'Superfetch has stopped working' then blue screen

Question

Hi,

I'm using an Inspiron 1420 with Windows Vista Basic. While multi-tasking two days back, there was a windows pop-up that said "Superfetch has stopped working". I closed the pop up (I've encountered this error before, closed it and nothing major happened) and continued with what I was doing. However, this time, the blue screen appeared a few seconds after that.

I've managed to jot down the error message, it says:

BAD_POOL_CALLER

STOP: 0x000000C2 (0x00000007, 0x0000110B, 0x00000000, 0xB2DA4008)

So I restarted my notebook, and before Windows even managed to load, the blue screen appeared again, this time with a slightly different error message:

BAD_POOL_CALLER

STOP: 0x000000C2 (0x00000007, 0x0000110B, 0x00000000, 0xA7CFF008)

Again, I restarted my notebook and everything has been working as normal since. I've contacted dell support, ran all sorts of hardware diagnostics and all the tests passed. The blue screen has not appeared since and I was not able to replicate the situation. After googling a little, I realised that the error, BAD_POOL_CALLER, can be a result of anything under the sun.

I'm using this notebook for work and I'm worried that the system will crash while I'm in the midst of updating my documents. I'd really appreciate any suggestions or help or advise anyone can provide!

Thanks!

Sofu · Answer

SuperFetch is heavy on use of system memory. Therefore if your Inspiron has 1GB of RAM adding another 1GB to bring the total RAM to 2GB should be an insurance against a recurrence of the problem. Although this seems an arbitrary solution it could be worthy of consideration since the precise cause looks hard to trace. Increasing the amount of RAM can only be for the good.

Chermaine · Answer

I believe I already have 2GB of RAM. Apologies for not stating my system specs initially; I don't really understand some of the abbreviations and terms, and do not really know what to specify. I've managed to pull these out from my invoice (this notebook is just 2 weeks old today!)..

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7250

2.0GHz 2MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB

2 GB (2 x 1024MB) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM

Sofu · Answer

There is interesting information at this link regarding the advisability of regularly clearing all files out of the prefetch folder. I accessed it by clicking Start and typing prefetch in the Start Search box. The folder appears at the top of the panel. You will need to get past permissions to open the folder which initially showed as empty but proved to be loaded with files.

Chermaine · Answer

Thanks Sofu. I'll try that out!!!

*EDIT*

I've deleted all the files in prefetch, was surfing the internet, and had several IEs opened. This time, there was no Superfetch error when I encountered the blue screen. However, the error was different.

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

STOP: 0x00000050 (0xB4F0C618, 0x00000000, 0x81B39882, 0x00000000)

Would you happen to know if all these blue screens that I've encountered hardware or software issues? I mean, I might never be able to get the software issues resolved, but if it's a hardware problem, at least I could get the parts replaced.

Message Edited by Chermaine on 07-29-2008 08:46 PM

Message Edited by Chermaine on 07-29-2008 08:47 PM

Mary G · Answer

It's time to contact Dell Support since this is a new computer. You should not have to be cleaning up anything after just 2 weeks.

Chermaine · Answer

Well, I did. One week after this notebook was delivered, I called dell with my blue screen problems, and the technical engineers guided me through same hardware diagnostics tests (all passed) and eventually did a dell image restore. Things were fine for a week till I installed Weatherbug (Windows gadget) which was Vista compatible and downloaded from Microsoft! An engineer dropped by yesterday, checked the hardware physically, updated the drivers and did everything he could. While he was here, I tried to replicate a blue screen, but nothing happened and eveything seemed to work fine. Until he left, and I got another blue screen. I'm at my wit's end.

Windows General

"Superfetch has stopped working" then blue screen

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