Dell Latitude E6430/E6530 Frequent Crashes & Blue Screens
I decided to recommend the latest and greatest Dell Latitude to my client a month ago, the Latitude E6530. I know the E6520 is reliable and stable, but I figured I’d go for the next generation of processor and USB 3.0. Well, that was a mistake. Ever since I put 4-5 hours in prep time to get it ready, it crashed over and over — about 5 times per day. It would generally just restart on it’s own and leave a crash dump. Sometimes it would happen when it was idle, sometimes when it was in use.
I called Dell (thankfully I bought ProSupport), and they redirected me to a special team of 10 technicians that are in charge of support for brand new models. The agent didn’t seem to have seen this issue before. We checked all the drivers and updated a few, although most drivers were still at “A0”, which means the first release. The problem continued. I changed the settings so that the computer didn’t sleep or hibernate at all, but it would still happen while using it. The tech recommended that I reformat the hard drive and start over. To me, that it like someone going to the mechanic with a stalling problem. The mechanic looks at it and recommends removing everything in the engine compartment and putting it all back in. I would think that they would want to get to the bottom of what is causing it.
So, on my own, I swapped the RAM I put in with the OEM RAM and disabled the USB 3.0 controller in the Device Manager. I did have the wireless mouse receiver and HP OfficeJet 6700 plugged into the USB 3.0 ports, so I moved those to the USB 2.0 port on the back and the eSATA port, respectively.
That did it — perfect for 5 days. I went back and re-enabled the USB 3.0 port and moved the HP back to it and it crashed multiple times that day. I’m headed back to reinstall my RAM.
Sadly, Dell could be learning from this and working with Intel to remedy it, but nope. PLEASE, if you have this problem, too, comment!
[UPDATE 8/14/12] FASCINATING! Check out this comment where the same exact issue is reported, but only on the Latitude with an HP OfficeJet 6700! So, is this an HP problem or Dell driver problem??
[UPDATE 8/18/12] This is quite fascinating and disturbing: “Make sure your not plugging the USB into a USB 3.0 port. HP printers don’t work with USB 3.0 connections and that can keep the computer from seeing the printer.” – HP support site (thanks Jason)
Using a problem called WhoCrashed, here is the crash information:
On Thu 8/2/2012 10:41:12 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\080212-14632-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Thu 8/2/2012 10:41:12 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: iusb3xhc.sys (iusb3xhc+0x63F2B)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\iusb3xhc.sys
product: USB 3.0 Device Driver
company: Intel Corporation
description: Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: iusb3xhc.sys (Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver, Intel Corporation).
Google query: iusb3xhc.sys Intel Corporation KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
On Thu 8/2/2012 10:29:53 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\080212-15350-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0)
Bugcheck code: 0x3B (0xC0000005, 0xFFFFF80002C059BC, 0xFFFFF88007C2BE80, 0x0)
Error: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that an exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Wed 8/1/2012 6:19:25 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\080112-15568-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Wed 8/1/2012 4:06:57 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\080112-40716-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Tue 7/31/2012 2:29:22 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\073112-14679-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F1C0)
Bugcheck code: 0x3B (0xC0000005, 0xFFFFF80002C049BC, 0xFFFFF88007F4DA80, 0x0)
Error: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that an exception happened while executing a routine that transitions from non-privileged code to privileged code.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Tue 7/31/2012 1:09:42 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\073112-21980-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: tcpip.sys (tcpip+0x63D7B)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\tcpip.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: TCP/IP Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.
On Mon 7/30/2012 4:28:03 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\073012-26582-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Mon 7/30/2012 3:25:56 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\073012-15662-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Mon 7/30/2012 1:44:15 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\073012-14024-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Sun 7/29/2012 7:22:41 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\072912-13462-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Sun 7/29/2012 4:34:18 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\072912-12620-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Sat 7/28/2012 10:18:09 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\072812-15210-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Thu 7/26/2012 10:54:52 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\072612-13260-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
On Thu 7/26/2012 4:33:53 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\072612-13509-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7F190)
Bugcheck code: 0x1E (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode program generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.
Conclusion
18 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. Only 15 are included in this report. A third party driver has been identified to be causing system crashes on your computer. It is strongly suggested that you check for updates for these drivers on their company websites. Click on the links below to search with Google for updates for these drivers:
iusb3xhc.sys (Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver, Intel Corporation)
If no updates for these drivers are available, try searching with Google on the names of these drivers in combination the errors that have been reported for these drivers and include the brand and model name of your computer as well in the query. This often yields interesting results from discussions from users who have been experiencing similar problems.
Ran into the same issue with one E6430 (out of a dozen or so). Just discovered WhoCrashed and gave it a go. Same results, which led me to your posting, here.
We recently included USB 3 drivers within our imaging process. The end-user of this particular computer was plugging in to an HP OJ 6700. Hmm.
Will also investigate further with the memory mod’s…
(Glad to know it’s not just happening on the Eastern side of PA.)
same problem. After disabling usb 3, no more blue screens. But now only 1 usb port…
You should be able to put the offending device into the USB 2.0 port and leave the USB 3.0 enabled and use them for devices that don’t crash the computer.
I’m having a problem with my Dell Latitude E6530 using Kubuntu Linux, where the screen will go blank, like normal, after a certain period of time, but when I try to “wake it up”, the blackness will brighten a little bit, but the usual login popup won’t come up.
I don’t *yet* know if this problem is related to USB 3.0, and I haven’t yet figured out if I could disable it, but I’m at least going to try to plug my mouse into the USB 2.0 port, and give it a go! If this *is* the problem, it makes me wonder if it’s a hardware bug of some sort…
Hi. Bought a Dell Latitude e6530. Got it on April 1st. Crashed twice on April 2nd, turned blue. Initially said “bad pool header” then would not turn on. Spent 2 hours on the phone to Dell rep in the Philippines. Don’t know what’s wrong…Going to return it. Hadn’t even used if for more than 2 hours!!!!!!!! Nope, no HP printer attached…
Was issued a Latitude E6430 by work. Smooth sailing for 2 1/2 mos now multiple crashes daily, mucho data lost.
I’m a Technician here at work and I have decided to buy only Dell Laptops for my users and I regret it because of the multiple crushes it has I called Dell South Africa and they told me to reformat my Dell, I thought they were crazy but I decided to try it with my own laptop and reinstalled Windows but alas, the same problem came back to haunt me… SO no use reformatting your hard drive. I hope Dell will come with a solution soon…
I Have DELL Latitude E6530 and having multiple crashes with Blue screen too.
Other time HDD disappears from the system and due that all system hangs few seconds after.