Defiance 4 Laptop, Sporadicly fails to boot

[Duvet]

Hey PC Specialist Forum users,

In November I bought a Defiance IV 17.3" laptop from PC Specialist, and I've been having problems with it since I took it out the box.

The problem is it will occasionally fail to boot. When it's working, I press the power button, the keyboard lights up, and then the PC Specialist logo appears on the screen. However occasionally I turn on my laptop, the keyboard flashes a few times and then turns a solid blue. Nothing is displayed on screen, no boot message, no PC specialist logo; nothing.

I've been in contact with PC Specialist support, who've suggested I try MemTest and external display. Memtest found no issues with the RAM and HDMI doesn't show anything either when it's in this state.

In addition, I've also been getting some BSOD issues with Windows 10 such as:

• KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
• ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY
• IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
• MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
• CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION
• SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

I think the BSOD issues were related to a dodgy outdated USB driver, but I have today had a CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION BSOD, so clearly that problem hasn't gone away for good.

I'm really happy with the performance and build of the laptop, but these issues are a bit horrible to have on a £1.3k machine. Any thoughts/fixes would be appreciated.

I've attached the specs below but if any other information would be useful, please do say and I'll post it ASAP.

Many thanks,
Graham

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 120Hz LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 7700HQ (2.8GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Hard Disk
NOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB WD Black™ M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 2050MB/s R | 800MB/s W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 200W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
2 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + Sound BlasterX® Pro-Gaming 720˚
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 Ports + 1 x USB 3.1 Type C Ports
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (66WH)
Keyboard Language
RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

 

[Duvet]

I thought I'd update this, I haven't had much luck solving the issue but I think I have an idea of what's causing it.

Having called support, it's been suggested there's an issue with Windows 10 crashing on shut-down; I think this means that the laptop starts up and tries to resume Windows from its shut-down state. I'll live with it for now.

I've noticed a reduction, but not lack, of BSODs. They seem to consistently be of type CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION, I'm not sure what to do about it, I've tried WhoCrashed to find out information about the BSOD and got this:

On Mon 26/02/2018 16:29:44 your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\022618-10078-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x175430)
Bugcheck code: 0x109 (0xA39FDBD9672E56E4, 0xB3B6E85FB9AC7FDB, 0xFFFFF80338045FFA, 0x1)
Error: CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION
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 the kernel has detected critical kernel code or data corruption.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. This might be a case of memory corruption. This may be because of a hardware issue such as faulty RAM, overheating (thermal issue) or because of a buggy driver. This problem might also be caused because of overheating (thermal issue).
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

I'm at a bit of a loose end with this. :/