Chronic laptop crashing

[Brackis]

Insp 4150 (around 2-3 years old) has had major crashing issues after around 1 hour+ of use for the last 6 months.
I reformatted my HD, put a new HD, reformatted that, and still having issues.
Essentially I get a blue screen that comes up saying new hardware is causing my computer to crash, yet I have added no new hardware.

Is this a MB, RAM, CPU or otherwise issue?

Thanx,
Brackis

 

[fbrdphreak]

Could be:

*Bad RAM
*Overheating CPU
*Driver conflict

Driver is unlikely due to reinstall of Windows, but are you using the latest drives?

Download & run Memtest86 overnight to test for mem errors.

Download MobileMeter and check your CPU temp. Dunno what is in an Insp 4150, but if you're breaking 60C sitting there I'd say there's a problem

 

[TheCanuck]

Could be a heat issue. Have you tried blowing out the heastink with compressed air?

Try downloading mobilemeter and see what your CPU temps are: http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259/

think that has a P4-M / ATI 7500 right? I have a P4-M as well and it idles at around 35C and maxes out at 60C when doing intensive jobs. You might want to try running it in max-battery mode so that the CPU is always at 1.2GHz -- would tell you if it's a heat issue if it stops crashing.

ATI card could be having problems as well. You could always try upgrading the driver. I've found the Omega drivers to be the best so far: http://www.omegadrivers.net/

 

[fbrdphreak]

If you blow the heatsink out with compressed air, be sure NOT to allow the air to spin the fan. You will damage the fan -- use something to hold the fan in place and then blow the dust out.