Device Driver Error

[Guest]

Occasionally my laptop will crash or a programme will have to shut itself
down. When I send the Error Report, the Error Report Reply tells me this is
due to a Device Driver Error. Unfortunately, it cannot tell me which driver
is causing the problem. My IT general knowledge is fair, but not sufficient
to know where to start with this, eg I don't really know which drivers to try
and disable first or how. Furthermore, the problem seems quite random in
terms of time, sometimes weeks between crashes, so if I disable, it will be
impossible to know straight away if it has fixed the problem. Any
suggestions?

 

[DJ Borell]

Until you can get a better grasp on what could be causing your errors,
trying to disable services/programs/drivers, etc. could actually end up
being counterproductive.

What you really need to do is pay closer attention to what's going on with
your system when these errors occur; ie, what programs were running, what
you were doing, etc. Check your system logs after a crash and simply
document what's happening. Over time, you may be better able to draw a
correlation between a system halt and any particular event or series of
events. Once you can at least narrow the problem down somewhat, you can
work on trying to recreate it (ie, deliberately cause the system error).
Once you can recreate it, you can work on trying to resolve it.

As long as the problem is, at least in your perception, completely random,
any troubleshooting you do as far as disabling devices or services are
simply blind stabs in the dark.