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[on:]

I'd be grateful for assistance.
I get 'blue screen of death' nearly always although on 2 occasions I've managed to upload blink sketch with different on/off times.
Crash occurs without Arduino Uno connected, when I select 'verify' (there is a delay of about 5secs then the crash). Sometimes 'verify' works so then I connect Uno and select 'upload' (having selected Uno and COM3 in the tools menu) but usually it crashes with bsod.
I've tried disabling bluetooth, tried running the application as administrator. I've read Troubleshoot guide. I'm using Dell XPS M1530 laptop with Vista Home edition.
Windows reports the problem as:
BCCode:   19
BCP1:   00000020
BCP2:   B6B97000
BCP3:   B6B97968
BCP4:   0B2D0800

Any help gratefully received

ps Up til now Vista has been stable with no previous bsod. I'm reluctant to change OS because not all drivers for the Dell are available in Win7.

[Reply #1 on:]

I doubt that the primary cause for the blue-screen is the arduino software, otherwise all the other poor folk running the unmentionable OS that came after XP would have that as well.

Make sure you have all the latest drivers installed, remove all unnecessary bloat-ware that usually comes with laptops and if nothing else helps, it is time for wiping your system (again).

Does that machine crash if put under stress? Maybe it has issues with cooling or bad memory.

[Reply #2 on:]

Thanks for taking the time to help.
The motherboard/video card were replaced 2 months ago under warranty and the laptop has been very stable with no crashes.
I'll try a reinstall as a last resort but I would like to understand more about what's happening. Eg why might other drivers cause the problem when code is only being verified/compiled without Uno connected?
Is there a  procedure I should follow to identify/disable drivers that might be causing the problem?
thanks

[Reply #3 on:]

I notice that a very similar problem has been reported with laptop running Win7 - http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,60208.0.html

[Reply #4 on:]

This baffles me again and again.

Vista was supposed to be better than XP. Didn't work. Now W7 seems to be much more accepted by people from what I've heard, and should have been fixed where needed.

What does the IDE do when verifying? I suppose it just runs avr-gcc and of course some java stuff. The serial ports shouldn't be probed, but I'm not sure. All in all very standard stuff for every kind of OS. Java and avr-gcc are ordinary programs, not drivers. In theory (yes, I know...) they shouldn't be able to bring down a modern OS.  

I tend to blame MS, but that's a very old habit of mine. I wish IBM had pushed OS/2 some more.

[Reply #5 on:]

If its crashing only with Arduino it points to the serial driver being buggy.

To clarify, the USB serial chip driver - are you using Uno or an FTDI based Arduino?

[Reply #6 on:]

Just to confirm that it crashes WITHOUT Uno connected (and it also crashes WITH it connected).
In fact I uninstalled the Arduino driver to rule out problem there - and it still gives bsod (not every time but if it verifies successfully and I try verifying again it will probably crash and if I keep verifying it will definitely crash). To rule out a problem with a particular sketch, I tried different sketches with the same result.
I go back to my earlier point that the crash occurs on verifying/compiling so how can it be driver related? - but that's my non-expert thought.
Thanks to those who have commented so far
David

[Reply #7 on:]

I've re-installed Vista and made sure all drivers, applications etc are up-to-date and working.
But no change! - blue screen crashes most of the time as previously described.
So where do I go from here - try an earlier version of Arduino?
I'd be really grateful for advice. Is anyone using Arduino successfully on laptop with Vista?

David

[Reply #8 on:]

If its crashing only with Arduino it points to the serial driver being buggy.

To clarify, the USB serial chip driver - are you using Uno or an FTDI based Arduino?

I have the same BSOD problem upon PC reboot or even "at random". I started having this problem since when I use Arduino ethernet, programmed with USB serial Light adapter (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/USBSerial)

I use Win7 x64