My laptop keeps crashing when I watch Youtube videos

[KSOT]

I'll load up something on youtube with firefox and then at some point during the video (usually right at the beginning) the sound starts to skip and I get taken to a blue screen of death. The only text from the BSOD I remember is "beginning dump of physical memory" and then it reboots before I can get anything else. The first few times it happened it actually froze on the BSOD but I didn't think to write it all down. Lately it has actually been rebooting pretty fast so I haven't had the time. When it boots back up I get an error saying windows has recovered from a serious error. Maybe there's a log somewhere about the crashes?

I'm guessing it is some sort of memory failure but why only youtube and not the movies or tv episodes I watch? Must note that this did also happen once interacting with Cake Poker, sans youtube.

Not sure if this is related but video/sound output performance is really poor on this laptop despite it being brand new. It was fine at first, then the more programs I installed over time the slower my performance got. Everything skips and scratches all the time, particularly when I just start watching something (not even sure if this is a problem with video or sound). It also seems to be a problem only when the laptop has been on for a long time, I can't remember it ever happening shortly after booting up.

I have no idea what to do, so I post here!

[im_not_1337]

A couple questions first:

1) Does this problem occur every single time you visit youtube? If you were to visit youtube right now would it occur? Or is it just most of the time, or some of the time?
2) What browser are you using? Have you tried using firefox to get to youtube? What are the results? Have you tried usuing Internet explorer to get to youtube? What are the results?
3) When did this first start happening? Had you previously been able to visit youtube just fine? If so, did you do anything different or lately that may have caused this?

Now some suggestions (I'll be able to give you more when you answer those questions):
1) PLease do your best to write downe exactly what the error is or what the error says
2) A lot of time BSOD errors are caused by bios issues, do you have the latest version of your bios? If you have a dell laptop, go to dell support and look for the latest version of the bios for your computer.
3) It sounds like its possible you may be having some heating issues. Is your laptop properly ventilated? Does it every get seriously hot to the touch?
4) Memory may be a problem. Download www.memtest86.com and test your memory. Let us know the results.
5) Clear your temporary files as there are often the problems in internet browser crashes. Download Ccleaner and clean what is listed for default. Make sure you clean the windows temp and all IE/Firefox Temporary files.
6) Are you using any firefox extensions? If you are these maybe causing some problems. Try disabling or uninstalling them one by one, or all at once and see if your problem goes away.
7) Is your virus scan up to date? Have you ever had problems with this?
8) Go to start>control Panel>Administrative tools>Click on application and system in the left panel, browse for an error that occured about the time of your last BSOD and looks to fit the description. Double click on them and copy and paste the info back in your reply.
9) A lot of the time BSOD errors are caused by faulty drivers/bios. Do you have the latest version of all of your drivers? One easy way to check, (and it is also very important as it will update many other aspects of your laptop) is to use windowsupdate.microsoft.com. Click on custom and download and install all available updates. Reboot, and revisit windowsupdate.microsoft.com to make sure you have everything.

Let me know how it goes.

[KSOT]

1 - Problem only occurs roughly every 1-2 weeks.

2 and 3 are covered in the OP. I used IE one time and it crashed there too. I did have some ongoing problems with a virus that I recently solved on another forum. That is the only event I can imagine may have jammed up my system.

There is no way to write down the error as it is a whole page of text and I have about 10 seconds every few weeks to try and suddenly get it all.

I have a 5 month old Power Pro Notebook and I'm not sure if I have the latest bios. I will try to find out later when I have the time.

I suspected it might be heating problems. My laptop does get very hot. Not untouchable but too hot to keep on my lap comfortably a lot of the time. This very well could be the problem, but I would hope that they would have made sure my comp was properly ventilated before shipping it to me. I did max out some of the hardware but haven't added anything to it since buying it.

Will run memory test tonight.

Temp files were recently cleared.

Only firefox extension I use is google toolbar.

Virus protector is definitely up to date.

Don't see anything about application and system in any left panel, but I opened event viewer and saw them both there. Couldn't find any similar looking errors strangely.

My windows is up to date but for some reason I can't install the most recent version of my video driver from the website (video card is a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600). I don't remember the exact details, but when I searched about it I found that many other laptop owners had the same problem and that the default drivers sent by the manufacturer were supposed to be good enough or something...

Will do those tasks tonight when I get home. Thanks for your help!

[KSOT]

Bios is up to date. I downloaded that memory test but it said I need to install it to a disc and can't run it from Windows? I don't have any discs on hand. Isn't there any alternative?

Laptop just crashed again, this time without the aid of youtube.

[KSOT]

Ok I think this is probably the error.

It says "Category (102)" and "Event ID 1003," then the description says:


Error code 000000c2, parameter1 00000007, parameter2 00000cd4, parameter3 2029362e, parameter4 89ef4008.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Then when I click on the link, the full details are:

Details
Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 1003
Source: System Error
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: ER_KRNLCRASH_LOG
Message: Error code %1, parameter1 %2, parameter2 %3, parameter3 %4, parameter4 %5.

Explanation
A blue screen (Stop error) was reported. The message contains details about the error. A matching event with Event ID 1001 might also appear in the event log. This matching event displays information about the specific error that occurred.


User Action
No user action is required.