Fed up with 0x7F crashes

[Dragonblaster]

I own a Vaio VGN-FE41M preinstalled with Vista Home Premium. It has all the available updates installed.

After running for a week or so without problems, the notebook will start to develop a rash of blue screen crashes - 0x7F 0x8 0x80153... I think it goes. This is an Unexpected Kernel Mode Trap double fault, so I'm told. After a while will do it every time I boot.

I've run memtest all night with no problems. sfc /scannow reports corrupt files but gives no clue as to what they are and says it can't repair them. I've run Norton 360 scans DriverMax, Registry Booster... everything I can think of. It never does it in Safe Mode, which makes me wonder if it's the graphics driver, but I can't find a more up to date one.

Ultimately, all I can do is do a complete clean reinstall and start again. I must have done this eight or nine times since November 2007, and I'm fed up with it. For the first few days, no problems. Then a long, long boot, getting to the desktop screen, followed by a blue screen crash.

I'm running 100% legal software.

I only reinstalled last on Sunday. Whaddya know? Today on getting home from work, I was greeted with a blue screen reading 0x7F 0x8 0x80153...

Anyone had anything similar, or have any suggestions?

[Blencogo]

Hi Dragonblaster and welcome to Club Vaio.
There are lots of references to this problem on the web: -

http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/51281.html
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=137539

but few seem to offer a good resolution.

Have you updated the BIOS to BIOS Update R0200J3?

This is normally memory related or in some cases caused by AntiVirus software but I think if I were you, I would follow those instincts that point to the graphics driver.

Try installing the latest Sony driver - nVIDIA ForceWare X 167.43 for Windows Vista 32bit - available from here: -

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16276

[Dragonblaster]

Thanks for the constructive advice, Blencogo!

My BIOS is version 19, so that could be a good tip... I just wish Vaio Update had told me there was a BIOS update!

Good heads-up on the graphics driver, too. I've tried all sorts from nVidia that wouldn't install, so I hope this does.

I'll get back to you on how I get on.

Thanks again!

[Dragonblaster]

I don't bloody believe it! I downloaded the latest BIOS, made sure my laptop was stable and started to reflash...

7F blue screen in the middle of flashing! So I now have an expensive doorstop unless I can get a new chip.