Yesterday I thought my Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 laptop (Vista operating system) flat-lined for good. It has been blanking out and going to a blue screen indicating that the recent memory was being dumped, but yesterday was most definitely different. Usually it would go straight to a start up repair diagnostic that would "attempt" to determine the cause for the shutdown, but when it did this yesterday, it indicated that nothing was 'wrong,' and that I should contact the system admin or technical help for assistance... then just shutdown. Every time I attempted to get it up and going, I would only get as far as a Windows start up display... and then it would jump straight to a blue screen and freeze.
I eventually got it up and going by using the system restore via 'other options menu' after the start up diagnostic failed to find a problem, but I am still worried about the blue screens and memory dumps. I think the start up problem I encountered last night (which almost gave me a heart attack because I thought my laptop was effectively dead) was due to the fact I inadvertently shut down the laptop while I was using the system restore application before it was 'complete.' The whole reason I was using the system restore to begin with was due to a memory dump/blue screen I had encountered a hour before. The info on the blue screen and the start up repair diagnostic kept saying that I should remove any new software or hardware recently added to my laptop, and contact technical assistance. Well, I have not added any new software or hardware of late; the only thing I have done is update programs that have long since been installed on my laptop (i.e. Symantec Antivirus, Windows updates, etc.).
I have noticed that every time I do go through this torture, I have noticed that my Symantec Antivirus updates are being 'dumped,' if that is an appropriate term. Every time this happens I only have the most recent update for February 1, 2010 - even though I've updated it consistently over the past month. The only other abnormal event that occurred was with regard to the Microsoft Licensing - it had a pop up box indicating that it had stop working yesterday. I am not sure if that was the catalyst for my problem, but that is the only other event I can recall happening prior to my 1st memory dump/blue screen yesterday afternoon prior to my system restore attempt and 2nd blue screen last night.
I would really appreciate any help or advice anyone could give me about this problem I have. I have a 'gut' feeling this will happen again. Thanks!
-Ryan
