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I've been experiencing intermittent BSOD on my Lenovo Y470 Laptop for many months now, but I just could not find a fix for it.

The BSOD can be hard to reproduce, it generally happened after running the laptop for some time. Most of the time [it seemed] the BSOD appeared while running memory intensive programs like watching Twitch.tv on Source definition or playing a video game on the computer.

Using BlueScreenView, the DMP file points to ntoskrnl.exe. The blue sceen error, however, can sometimes be IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED. To try to fix the problem and I followed instructions on this page. First, I ran SeaTool to detect any hard drive errors, and no errors were found. I then ran the Memtest (for creating bootable USB Drive) in DOS and still found no error. I continued using the computer for a few days more and still got the BSOD.

Then I restored the system back to factory setting, and tried running it for a few days, I still got the BSOD. I finally used DriverReviver to update all the latest drivers, then use it for a few more days. Still got the BSOD. I'm out of options. Please help!

My BSOD DMP file can be found here

New Symptom: a new symptom had surfaced. The laptop freezes frequently and intermittently when playing videos on the web. It made the sound like it got "stuck." I've documented it in a video in the link below. What's strange is that I bought a brand new computer and that new computer also got "stuck" while playing a video. I'm confused. The only thing that my old laptop and the new computer shared was the use of an external monitor. How was it possible for a monitor to cause computer freezing? My logic is that it's not a processing unit so naturally it shouldn't cause the computer freezing...

http://tinypic.com/r/29wr70i/8

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    Intermittent BSODS are often caused by GPU drivers. I know this is not a very pleasant option, but try uninstalling your Graphic Adapter drivers and running it in VGA compatibility mode. If you don't get BSOD for significant period of time then it is the problem with your GPU driver. May 7, 2014 at 17:09
  • @smc My laptop has 2 graphics cards -- one from Intel and the other from nVidia. I have the latest drivers for both hardware. Is it still necessary to uninstall both of them and try it out?
    – user22105
    May 7, 2014 at 17:19
  • @user22105 - The fact you are running the "latest" drives for both explains everything. Your laptop likely supports switching between the two, this isn't supported by the ordinary Intel/Nvidia drivers and are only supported by the OEM drivers.
    – Ramhound
    May 7, 2014 at 18:07
  • @user22105 If you have two graphic cards, then you are lucky and you can try disabling one at a time. Remember that we are just guessing here. It might or might not be GPU driver issue. May 7, 2014 at 20:24
  • copy the folder C:\Windows\Minidump to the desktop, zip the folder, upload the zip to a cloud service like OneDrive, Dropbox and post a link here. May 8, 2014 at 4:13

2 Answers 2

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If a fresh install of Windows using the drivers supplied by Lenovo doesn't fix it, then you have a hardware problem. Unless you have spare known-good parts to swap in and try, then your only choice is to take it in to an authorized Lenovo repair depot to have it serviced.

If you still have warranty left, and there's no obvious damage caused by you, then the repairs should be free.

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  • THe warranty was good for a year, and I've had it for more than a year. I've discovered a new symptom can you offer some suggestions? Thank you!
    – user22105
    Jul 2, 2014 at 23:46
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In 9 cases out of 10 BSOD is a problem with either hardware or hardware-specific drivers. If you have seemingly random BSODs, the easiest way to narrow down the problem and finally pin point it to one single device is by disabling/uninstalling/replacing devices one by one until you figure out which particular device is the cause. This might be a bit problematic with integrated peripherals, especially on laptops, but it is always worth trying.

In your case I would start by disabling graphic adapters for several days (one at a time). See if this makes any difference. Next I would try NICs, hard drives and sound card.

If you manage to identify problematic device, then you can continue to investigate and try to figure out if this is a hardware or driver issue.

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  • hi smc, I'm added a new symptom that surfaced recently. I'm clueless on what I need to be doing to fix the problem... I also had some trouble making all programs run on the Nvidia graphics processor as you have suggested. =( superuser.com/questions/776301/…
    – user22105
    Jul 2, 2014 at 23:42

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