Blue Screen of Death with Vista !!

[Maris]

Hello
I use Vista & whenever I try to the open Control Panel I get the BSOD. The screen vanishes before I can read what it says & the PC reboots. I don't have any other problems with the PC but this is unnerving me. I've updated all drivers, run a virus check & spyware scan, windows is up to date.
Has anyone had any issues with this or suggestions on what to do please?

[Rik]

I've not used Vista, Maris, but hopefully one of the Vista users will be along shortly. Is there the equivalent of safe mode which you could try?

[Maris]

Thanks for the quick response, in safe mode the control panel opens ok.

[Simon]

Hi Maris,

Have you installed any new programs recently that may have added an applet to the Control Panel?  Having done a quick Google search, it seems to be a fairly common problem with Vista, the only solution being to uninstall the problem causing program, if you know what it is.  I'm not sure whether you can simply delete a Control Panel applet (*cpl), or whether this might cause more problems still.

If you can't access the Control Panel to get to remove a program, you can access Programs and Features by opening an Explorer window, then scroll down the left hand column to Control Panel, but click the little arrow by the side of it, then you can scroll down again, to Programs and Features, which should open.   

[drummer]

I've only seen one BSOD with Vista and on rebooting, an alert window opened describing what the cause was.  It wasn't my computer, so I don't know if that's a system default.

Although it's a Control Panel, try accessing the Event Viewer from the Start menu by typing eve in the Start Search field and selecting Event Viewer from the dialogue box that opens.  Hopefully, you should see something that helps you troubleshoot the blue screen event.

If you still get the blue screen by accessing Event Viewer, it's worth checking there in Safe mode.

[Maris]

Thank you for your replies.
I can get into 'Event Viewer'  & the problem seems to be with DriverFramworks-User Mode. The full details shown are:

Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode" Guid="{2e35aaeb-857f-4beb-a418-2e6c0e54d988}" />
  <EventID>10110</EventID>
  <Version>1</Version>
  <Level>1</Level>
  <Task>64</Task>
  <Opcode>0</Opcode>
  <Keywords>0x2000000000000000</Keywords>
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2007-12-15T10:43:28.319Z" />
  <EventRecordID>255551</EventRecordID>
  <Correlation />
  <Execution ProcessID="1016" ThreadID="1328" />
  <Channel>System</Channel>
  <Computer>Mission-Control</Computer>
  <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
  </System>
- <UserData>
- <UMDFHostProblem lifetime="{F0316BF5-A022-42BD-8A27-81930B73790C}" xmlns:auto-ns2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events" xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/DriverFrameworks/UserMode/Event">
  <Problem code="3" detectedBy="2" />
  <ExitCode>0</ExitCode>
- <Operation code="259">
  <Message>6</Message>
  <Status>4294967295</Status>
  </Operation>
  </UMDFHostProblem>
  </UserData>
  </Event>

Just what I thought of course, not. Any pointers on where I go from here would be much appreciated.

[Simon]

Sorry, that might as well be in Chinese to me.  I would be more inclined to think about what's installed on the machine, and if anything was installed recently, just prior to the problem starting.  If the above indicates a bad driver, it's not very clear as to what it actually is.  Hopefully, someone else will be able to help you with this one.   

[Ted]

Hi Maris
If you can, try and create a new user. Reboot and log on as that new user and go through the routine that causes the blue screen.
If all is well its most probably a screwed up setting in the other user account, if it still happens its a system fault.

[sobranie]

I don't use vista but I do use the following prog (free) entitled 'What's running' which may give you some ideas on what you may have installed and might just point you in the right direction if there's any 'funny' progs around.

http://www.whatsrunning.net/whatsrunning/main.aspx

[drummer]

The EV log entry <UMDFHostProblem> indicates that the issue is probably (almost definitely)  related to a device driver, but gives no clue as to the rogue driver/device.

Before you start uninstalling devices, be aware that Vista's Event Viewer has Administrative, Operational, Analytic, and Debug modes which can help locate and cure the source of a problem before any drastic action is taken.

My knowledge of Vista is fairly limited as I've uninstalled it from my rubbish Celeron machine, so all of the above is from memory (mine, not RAM  ).

[Maris]

Thanks all of you for your very constructive help; just hope I can work out a fix without having to reinstall windows.

[ducky22]

I think the problem is with a peripheral plugged in.

Unplug all your devices (scanner, printer, webcam etc) then plug the mouse and keyboard into DIFFERENT USB ports (assuming your mouse and keyboard are USB) from what they were in before.

[Inactive]

Good point Ducky, I have a Canon USB Printer, which if left switched on will not allow my computer to boot up ( XP ), switch off the Canon Printer and it is fine.

Certainly worth a try.

[ducky22]

Also,

Try the program sobranie mentioned earlier and it should allow you to save a txt document with a list of all running processes and the 'ProcessID (PID)'

Go for the control panel and see if it crashes. When it does, reboot and open up the event viewer and look for the error and specifically the "Execution ProcessID=xxxx" bit. See if you can tie that up with a running process and it may give an indication ie. epson status monitor. However it might not...... that process may not be related to what's caused the problem.

[Rik]

Does Vista have MSConfig, or an equivalent?

[ducky22]

Does Vista have MSConfig, or an equivalent?

Yep. Exactly the same as XP.

You could also try click on start then run and typing 'msconfig' - it will load up a new window and click on 'Diagnostic startup' - this will only load the bare minimum of drivers and may help narrow it down but I'd suggest trying the other things first. Google seems to have absolutely nothing about this particular problem at all :-(.

[drummer]

Yep. Exactly the same as XP.

Not quite exactly if you're using Vista's native display theme because you need to actually type run and hit Enter in the Start Search box to make the Run facility available.

Didn't mention it earlier in order to make things easier for the OP to diagnose the problem.

[Adam]

Not quite exactly if you're using Vista's native display theme because you need to actually type run and hit Enter in the Start Search box to make the Run facility available.

Didn't mention it earlier in order to make things easier for the OP to diagnose the problem.

I find using WinKey+R is easier than using the search box.

[ducky22]

Not quite exactly if you're using Vista's native display theme because you need to actually type run and hit Enter in the Start Search box to make the Run facility available.

Didn't mention it earlier in order to make things easier for the OP to diagnose the problem.

Forgot about that! Thanks. I enabled the 'Run' option via the properties. Couldn't live without it!

[Lance]

I'm with Adam in the use of WinKey+R

[Maris]

I finally found some time to address this problem, it was a rogue driver for my Nividia graphics card. Thanks for all your advice & all is now running how it should.

[Simon]

Thanks for letting us know, Maris.  Glad normal service has been resumed!