Errors/Glitches with my brand new Equium A200 15I (incl video hardware)

Question

Hi,
I just treated myself to a new laptop last Saturday and have thus only had it for about 3 and a half days so far but I noticed a few small things that I weren't sure were errors/faults or if they were just because its new, such as the fact that sometimes I type things with the keyboard and some of the letters don't appear on screen, which I think is probably more to do with me not typing or pressing heavily enough on the keys rather than anything else, its not happening so much now...the touch pad gets a bit sticky too and it thinks I want to scroll up and down when I want to move the cursor not scroll sometimes but I manage to get it to work, I think most laptops have glitches like this and presumably I could help fix it by calibrating the touch pad(?) I haven't had time to look into that yet though... there are a few other things though and most worryingly just this morning I got a video hardware error message, so now im a fair bit worried/suspicious that there may be a real fault with it and would like to know if this is the case, whether its something I can possibly fix (im no real expert especially with hardware but I can always try downloading and installing updates/fixes and that sort of thing if it'd fix problems).
The main thing which is worrying me most, is that this morning a message suddenly came up on screen, warning me that there had been a video hardware error, yesterday evening, which I clicked on a button I think to load more info. and I took this screen cap of it:-
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/724/errorscreencapcw1.jpg
I thought it may help to show the actual full message rather than just trying and pasting the info., well ok to be honest I didn't notice it let you copy it to clipboard but oh well (oops lol).
I know there's a topic about a similar error but I didn't want to butt in on that discussion as I presume that should be for that persons error to be discussed, mine may be slightly different I don't know... I followed the instructions given in that discussion and checked the device manager and no hardware faults are showing up there, btw it says in the device manager, under display adapters, that its a Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset Family, im sure all the A200 15I laptops have the same card but I thought I'd just clarify that. Incase that wasn't the right thing to check I also checked under 'sound, video and game controllers' (as the error said it was a video hardware error) where it lists the only one as being 'Realtek High Definition Audio' and I checked the properties there, on both under properties it says that the device is working properly, with no signs of any faults...
The thing is, I had read online somewhere that there is some issue with the graphics or video cards. I'd read that they can be glitchy and sometimes break down after the one year. I'd also asked my dad about this and we checked that it was an Intel graphics card that came with this laptop, which it is, and we reckoned that Intel chips should be as reliable as any other brand really... so I didn't think that there should be a problem, though if there is I have until next September to get it fixed before the warranty expires!
What surprises or kind of worries me though, is that the error message was only presented to me this morning. It dates the error as having occured at 19:53pm... I was using it last night and infact I went to have a shower and I put the laptop screen down before I went to shower at around 7:35pm, I presumed that its ok to just close the lid and it would automatically go into hibernate mode or something similar(?) im wondering if that had something to do with it, as I 7:53pm would have been roughly when I came back and lifted the lid/screen up again to use the laptop again... I can only presume, given the time it quotes, thats what caused the fault?
It does give me the option to 'update driver software' and 'scan for hardware change' within the device manager, should I run both or either of those perhaps? is this a common glitch? should I be worried at all etc...
Any help is much appreciated, if more info. is needed then let me know and ill clarify what I can. Also in terms of whats installed, I have quite a few programs, for graphics I have an old version of Paint Shop Pro which I installed yesterday morning, it seemed to install fine, thats Paint Shop Pro 7 from Jasc, I also have some converter programs (for vid files, 3GP and stuff), AVG Virus scan, Spybot Search & Destory, DBPowerAmp, FTP Commander, Quicktime and Real Player, fairly basic stuff like that, nothing much else just my old pics and vid files I transferred from my old XP laptop to this one, in my documents... I don't have any high powered or complicated games or anything else like that installed. Also at the time the video hardware error message states, all that was running when I had the lid down (or before I put the lid down) would have been Windows Live Messenger (though im pretty sure I signed out before putting the lid down) and an IE window, im pretty sure thats all, I wasn't working on anything else just checking the 'net...
There are some other things I've noticed too that I thought perhaps I should mention(?), one thing I've noticed it doing is the screen going blank and then coming back very quickly, alot. I've already asked about this a day or so ago as by then I realised that it was only doing that before loading the 'Windows needs your permission to continue' window/message, which apparently its supposed to do and is something to do with the computer switching from displaying the normal desktop to the secure desktop, which I sort of understand lol.
So I believe that isn't anything to worry about but I have noticed over the lastday or so, that the screen seems to do this more, going blank then coming back again, even when that permission message doesn't show up.
For instance this morning when I first put it on and went to check my home page, I clicked on a link at the bottom of the page or wherever to load another page within the website and the screen went blank for a moment before coming back a second later with the requested page. Is this normal too? or a Vista related glitch, or is there a possibility there may be a glitch with the monitor? im guessing it may be more of a Vista thing but I thought I'd ask here just incase, I decided not to pay for any extra insurance/extended warranty as I'm very careful with my items and take good care of them and so I'm being careful to try and spot any faults early on while they may be fixable under the basic warranty and what-not...
Another thing I've noticed is that to start with, when I pressed and held the 'FN' button, a range of black and white icons appeared on screen which told me which F button(s) to use to make certain adjustments, it still does that when I try it now but at other times, it doesn't show the icons, no matter how long I hold the 'FN' button down. That doesn't really matter since I can tell from the symbols on the keys on the keyboard which buttons to press but its just inconsistent, is there a reason why sometimes the row of icons on screen will show up when I press and hold the 'FN' button and other times it won't show at all?
Also sometimes if I move the cursor right to the top of the screen, those icons load as they seem to always be located at the very top of the screen but sometimes this is a problem, if im trying to click on something else and one of those icons comes up instead... im sure you can switch this option off somehow but should I be worried that the icons don't always show when I press and hold the right button(?) just trying to be cautious!
I think this post is long enough and I can't think what else I could possibly add to help, so I'll leave this here. I don't mean to seem too paranoid but thought it best to mention this stuff incase anyone recognises these glitches/errors and can recommend a quick way to fix any problems before they may develop into anything worse... many thanks in advance for any help with any of these issues!!
(mods let me know if im wrong to include so many things in one topic, I kind of did this quickly and I apologise if im breaking any rules I don't mean to, if possible please break this into a few different topics or I can do this, though ill be at work frm 2-9pm today so might not be back and able to check here until Thursday morning (October 4th))

Answer 1

Hi Isla
Your message is really, very, very long. I think its too long to read it twice ;)
. Regarding all your issues on this notebook well. it looks like you have installed many 3rd party programs and applications. In such case its not easy to say if such issues are software or hardware related. But I presume its software.
I checked your screenshot pic but I have never seen such error message. But it looks like something wrong with the graphic card driver. The message says something about Live Kernel Event
A kernel's services are requested by other parts of the operating system like graphic card driver for example.
In such case I would recommend updating the graphic driver. According to you message its a Intel GPU. So you could check the Intel page for the compatible graphic chip driver.
Regarding the FN key issue;
The Toshiba FlashCard utility controls the FN key functionality. I have read in this forum that this application does not run smoothly and in some cases it causes some issues. The new update should solve the problems. You should check the Toshiba driver page. The FlashCard Utility is a part of the Toshiba Value added package.
So finally one more hint:
You should always check for the Vista updates on the Microsoft page. This OS is not perfected and Microsoft releases very often patches and fixes
Hope it could helps a little bit.
If necessary just ask for more info :)
Regards