Sleep Problems/Blue Screens - I'm SO frustrated! Please help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kcpirana
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Kcpirana

I'm posting this in a few places, so hopefully someone far smarter than I
will run across it. I'm at my wits' end and I can't get any assistance from
Microsoft or Toshiba on a two-week-old notebook! Here goes:

1) Two or three times, I've gotten a blue screen. The stop error message is
pfn_list_corrupt. Vista shuts down and pretty much restarts itself
normally. When the boot option menu comes up, it has normal start-up
highlighted. In Control Panel>Problem Reports, this appears to be a device
driver, but I can't find anything wrong! My printer works (Lexmark 7100
network printer, not directly connected), which is my first suspect.

2) Sleep mode now appears to not even go into effect now. My little power
light won't flash amber (which is how you tell your notebook is sleeping on
this Toshiba), it just stays active, although the screen goes to black. So,
I can't tell if I still have the problem of it not waking up still, because
now it won't go to sleep!

3) This is a stupid thing, but I can't read "sign in" to rate or respond to
these newsgroups in Windows Mail. I press the Sign In button, but it does
nothing! So, I read the post (or create one as I'm doing now), I reply or
hit send, and Windows Mail freezes! I have to use Task Manager to restart
the program and then sometimes I'm all signed in. Once (only once) I had
the pop-up box to sign into Microsoft communities come up, I logged in, the
notebook thought a minute and then decided to give me yet another blue
screen with the pfn code. I have no idea whether that's even related, but
it's aggravating. I would like to be able to use Windows Mail in the way it
appears to be intended. I'm going to C&P this before I try to send it,
because Windows Mail is going to freeze up again and I'll lose this. (Maybe
this is an easy fix and I'm an idiot? - When you read this, I will have
frozen and restarted Windows Mail to get it here.)

4) I called Toshiba - they have NO idea except to do a system recovery
(which they don't even say will fix the issue and seems to be pretty much
their knee-jerk response to everything - the other "fix" was to just not use
sleep!). But I've JUST gotten my files all back up to date, I don't have a
good way of backing everything up, and I REALLY don't want to start from
scratch again!

5) And I'm a little frightened to even try a system recovery, because even
though I purchased this computer on 4/26/07, Microsoft's on-line help (which
should be free for 90 days from purchase date) tells me my product ID for
Vista isn't valid! I had a problem activating it from the get-go and had to
call Microsoft and they gave me some other product ID number, which now they
tell me is invalid?

I'm using a brand-new Toshiba Satellite A205-S4577, 1 gb ram, and it came
with Vista Home Premium preinstalled. I haven't installed much of anything,
except Office 2007, iTunes (has worked), a Palm (not working, but did), and
my network printer (working). Any help anyone can offer would be GREATLY
appreciated!
 
Kcpirana said:
I'm posting this in a few places, so hopefully someone far smarter than I
will run across it. I'm at my wits' end and I can't get any assistance
from Microsoft or Toshiba on a two-week-old notebook! Here goes:

1) Two or three times, I've gotten a blue screen. The stop error message
is pfn_list_corrupt. Vista shuts down and pretty much restarts itself
normally. When the boot option menu comes up, it has normal start-up
highlighted. In Control Panel>Problem Reports, this appears to be a
device driver, but I can't find anything wrong! My printer works (Lexmark
7100 network printer, not directly connected), which is my first suspect.

2) Sleep mode now appears to not even go into effect now. My little power
light won't flash amber (which is how you tell your notebook is sleeping
on this Toshiba), it just stays active, although the screen goes to black.
So, I can't tell if I still have the problem of it not waking up still,
because now it won't go to sleep!

3) This is a stupid thing, but I can't read "sign in" to rate or respond
to these newsgroups in Windows Mail. I press the Sign In button, but it
does nothing! So, I read the post (or create one as I'm doing now), I
reply or hit send, and Windows Mail freezes! I have to use Task Manager
to restart the program and then sometimes I'm all signed in. Once (only
once) I had the pop-up box to sign into Microsoft communities come up, I
logged in, the notebook thought a minute and then decided to give me yet
another blue screen with the pfn code. I have no idea whether that's even
related, but it's aggravating. I would like to be able to use Windows
Mail in the way it appears to be intended. I'm going to C&P this before I
try to send it, because Windows Mail is going to freeze up again and I'll
lose this. (Maybe this is an easy fix and I'm an idiot? - When you read
this, I will have frozen and restarted Windows Mail to get it here.)

4) I called Toshiba - they have NO idea except to do a system recovery
(which they don't even say will fix the issue and seems to be pretty much
their knee-jerk response to everything - the other "fix" was to just not
use sleep!). But I've JUST gotten my files all back up to date, I don't
have a good way of backing everything up, and I REALLY don't want to start
from scratch again!

5) And I'm a little frightened to even try a system recovery, because even
though I purchased this computer on 4/26/07, Microsoft's on-line help
(which should be free for 90 days from purchase date) tells me my product
ID for Vista isn't valid! I had a problem activating it from the get-go
and had to call Microsoft and they gave me some other product ID number,
which now they tell me is invalid?

I'm using a brand-new Toshiba Satellite A205-S4577, 1 gb ram, and it came
with Vista Home Premium preinstalled. I haven't installed much of
anything, except Office 2007, iTunes (has worked), a Palm (not working,
but did), and my network printer (working). Any help anyone can offer
would be GREATLY appreciated!
Click to expand...

This does appear to be a driver issue. The fact your devices are working
does not mean you don't have a problem driver. Have you checked your device
manufacturer websites for the latest Vista compatible drivers for your
devices, that includes internal devices as well, graphics cards, soundcards,
etc?

Please try to stick to one topic per post as it makes it easier to answer.
In this instance, before you go any further, it's best to get the device
driver issue resolved as misbehaving drivers can cause issues in other parts
of your setup and may impact various operations or functions you are trying
to perform.
 
Kcpirana said:
I'm posting this in a few places, so hopefully someone far smarter than I
will run across it. I'm at my wits' end and I can't get any assistance
from Microsoft or Toshiba on a two-week-old notebook! Here goes:

1) Two or three times, I've gotten a blue screen. The stop error message
is pfn_list_corrupt. Vista shuts down and pretty much restarts itself
normally. When the boot option menu comes up, it has normal start-up
highlighted. In Control Panel>Problem Reports, this appears to be a
device driver, but I can't find anything wrong! My printer works (Lexmark
7100 network printer, not directly connected), which is my first suspect.

2) Sleep mode now appears to not even go into effect now. My little power
light won't flash amber (which is how you tell your notebook is sleeping
on this Toshiba), it just stays active, although the screen goes to black.
So, I can't tell if I still have the problem of it not waking up still,
because now it won't go to sleep!

3) This is a stupid thing, but I can't read "sign in" to rate or respond
to these newsgroups in Windows Mail. I press the Sign In button, but it
does nothing! So, I read the post (or create one as I'm doing now), I
reply or hit send, and Windows Mail freezes! I have to use Task Manager
to restart the program and then sometimes I'm all signed in. Once (only
once) I had the pop-up box to sign into Microsoft communities come up, I
logged in, the notebook thought a minute and then decided to give me yet
another blue screen with the pfn code. I have no idea whether that's even
related, but it's aggravating. I would like to be able to use Windows
Mail in the way it appears to be intended. I'm going to C&P this before I
try to send it, because Windows Mail is going to freeze up again and I'll
lose this. (Maybe this is an easy fix and I'm an idiot? - When you read
this, I will have frozen and restarted Windows Mail to get it here.)

4) I called Toshiba - they have NO idea except to do a system recovery
(which they don't even say will fix the issue and seems to be pretty much
their knee-jerk response to everything - the other "fix" was to just not
use sleep!). But I've JUST gotten my files all back up to date, I don't
have a good way of backing everything up, and I REALLY don't want to start
from scratch again!

5) And I'm a little frightened to even try a system recovery, because even
though I purchased this computer on 4/26/07, Microsoft's on-line help
(which should be free for 90 days from purchase date) tells me my product
ID for Vista isn't valid! I had a problem activating it from the get-go
and had to call Microsoft and they gave me some other product ID number,
which now they tell me is invalid?

I'm using a brand-new Toshiba Satellite A205-S4577, 1 gb ram, and it came
with Vista Home Premium preinstalled. I haven't installed much of
anything, except Office 2007, iTunes (has worked), a Palm (not working,
but did), and my network printer (working). Any help anyone can offer
would be GREATLY appreciated!
Click to expand...

As to the issue of Microsoft telling your your product ID was invalid, since
Vista came preinstalled, Toshiba, the OEM for your laptop is responsible for
support, not Microsoft and that is probably why they didn't recognize the
product ID.
 
Hi,

I think I have a very similar problem. I bought a Sony Vaio VGN-N31M
last saturday and it's driving me crazy. Here's my problem:

It's no problem to put Vista into sleep mode, as long as the laptop is
not running in battery mode. But when in battery mode, the laptop
reboots (actually it gives me a blue screen I can't see because the
display is switched off) after switching from standby to hibernate.

The Sony support gave me the advise to perform a system recovery - which
I did. The problem did not occur on the clean system directly after the
recovery, only to come back after I installed some windows updates.
Then I uninstalled the Microsoft SQL Server (one of the updates was the
SQL Server SP2). This did indeed solve the problem - until I installed
the rest of the available updates.

I already tried to install the latest drivers for the Mobile Intel 945GM
Express without effect. The release note for this version did actually
sound very promising:

issues resolved: WINDOWS VISTA* : System hang up (Blue screen) after
execute preload recovery on system with battery mode.

Well, so far there is nothing else I have found out about the problem,
except that part of the problems are the windows updates I installed
after the clean recovery.

SR
 
I suspect items 1 and 2 are the same related issue. What you can do is
configure Vista so it won't automatically reboot on a blue screen by;

Hit the start button and type "system" or open control panel/system
Select "advanced system settings"
Hit the "settings" button under "startup and recovery"
Uncheck "automatically restart" under "System Failure"

Now, when you machine blue screens it won't automatically reboot any more
and you can get a better look to see if a specific driver is mentioned.

If not, what you'll need to do is download and install the WINDBG tool from
Microsoft's web site.

You'll need to run it as an administrator
Then use it to open the minidump file created that should be stored in
c:\windows\minidump


Issue the following commands:

..symfix
..reload
!analyze -v

This should provide you with some information as to the likely driver that
is causing the blue screen (among other information).

For example below is the output on one of my dumps that pinpoints my problem
as vmnetsrv.sys (which is part of Virtual PC 2007).

In regards to your question when you attempt to put the machine to
sleep/hibernate, when the screen goes blank WAIT. Wait at least 10-15
minutes. It will likely finally blue screen which is useful in determining
what driver is at fault.

Best of luck,
Joe

--------------------------------- debug output -----------------------
0: kd> .symfix
No downstream store given, using C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for
Windows\sym
0: kd> .reload
Loading Kernel Symbols
.................................................................................................................................................................................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
..............
0: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*
*
* Bugcheck Analysis
*
*
*
*******************************************************************************

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (9f)
A driver is causing an inconsistent power state.
Arguments:
Arg1: 00000003, A device object has been blocking an Irp for too long a time
Arg2: 85844510, Physical Device Object of the stack
Arg3: 8793a030, Functional Device Object of the stack
Arg4: 892a62d0, The blocked IRP

Debugging Details:
------------------

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for VMNetSrv.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for
VMNetSrv.sys

DRVPOWERSTATE_SUBCODE: 3

DEVICE_OBJECT: 8793a030

DRIVER_OBJECT: 879382e0

IMAGE_NAME: VMNetSrv.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 45b74b89

MODULE_NAME: VMNetSrv

FAULTING_MODULE: 8c71f000 VMNetSrv

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 2

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0x9F

PROCESS_NAME: System

CURRENT_IRQL: 2

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 8284ada0 to 828d85c9

STACK_TEXT:
8360adf4 8284ada0 0000009f 00000003 85844510 nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x1e
8360ae50 82850441 8360af5c 8360af28 00000001 nt!PopCheckIrpWatchdog+0x165
8360ae90 828a99d1 82909fc0 00000000 407c8cd0 nt!PopCheckForIdleness+0x33f
8360af88 828a9321 00000000 00000000 000d910e nt!KiTimerExpiration+0x498
8360aff4 82890d8d 838d7a30 00000000 00000000 nt!KiRetireDpcList+0xba
8360aff8 838d7a30 00000000 00000000 00000000 nt!KiDispatchInterrupt+0x3d
WARNING: Frame IP not in any known module. Following frames may be wrong.
82890d8d 00000000 0000001a 00c1850f bb830000 0x838d7a30


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x9F_IMAGE_VMNetSrv.sys

BUCKET_ID: 0x9F_IMAGE_VMNetSrv.sys

Followup: MachineOwner
 
Thank you for the information! I'm going to try this tonight.

I did worry about posting all these issues together, but I just wasn't sure
whether the issues were related or completely independent of each other. I
figured it would be better to throw it all out there and be wrong, than to
try to describe a problem, only to find out that some of the other
information was needed. I'm sorry for any confusion!

Thanks again,
Kristy
 
Joe Guidera said:
I suspect items 1 and 2 are the same related issue. What you can do is
configure Vista so it won't automatically reboot on a blue screen by;

Hit the start button and type "system" or open control panel/system
Select "advanced system settings"
Hit the "settings" button under "startup and recovery"
Uncheck "automatically restart" under "System Failure"

Now, when you machine blue screens it won't automatically reboot any more
and you can get a better look to see if a specific driver is mentioned.

If not, what you'll need to do is download and install the WINDBG tool
from Microsoft's web site.

You'll need to run it as an administrator
Then use it to open the minidump file created that should be stored in
c:\windows\minidump


Issue the following commands:

.symfix
.reload
!analyze -v

This should provide you with some information as to the likely driver that
is causing the blue screen (among other information).

For example below is the output on one of my dumps that pinpoints my
problem as vmnetsrv.sys (which is part of Virtual PC 2007).

In regards to your question when you attempt to put the machine to
sleep/hibernate, when the screen goes blank WAIT. Wait at least 10-15
minutes. It will likely finally blue screen which is useful in
determining what driver is at fault.

Best of luck,
Joe
Click to expand...


Nice post. Very informative. Thanks!

Lang
 
OK, I downloaded it, ran it as administrator, when I looked in
c/windows/minidump, there initially NO files in there. I checked using "all
files" and several mini****.dmp files were there. I opened it, OKing some
"do you want to run it as..." window (it opened into a page of
alphabet-stew), but then I had no idea of where to use the commands you
specified. I've never used this program before.

Thanks! (again, c&ping before I crash windows mail trying to sign in...and
YES, it crashed again, this time displaying a message that it had recovered
from an external application with a code of 0x000000000 - once again, I'm
signed into Microsoft communities, though, when mail restarts)

Kristy
 
Couple of suggestions for you...

Junkware...there's lots of it. I got a new HP laptop 4 weeks or so ago, and
struggled with it for a week before I finally completely nuked it and
installed Vista Ultimate from scratch. I realize it's not an option for
many, but in my case, the results have been pretty good...the system is now
fast and rock solid. Sadly, I'm missing some HP pieces that I so far haven't
been able to find. But, on balance, a much better system. The HP came with
so much crap on it that it was a serious limiting factor. And I did get one
blue screen in the process - the final straw that prompted the reinstall.

Otherwise, if this machine is only two weeks old, take it back. Exchange it
across the board for another one. If the second one has similar problems,
tell them you'd rather have an HP or Lenovo or something else...

Dana Cline - MCE MVP
 
I was thinking the same thing, Dana. At the very least, I think I'm going
to print out my post here (and some of the advice I received that I tried),
march into where I bought it, and say "fix it" - particularly the activation
problem. I love the notebook and I love what Vista will obviously become as
more bugs are worked out, but man, right now, I feel like banging my head
against a wall.

One thing, though, I did find a Vista driver for my networked all-in-one
Lexmark. Right now, it prints fine, but I know the driver came off the
original installation disk and even though Windows tells me there isn't a
better driver, I'm wondering if installing this driver would make a
difference. I just discovered this today.

Kristy
 
You should be able to find drivers for your HP laptop here:
http://support.hp.com

I've been really pleased with my 6 month old HP Pavilion DV6000,
for which they gave me a free Vista upgrade.

Gary VanderMolen
 
Gary,

It's not the drivers, it's the other apps. For instance, I have touchpad
drivers. But without the accompanying apps, there's no way to adjust the
sensitivity or turn off the double-taps. I have webcam drivers, but until I
installed Live Messenger, I had no way to adjust the camera features.
Similarly, I have the fingerprint reader drivers, but without the Verisign
access manager program, there's no way to actually _use_ the fingerprint
reader. I have Lightscribe drivers, and fortunately my video software also
has a CD label program that can write to a Lightscribe, so I'm good there.

The HP support guys I talked to basically told me the only way was to do a
full original restore. There's a directory out there with all the apps, but
apparently not necessarily in an installable state. So for now I do
without...

Dana Cline - MCE MVP
 
Kristy,

Good luck and please let us know how the encounter goes...

Dana Cline - MCE MVP
 
The touchpad driver I got from HP does allow me to control
the sensitivity and tapping settings. When you open the Mouse
applet in Control Panel, isn't there a Device Settings tab?

All the apps residing in the restore partition should also be
available for download from HP's support site.

Gary VanderMolen
 
Yes, there is a Device Settings tab in the Control Panel / Mouse. It says
its a PS2 wheel mouse. When I click the Settings button there, I get a
dialog where I can set what happens with the two buttons. That's
it...nothing else anywhere that I can find...

Dana Cline - MCE MVP
 
Well, I got a replacement - when I took my Toshiba back to Best Buy, they
ran it through whatever their system is and it came back "unrepairable." So
far, so good.

Except for that sign-in box on the newgroup preview and reply windows. When
I click it, it doesn't do anything? What should I do about that, since
obviously now it's something I'm doing wrong...
Thanks!

Kristy
 
I'm glad they were able and willing to do an exchange. Hopefully this newest
box will last longer <g>.
Is this current issue in Windows Mail?

Dana Cline - MCE MVP
 
I believe so. I did find one thread just today (after I updated this one)
that simply said to uncheck the "use newsgroup message rating features" box.
I did and the Sign In button disappeared. I have no idea what I'm missing,
but as long as I can post my idiocy as needed without freezing my computer,
I guess I'm waaaaay ahead.

Incidentally, they wanted to charge me $100 to back up the information on
the defective notebook. Since apparently it was defective when I walked out
of the store, the manager and I had a little "chat" and eventually he saw
that charging me another $100 wasn't such a good idea...LOL

Kristy
 
I have the same problem,
I was looking in my network(sharing files to my other computer(XP)) and the
blue screen appeared
This happened like for a month now
I did a System restore
but it happened again
The error is: ***stop:0X0000004E (0X00000099,0X0001C650,0X00000003,0X0001946F)
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
 
Hi Marcos,

This one can be difficult to diagnose, as it could be a damaged driver file
or faulty memory. Is a minidump file being created? Check under
C:\Windows\minidump for recently created ones that correspond with the stop
errors you are experiencing. I can examine them to see what may be the
problem. Send the most recent few (3-4 at most) to me at the email address
used here with a subject line of 'per req'.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
 
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