Refurb and BSODs

[ProfessorU]

Hi all.
I bought a refurb Dell Laptop Inspiron m5010 and have been having BSOD issues starting about a week after I got it.
They seem to happen at random times and often with very little going on in the way of processor activity. I can run a DirectX9 game fine and then it will crash while I'm using notepad, for example.
I ran memtest86+ overnight and it passed.

The BSODs are always changing, too.
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
are the last 3, there are also:
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
IRQL_GT_ZERO_AT_SYSTEM_SERVICE
that have come up recently.

Since I have started getting the BSODs, I've run windows update religiously, updated the motherboard BIOS, and the videocard drivers.

What's my next step? I'm probably still under warranty but I'd rather not send it back if I can avoid it.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

[SuperSparks]

Run Windows Memory Diagnostic as well as MemTest:

Windows Memory Diagnostic

Those different Stop errors are very highly suggestive of RAM issues, and sometimes one test will pick up things that the other does not.

[ProfessorU]

Just finished running the first pass of the standard and the first pass of the extended tests with no errors. I'll let it go overnight again.
Windows Memory Diagnostic did warn me that it would only test the first 4GB. There is a total of 4GB installed on this system.

[ProfessorU]

WMD ran overnight and still came up no errors as of 11am.

[Welshjim]

ProfessorU--Have you looked in Event Viewer for error messages timestamped when the BSOD's have occurred?

[SuperSparks]

Looking at those Stop errors, it is just screaming at me that it is memory related. I think the next thing I would try is to remove the memory modules and then reseat them again. While you are at it, gently clean the contacts on the modules with a pencil eraser. I'm thinking that there could be some intermittent bad contact here.

[ProfessorU]

No crashes so far in the month of May. Odd since I was getting more than one a day for awhile.
There is a correlation in event viewer. I get an application error
source:STacSV event ID: 65535 task category: none
and this could by caused by the BSOD, not necessarily the other way around, right?

but some instances of the same error didn't result in BSODs.

I will probably avoid taking out screws until I get another error. Sleeping dogs and all...

[SuperSparks]

If you haven't done so already, scan the computer with this:

Malwarebytes

There is a slight possibility of that event being caused by malware.

[SpywareDr]

If it came with a warranty, ask them to send you a replacement.

If it didn't, try using Windows' "System Restore" to roll Windows back to a previous state when your computer was functioning correctly:

Microsoft.com > System Restore > Windows 7
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...System-Restore

If that doesn't work, try a repair install:

How to Do a Repair Install to Fix Windows 7
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...r-install.html

[Dave-UK]

No crashes so far in the month of May. Odd since I was getting more than one a day for awhile.
There is a correlation in event viewer. I get an application error
source:STacSV event ID: 65535 task category: none
and this could by caused by the BSOD, not necessarily the other way around, right?

but some instances of the same error didn't result in BSODs.

I will probably avoid taking out screws until I get another error. Sleeping dogs and all...

To view information about blue screen errors try Blue Screen View,
(it's a free app):
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html