Roxio Easy Media Creator 9. I am not sure that this was the source of the issue. The tech support guy told me I should uninstalled any software that I had installed or do a system image restore.I chose to do the restore and recieved a blue screen again after doing the restore. It happened just after getting to the desktop. Windows update had started to download updates then I got an error message that a device driver had been blocked due to compatibility issues. Then I got the blue screen. The driver that was blocked was Sonic Solutions DLA. After recovering from the blue screen, I uninstalled the Roxio Drag to Disc that was preinstalled on the system, because I had read in some other forums that Drag to Disc had some compatibility problems with Vista. Then everything seemed to be ok.Not quite. So as I am setting up Windows Media Center, I go to setup the TV and I get a message saying that no TV tuner was found. Now I was getting upset. I tried going to the support site and downloading the driver for the tuner installed on my system. I installed it, rebooted, and still no tv tuner found. Ready to give up and call the tech who gave a call back to check whether the issue had been resolved. I figured I would just do the image restore again.This time around I didn't get the blocked driver message, which was weird. So I hurried and uninstalled Roxio Drag to Disc agian, so I wouldn't have that issue. Then after doing the critical Windows updates, I tried to setup Windows Media Center again. This time around there wasn't an issue. TV tuner was setup and running again.Now I am only gonna install one program a day till I figure out what is causing the blue screen. Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 Basic is preinstalled on the system. So I will continue to use that for the next few days before I try to install the full retail version again, just to see if I get any more blue screens.If you need any more information or there is something you think I should try let me know.Thanks for all the helpShane
Message Edited by norml2000 on 02-17-2007 12:04 AM - >>>Roxio Easy Media Creator 9I've had problems with Roxio on every computer I've ever installed it on going back at least 4 years. Not all Dell boxes. I gave up on the product and switched to Nero and haven't had a moments grief from day 1. That would be on XP. Nero was flagged for Vista and I haven't tried it there yet.I remember running a multisession disk with Roxio and lost 2 of the 4 disks. Un-restorable.
Madcatsden
39 Posts
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Posted February 19th, 2007 15:00
Actually there IS a known compatibility issue with Roxio's garbage software and Vista. A recent Windows Update created the issues. Check the following link:
http://kb.roxio.com/content/kb/Creator/000131CR
Sorry you are still having all of these problems.
What I would do at this point is run the 32bit hardware diagnostic. Hit F12 at the Dell Splash screen. Choose Boot to Utility Partition. Chose a custom test for the hard drive and the RAM both and let me know how it goes.
Too many more issues and I MIGHT suggest returning it, you could just be running into problems with Vista and it's horrible compatibility issues it is currently having.- Ok, its been a couple of weeks since I started this post. I restored my computer with the restore image and got rid of all Roxio software... Everything seemed to work fine since I had uninstalled Roxio. Today though I got another blue screen, the first one since the restore a couple weeks ago. The only thing that I know for sure that is consistent with every blue screen is that Media Center is recording a show, and I am either watching a video file in Windows Media Player or watching the show that is recording. I thought getting rid of Roxio solved the blue screen problem, but obviously I was wrong. My computer is used frequently and I haven't had the blue screen issue for quite a while and I haven't installed any software within the last 6 days. So I am pretty sure that it isn't software I've installed causing the issue, since I have been recording and watching shows on a daily basis. If anyone else has the Dimension E521, please let me know if you've had this same issue. Thanks for any help or suggestions anyone can give. Shane
- rofl norm ive been trying to get some fourm help with my crashed dimension E510 and i saw "blue screen of death" and i thought of you, then i looked to see whos fourm it was and it says norm so im pretty sure your norm, lol this is JP from school :) but yea hope you got your problem solved!
fire_beeve
3 Posts
81
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Posted July 19th, 2008 15:00
Hi,
I have had the same problem And I also bought my computer the same time..I have been bounced around replaced the MOBO ,Video card ..Tested the memory and Hard Drive..And still nothing ..I still get the blue screen and it happens when I am watching a movie or tv or in the middle of a game,,it has happen when i was recording tv..and just out of the blue when no one has even touched the computer..
I work a local computer company that told me that it most likly to combatable issues with the MOBO and AMD and Vista ..I understand this is all new technoligy but Dell should refund or replace with something that works..I have the AMDx2 5600,2g,320HardDrive,7300LE video,,650 TV tuner..
Because of this ONGOING problem I built a new one this year 790iMOBO 3g sli memory 500g/32mbcacheHarddrive/Intel Q6700 2.66 and 2x8600gts videocards I took the TV tuner out of the Dell ..
But here is the funny part I paid $1400 for the Dell and $900 for the new one plus I got $150 in Mail-in-rebates for this new one..I think they should give me a full refund or a working computer..They keep telling me that they will turn it over to there Bosses but no one contacts me and I keep having to call back.
mombodog
2 Intern
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12735 Posts
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Posted February 16th, 2007 00:00