Refurbished laptop BSODs.

[Gat Pelsinger]

My cousin sister just got a new refurbished HP Elitebook for programming, but it has been having a lot of problems since she got it. First of all, the graphics driver was not installed, and I thankfully got to know about it and so she went to that shop and made that guy install it. I don't understand how critical drivers are not installed by refurbished laptop sellers. Either they missed doing that or somebody there has less technical knowledge. But even after that, the Windows software on that wasn't really healthy and I kept insisting her to re-install Windows. But, downloading a 4GB+ file is not what her internet can do so Windows was not never re-installed, and the vendor also refused to re-install Windows saying that it didn't need to. Moreover, because of the BSOD issues I mentioned, he tried changing and RAM (I think so) and later the whole drive as well. My sister thought the issues were gone when one day she was transferring files over USB and the BSOD occurred again. The error code was related to WATCHDOG TIMER, so it is related to hardware or drivers. The vendor said it that there could be a virus, but that were no signs of infection on the Windows install. They literally had just done a fresh drive change with a new OS install and they are saying that there could be a virus, which is absolutely BS. I guided her doing stress tests and memory checking to eliminate the chance of having a hardware problem, and all the tests passed. So, does the problem only lie in Windows or drivers? Or is there something else?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

If stress tests pass then problably just windows install

 

Does it mention a specific program when the bsod occurs? On my moms old laptop that i currently use the nvidia driver likes to cause bsods (nvddklm) so disabling it fixed the issue, too lazy to reinstall the driver so just left it like that. You can try reinstalling/disabling whatevers causing the bsod if there is some program that is causing the bsods

[SImoHayha]

just download windows 10 for her at your place if possible just need 8GB stick, reinstall Windows call it a day and win.

 

could simply be the vendor is incompetent