[guitar_freak8894]

hi,

my laptop constanly freezes or goes to BSOD when using skype or msn. So far theyre the only programs that it has crashed while using. I used Blue screen view to try and find the problem and it highlights tcpip.sys and ntoskrnl.exe as the source of the problems. Whether this is accurate or not I'm not so sure. I'm not very good with computer tech but if anyone could please help I would be grateful. The 3 times it has gone to BSOD the minidump files are attached. I don't get any minidumps for when it just freezes.

Attached Files

•  Minidump.zip   77.22KB   185 downloads

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All the threads I find on this point to a NIC or Wireless driver problem. Since this is a laptop I'm guessing you are using wireless. If so, go to the computer manufacturers support site and download the latest driver for the wireless device. Ditto if you are using a wired (NIC) connection instead of a wireless. Download the latest driver available and see if that helps.

If you need help finding the right driver, post the make and model number and I (or others here) will help find it.

[Ztruker]

All the threads I find on this point to a NIC or Wireless driver problem. Since this is a laptop I'm guessing you are using wireless. If so, go to the computer manufacturers support site and download the latest driver for the wireless device. Ditto if you are using a wired (NIC) connection instead of a wireless. Download the latest driver available and see if that helps.

If you need help finding the right driver, post the make and model number and I (or others here) will help find it.

[dellaseren]

I'm having a similar problem with BSOD and tcpip.sys! I couldn't find any newer drivers for anything to do with my wireless! I can't seem to find any help on the net for it anywhere either! Good luck! I'll let you know if I find the answer!

Edited by dellaseren, 16 June 2011 - 06:30 AM.

[guitar_freak8894]

I went onto device manager and updated everything i could find there including 3 network adapters which include these and several other hidden drivers : Atheros AR8152 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.200)
Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter
Microsoft Visual WiFi Miniport Adapter

These didn't update though something to do with not finding the file specified:
WAN Miniport (IP)
WAN Miniport (IPv6)
WAN Miniport (L2TP)
WAN Miniport (Network Monitor)
WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
WAN Miniport (PPTP)

Is that enough?? Oh and thanks for the quick replies i expected to be waiting a few days

Edited by guitar_freak8894, 16 June 2011 - 07:29 AM.

[Ztruker]

These are the ones I meant:

Atheros AR8152 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.200)
Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter

Did it make a difference?

[guitar_freak8894]

Well its only been a few hours but no BSOD or freezes so far. According to windows though they were already up to date. So i doubt they're the problem, unfortunately. But I'll see how things go.

[yongsua]

Me too.I got this BSOD after Windows Update.My laptop can't finish loading the "Welcome".I formatted my laptop but I get an error message about Windows installation error and needs to restart installation.

[Ztruker]

If it didn't update anything then I'm sure nothing is fixed.

I did find a different/newer driver for the wireless card: Drivers for Atheros AR9285 and Windows 7. It looks like it's version 9.2.0.113. Is that different than the one you downloaded?

[guitar_freak8894]

I didn't manually download driver updates or anything so I'm not sure. I just used device manager and right clicked update and it said whether an update was available or not. Could you show me this driver update and how to update it please? Also on a side note i got another BSOD so I attached the minidump. It crashed using Skype and while playing a java game online, though it doesnt seem to crash when I play it offline so I doubt that's it.

edit: also after checking the Atheros AR9285 properties I found that it's version 8.0.0.258, which is a good bit behind the update you found there.

Attached Files

•  061811-27050-01.zip   25.18KB   204 downloads

Edited by guitar_freak8894, 18 June 2011 - 09:57 PM.

[Ztruker]

My previous post was supposed to have a link to the driver, but it was messed up. I corrected it. Click on the link then scroll down and click on the Click for download button. Wait a bit and you will get the Save dialog for win7-9.2.0.113-whql.zip.

Once it's saved, right click on the zip file (wherever you saved it) and select Extract all.

Remember the folder the files are extracted to, C:\Documents and Settings\myuserid\My Documents\Downloads\win7-9.2.0.113-whql in my case.
Open Device Manager and double click on the Atheros Network device.
Click on the Driver tab then Update driver button.
Select No, not this time and click Next.
Select Install from a list or specific location and click Next.
Uncheck Search removable mediaand check Include this location in the search.
Click the Browse button and navigate to where the files were extracted.
Click OK as needed to install the driver.

I hope that is all the steps needed.

Reboot, see if that makes a difference.

[guitar_freak8894]

The steps are slightly different on my laptop. I downloaded and extracted the files to my downloads folder. Went into device manager > Network Adapters > Atheros AR9285 Wireless network Adapter > Properties > Driver > Update driver. The steps change here. I dont get an option saying No, not this time or anything after that. I get 2 options and a question: How do you want to search for driver software? Option A: Search automatically for updated driver software and option B: Browse my computer for driver software manually. Looking back at your steps I noticed a step saying: Click the browse button and navigate to where the files were extracted. So I selected the browse manually option, but I'm curious as to why I don't see the few steps before you say click the browse button etc. Anyhow, I went to the folder I extracted the files and selected it. But below where I type the directory for the folder containing the files I previously downloaded location, I see another option saying: Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer. I chose to ignore it for now and went onto next. In less than a second Windows tells me that my device is already up to date, even though it is still version: 8.0.0.258. I'm not sure what went wrong though. Sorry if this is long I just wanted to make sure I show everything I did just incase I made a mistake. Thanks for the help.

[Ztruker]

I'm away from home using my XP Laptop so I can't go through the steps for Vista/Win 7. Apparently there is more of a difference than I remembered.

Unless someone else can walk through the steps this will have to wait until I get home Wednesday afternoon.

[guitar_freak8894]

I can wait until wednesday. It's happening less often for some strange reason. I haven't cut back on my skype or msn use.

Maybe my laptop's just going through a lucky phase.

Edited by guitar_freak8894, 21 June 2011 - 09:00 AM.

[Ztruker]

Sorry, I lost track of this thread. Got your PM, thanks for letting me know.

I just walked through this on Windows 7 and see what you saw.

I can't actually do the update as I don't have an updated driver for my network card but what you did sounds correct to me. No idea why it's telling you it's up to date as the file you downloads was win7-9.2.0.113-whql.zip which is quite a bit newer then 8.0.0.258.

I'll ask if any of the other techs here have an idea how to fix this. I'm out of ideas at the moment.

[Ztruker]

Got this suggestion:

I think you can probably just go into the folder where you extracted all and then right click on netathr.inf (32 bit) or netathrx.inf (64 bit) and Install.

I treid it and if you right click on the .inf file, Install is one of the choices, so give that a try.

If that doesn't help, here is another idea:

After Update Driver Software, choose "Browse My Computer for Driver Software" then "Let me Pick from a List of Device Drivers on My Computer" on mine I get a list of several versions to choose from. Had to do this the other day when Windows Updates failed to upgrade the Video Driver.