Memory dump then Reboot. Rinse and Repeat!

[dankvideodude]

So my girlfriends Sony Viao vgn-a160 laptop shut itself off the other day. I turned it back on and as soon as windows boots it does a physical memory dump. Then it restarts and does the whole thing over. I have about 2 seconds in win xp to do something before it does it again. I read some other forums and thought it might be the registry so i downloaded registry easy. I had to remove the battery while it was on to be able to boot it in safe mode. Then i installed registry easy ran it and restarted. Same s@#$ happens. I need some help here. I really don't want to lose all the info on the computer. Alot of it I could never get back. Any help would be more than appreciated!!!

[smeezekitty]

registrey easy sounds scamish
i think a driver may have gone south
or you have bad virus

[Allan]

Boot to safe mode. Go to System Properties - Advanced - Startup & Recovery Settings and uncheck "automatically restart". Next time, instead of a reboot you should get a blue screen error. Post that error message here. However, if the system still reboots you almost certainly have a hardware problem.

[dankvideodude]

It says    DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

[Allan]

That was the entire message? There was no file named?

Anyway, that error is generally caused by a faulty driver. Update your audio & video drivers (get them from the OEM web sites, not from MS Update). Also check for a bios flash.

[smeezekitty]

careful if a bios flash is done wrong
it can mess up you motherbaord big time

[Allan]

careful if a bios flash is done wrong
it can mess up you motherbaord big time

Nonsense. It's almost impossible to make a mistake with a bios flash these days as long as you don't turn off the system in the middle of the udate. Just follow the instructions that come with the update.

[BC_Programmer]

dankvideodude- can you still run in safe mode? Also as ADG asked was there no file mentioned in the bluescreen? Generally a file is listed near the bottom of the screen, which can help isolate exactly which driver/component is causing the issue.

[dankvideodude]

Yeah it still seems to run in safe mode. At the bottom it does say
w22n51.sys - Address F817E8D base at F814D000, Datestamp 404c5c4
Also I was looking on the sony site and found a couple of bios updates im going to try.

[Allan]

See if you can find a new driver for your wireless card.

[dankvideodude]

So I cant seem to use either of the 2 bios updates. Its stops and says WBFLASH Cannot read the system information.

[Allan]

Okay, just update the wireless card driver.

[dankvideodude]

So I updated the wireless driver and it seems to have worked. I googled the file and read some other forums about it. They said the same. Something with the intel wireless driver. Been 10 min and nothing yet. Crossing my fingers..

[Allan]

w22n51.sys is the driver for your wireless card. Once you posted that info it made it easy to identify the problem. Good luck with your system.