I am plagued by 2 intermittent errors. Both occur only on boot (cold or warm).

 

First error is a Blue Screen error - it reports a problem with Win32k.sys Following reporting process, it reports a fix and provides a link to ATI's web site for Catalyst Control Center 7.8 - but this fix doesn't fix. I continue to receive the blue screen. I have received this error out of the box - before any software was loaded.

 

Second error/problem is a blank screen and no boot at all. Turn the PC on and it goes through the self-test, but never attempts to boot - no error message, nothing except for a blank screen and a cursor blinking in the upper right of the screen.

 

I've spent between 8 - 10 hours on phone with Tech Support with no luck. Every support call ends with "you need to reinstall the system." I've done that now 12 times. Last time was this morning. Following the install, I got the blank screen. It took 35 attempts for the PC to boot. On 2 occasions, it booted to the MediaDirect module - I am absolutely positive I pressed the power button and not the MediaDirect button. When blank screen appeared, I waited for 15 seconds after turning PC off before restarting. One time I left the power on for 24 hours to be sure that it wasn't going to boot.

 

My machine:

Inspiron 1721

Turion64 x2 TL-56 processor

3GB Ram

ATI Radeon Xpress 1270 256MB

Dell Wireless-N Minicard

Operating System: Vista Home Premium 32bit

 

I would appreciate any wisdom that might help in solving this problem. Just reloading the operating system is a last ditch effort that has not worked for me this time. This problem began as soon as I unpacked the notebook and started it. Long before I installed any of my software. The problem for  me is that I can not duplicate the errors. They are intermittent - but frequent enough to be a REAL problem. So, short of replacing the notebook (& I'm open to that too) does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks

Tom Reighney