Gaming laptop frequently blue screens

[justausername]

Back in 2021 I bought a Lenovo ideapad Gaming 3 laptop and used it frequently until the lockdowns ended then didn't use it much. At that time it worked perfectly but now it's out of warranty and frequently blue screens.

I tried restoring it to factory settings through the options in Windows settings several times which didn't work. I then contacted the Lenovo's technical support who advised me through email to download recovery media and use it to restore to factory settings which once again didn't work. They asked me to send them minidump files, I checked my windows folder and there weren't any, then I checked the system settings and the generate minidump files option was already enabled. I explained this to their technical support team and they never replied.

I suspect it's some difficult to detect hardware issue. The hardware scan feature in Lenovo Vantage fails to detect any issues. Memtest86 also fails to detect any issues. BurnIn Test finds the CPU temperature exceeds the threshold; the maximum threshold is 90°C, mine hit 91°C. I've replicated this result in several 15 minute stress tests. Confusingly, my laptop crashes even when idle and presumably well below the threshold. Originally I wrote this post in Notepad but after getting a second blue screen with no applications running in the background, I copied it to a USB and finished it on another laptop running Linux. Old thermal paste is probably one of several hardware issues.

After I last reformatted this laptop the only error has been WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERRROR. Before that it gave a wider variety of errors which I no longer have a record of.

I spent a lot of money on this laptop and its frustrating to see it fail before I got much use out of it. At this stage I plan to contact Lenovo again, see how it goes and pay for an out of warranty repair. But given they failed to find the issue once already I'm not sure if they can fix it. What do you think I should do?

[ˢᵈˣ FatCat]

unplug your RAm , clean it, plug it back
i rather pay muney saving me headache tho

[76561199389059995]

Originally posted by justausername:

Back in 2021 I bought a Lenovo ideapad Gaming 3 laptop
I tried restoring it to factory settings through the options in Windows settings several times which didn't work.
I then contacted the Lenovo's technical support who advised me through email to download recovery media and use it to restore to factory settings which once again didn't work.
They asked me to send them minidump files, I checked my windows folder and there weren't any, then I checked the system settings and the generate minidump files option was already enabled. I explained this to their technical support team and they never replied.
The hardware scan feature in Lenovo Vantage fails to detect any issues.
Memtest86 also fails to detect any issues. BurnIn Test finds the CPU temperature exceeds the threshold; the maximum threshold is 90°C, mine hit 91°C.
I've replicated this result in several 15 minute stress tests. Confusingly, my laptop crashes even when idle and presumably well below the threshold.
Originally I wrote this post in Notepad but after getting a second blue screen with no applications running in the background, I copied it to a USB and finished it on another laptop running Linux. Old thermal paste is probably one of several hardware issues.
After I last reformatted this laptop the only error has been WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERRROR. Before that it gave a wider variety of errors which I no longer have a record of.
I spent a lot of money on this laptop and its frustrating to see it fail before I got much use out of it. At this stage I plan to contact Lenovo again, see how it goes and pay for an out of warranty repair. But given they failed to find the issue once already I'm not sure if they can fix it. What do you think I should do?

Your laptop warranty was expired and you would like to repair it? This will cost you, it doesn't matter you would like to buy a new one as same price as manufacture repair your laptop.

When you feel something could be wrong then don't do, maybe buying new one better or maybe you send it to manufacture but IDK how long it could dive into troubleshootings or get into issues again.

But you mentiond 91 degree celsius and you didn't go other tests like storages or without storages or cleanup system cooler/heatsink/changing thermal pads and changing thermal pastes.

I have questions here, do you living in the place got issue with electricity? How long would you like to play or working on this laptop in day? Something like 6hours or? What about your room/workplace temperature?

[AmaiAmai]

Easiest way to test if it has a hardware fault: run Linux and see if it freezes the same way.

Keep in mind some laptops need BIOS updates to run Windows 11 properly. Your laptop might have had one published

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

BIOS is very out-of-date if you have not run this thing since 2021/2022 and for the love of everything, DO NOT move to Win11 and definitely if you do move over DO NOT update to 24H2 (if you are using Win11 and have this major update installed, this very well could be your issue as the update has a plethora of faults atm), save yourself and the rest of us a headache plus make sure to update your CHIPSET DRIVER - it is NOT the RAM, it is nothing but a software conflict, most people are crazy to think it is always a hardware issue when, in fact, it is only 5% (maybe 10%) of the time at fault.

[ˢᵈˣ FatCat]

software conflict when he did not use, nor upgrade his system, and magically sorftware conflict

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Originally posted by ˢᵈˣ FatCat:

software conflict when he did not use, nor upgrade his system, and magically sorftware conflict

Maybe OP dropped the laptop and is not telling anyone due to humility, idk.

Out-of-date BIOS is a software conflict that can cause BSoD and WHEA, Captain Nothing - you people told me to buy new RAM for a Security Permissions issue in March.

The bad thing about visualizing to help people is that 1) it is hard to read minds and see their screen, 2) we have no idea what hell they have put their systems through, and finally 3) we have no idea what applications they installed nor what their EV says.

But do not go out and tell people they need to buy useless hardware when that should be the last resort (same with DDU and reinstalling Windows), I heard even game publishers are doing this and it is improper nor a "solution" - my laptop acts a fool and BSoD every time the BIOS is out-of-date, on Win11 especially, both 23H2 and 24H2.

Either help the OP or leave because insulting the people who are actually trying to help OP is not right and shameful - people using their own personal time to try to help strangers.

[ˢᵈˣ FatCat]

you tell me, i help him because i had problem with like that because dusty slot, and it's easier to troubleshoot, i focused on my answer and suggeston no need " oh those who say hardware is blablbala "
projection so much

[_I_]

start with grabbing the correct drivers from the laptop oem site
never use windows update for drivers

if there is a bios update needed for win11, grab that too

ms always take a guess and grabs generic drivers that cover wide range of hardware, never specific to the devices actually on the mobo/laptop for full and proper functionality

[justausername]

So I tried installing Linux Debian to see if it will crash at random but the BIOS fails to identify the boot media even with secureboot disabled. I've contacted Lenovo again and expect them to reply sometime next week.

Depending on how helpful they are, the two things I still can try are reformatting again using a recovery USB then updating the drivers from Lenovo's website rather than through Windows Update and cleaning out the insides and replacing the thermal paste myself.

At one point I tried updating to Windows 11 to see if that would solve the issue. It didn't so I reverted back to Windows 10.

BurnIn Test stress tests all components of a computer and the only fault it identified was the CPU overheating. This does not explain why it crashes while idle or running simple programs.

I never dropped this laptop or spilt any drinks on it. I stored it on carpet for months so maybe at one point it got hit with static electricity. I don't know.

When you buy expensive hardware make sure to thoroughly test it while it's still under warranty and spend the extra money on the extended warranty. That's one lesson learnt the hard way.

[76561199389059995]

Originally posted by justausername:

So I tried installing Linux Debian to see if it will crash at random but the BIOS fails to identify the boot media even with secureboot disabled. I've contacted Lenovo again and expect them to reply sometime next week.

You could use Live version for testing but no drivers like NVIDIA or something further. Or anything related to Linux, you could ask here https://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/
Happy research

[ˢᵈˣ FatCat]

Originally posted by justausername:

So I tried installing Linux Debian to see if it will crash at random but the BIOS fails to identify the boot media even with secureboot disabled. I've contacted Lenovo again and expect them to reply sometime next week.

Depending on how helpful they are, the two things I still can try are reformatting again using a recovery USB then updating the drivers from Lenovo's website rather than through Windows Update and cleaning out the insides and replacing the thermal paste myself.

At one point I tried updating to Windows 11 to see if that would solve the issue. It didn't so I reverted back to Windows 10.

BurnIn Test stress tests all components of a computer and the only fault it identified was the CPU overheating. This does not explain why it crashes while idle or running simple programs.

I never dropped this laptop or spilt any drinks on it. I stored it on carpet for months so maybe at one point it got hit with static electricity. I don't know.

When you buy expensive hardware make sure to thoroughly test it while it's still under warranty and spend the extra money on the extended warranty. That's one lesson learnt the hard way.

It's always dust or mold , my 2018 i had zero problem no update the driver, BIOS , chipset, it's like Limbo but i was happy gamer

If iam using that piece like crazy, i would have bought that extended warranty, but my MSI 1070 laptop still healthy

[justausername]

In the end I bought a new laptop. Fixing my old laptop was taking so long I gave up. I found a refurbished laptop which is nearly as powerful at a good price. I'm very unhappy about spending money on another less powerful laptop when I already have a better one which should work but that's how it is.

Lenovo asked me to reinstall Windows then have a remote access session with them to find the problem. I reinstalled Windows and the next blue screen happened during the initial setup sequence. The issue certainly is not driver incompatibilities introduced by Windows Update. It was at this point that I gave up and bought a new laptop. More delays and they never actually had this remote access session. They asked me for what added up to about $1,000 AUD for a motherboard replacement and I declined.

I opened the laptop to remove the hard drive before recycling it and there was no dust inside.

Not sure whether I'll buy another Lenovo product. On one hand that they offered any support outside of warranty is nice, but on the other they were frustratingly slow and also inconsistent. If there was still one month left on the warranty they might have delayed repairs until the warranty had expired. The laptop crashing was probably a combination of bad luck and me not using the laptop enough during the warranty period.

[ˢᵈˣ FatCat]

Originally posted by justausername:

In the end I bought a new laptop. Fixing my old laptop was taking so long I gave up. I found a refurbished laptop which is nearly as powerful at a good price. I'm very unhappy about spending money on another less powerful laptop when I already have a better one which should work but that's how it is.

Lenovo asked me to reinstall Windows then have a remote access session with them to find the problem. I reinstalled Windows and the next blue screen happened during the initial setup sequence. The issue certainly is not driver incompatibilities introduced by Windows Update. It was at this point that I gave up and bought a new laptop. More delays and they never actually had this remote access session. They asked me for what added up to about $1,000 AUD for a motherboard replacement and I declined.

I opened the laptop to remove the hard drive before recycling it and there was no dust inside.

Not sure whether I'll buy another Lenovo product. On one hand that they offered any support outside of warranty is nice, but on the other they were frustratingly slow and also inconsistent. If there was still one month left on the warranty they might have delayed repairs until the warranty had expired. The laptop crashing was probably a combination of bad luck and me not using the laptop enough during the warranty period.

from my knowledge and experience, or i had bad luck too from asus center (each asus center have different behaviour) , they mostlikely lazy to troubleshoot nook and crany and always suggesting change stuff, i dont know if i have trust issue tho
my routine is always find Tech shop expert, find what was the problem, then going to the Asus center, if you doubt them using refurbish items

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

WHEA is usually RAM faults and errors but not necessarily a hardware death sentence.

Should have also went with a desktop as they are more cost-effective and last way longer than any laptop I ever seen.