If anyone has an idea, please help. This is my first post here, so I hope this post belongs on Server Fault, and that I followed all the rules.
Here's the situation:
A colleague of mine has a laptop PC/W7 Pro. He was having regular BSoDs (and of course auto-reboots, so no time to back up anything).
He used Windows' Restore functionnality to go back to a restore point, one just before the latest Windows updates (that apparently caused the BSoDs). It didn't help.
After changing the settings to make it so the computer doesn't reboot at the end of the memory dump, I could see on the next BSoD that one file was mentionned, which happened to be one of the files of the integrated NIC's drivers. BTW, I don't know how to interpret the STOP hexadecimal number.
Also, after checking a few " *.dmp " files in " C:\Windows\Minidump " (using Windows Debugger), which are quite difficult to interpret, I saw the same previously mentionned NIC driver file, along with this Windows file: " ntkrnlpa.exe ". This later file appears to be an important Windows file, and it should not be the cause of the BSoD, according to a quick search I made.
At this point, I figured, I'm going to try to properly uninstall then (re)install the drivers of the NIC (from the laptop manufacturer's site). It didn't solve the issue, as there would still be BSoDs.
I remembered he told me that he thought the BSoDs started happening after a Windows update. So I checked what updates where installed, and saw that some audio chipset drivers were installed. Maybe that was the issue, so I uninstalled the drivers, and installed the ones from the laptop manufacturer's site. It didn't solve the issue.
Another colleague told me to try the GPU's drivers, so I did. The issue remained.
Well, at least, at this point, his drivers were up-to-date.
I used the laptop's built-in diagnostic tool (which must be run at boot time). While some issues where mentionned, including the BSoDs, all associated tests were successful.
I called the manufacturer, explained everything, and they told me to give them the STOP number along with all the " *.dmp " files. They told me it was the NIC's drivers that were causing the issue (which is what I thought too, but wasn't sure). They told me to reinstall the NIC's drivers, this time from the card's website (they gave me the exact link). However, they also told me to first install the motherboard's chipset drivers (two drivers to install from their site).
The BSoDs didn't occur anymore. All is well that ends well? Not quite, apparently he started having some network connectivity issues. From time to time, the Ethernet connection would go down. So it seemed that the problem was still coming from the integrated NIC, eventhough I had just installed the chipset + NIC drivers, as previously mentionned.
Apparently, it was not because of some DHCP problem (I don't know what was checked exactly).
So, at this point, he reinstalled the MB's chipset drivers (only one of the two I installed). He told me that since the NIC was integrated into the MB, that it would work. I'm not sure I understood. He said it seemed to have solved the problem, but then he said that it didn't. When I asked the manufacturer, they told me to reinstall Windows.
I have some questions, as I'm still trying to figure out why, though the system is now more stable (no BSoDs/potential loss of work in progress/data), there are still some problems which seem to come from the Ethernet card:
1) I know that it's an integrated NIC, that the MB is the main component which links all the other components together, and that if the MB's chipset drivers are not working properly, the MB will not work properly, potentially causing other components to not work properly either. Still, If I uninstall the NIC's drivers, which are separate from the MB's drivers, my colleague might reinstall the MB's drivers all he wants, the NIC won't be recognized by Windows (in " Device Manager "), so no network connectivity. Maybe I'm missing something, and he knows something I don't, there's no problem in that, I'm just trying to understand.
2) At this point, I'm wondering if the hardware is not faulty, but since it's an integrated NIC, I can't swap the card with a known working card.
3) I can only think of a full, clean and proper Windows reinstallation at this point, as suggested by the manufacturer. If the network connectivity issue persists, than it would mean that the MB should be replaced, as the NIC is not working properly anymore. If the issue stops, than it would mean that although I properly reinstalled the drivers, Windows was sufficiently "damaged" enough so as to not work properly anymore. Does that make sense?
4) However, he does not want a full reinstall, since he doesn't want to have to reinstall all the programs/data he needs, and he doesn't have the time, he just needs his laptop, which I understand. Maybe I should wait until he takes some time off to do the install? Still, I don't think he wants that, even if I do it while he's not busy. Could it be that Windows needs to be reinstalled? Or maybe I'm just not skilled enough to fix the problem without taking the "easy way out"? That's all I have to offer though, as of now.
5) Another possibility would be to use the "Repair option", from Windows' install DVD. But, I've never used that before. Does it only properly reinstall " C:\Windows "? Would I need to reinstall the drivers? Programs? What about the data? In this case though, there is no 100% guaranty it would work, but it would still take some time.
Thank you for your patience, I know it's a long post, but I tried to be as exhaustive as possible, as my colleague needs his laptop, and it's important for me to solve the problem.
Thank you for your help.
