KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR

…was the rather frightening message flashed at me by my laptop about a month ago, shortly before it experienced the technological equivalent of a stroke. Thus followed days of increasingly random error messages (CRITICAL_ERROR, CANNOT_MOUNT_BOOT VOLUME, ABANDON_ALL_HOPE_AS_OF_NOW – alright, maybe not the last one), erratic behavior and frantic attempts by me to back up as much of my precious data as possible, and all this right before I was due to spend a week traveling around Kyushu.

In the event, I succeeded in having a very pleasant Golden Week during which I managed not to think about computers at all (details of which can be found elsewhere) and after returning, finally managed to coax the long-suffering bucket of bolts back to life again with the aid of a borrowed screwdriver and a replacement hard disk.

The original problem? Overheating, caused by failing to keep the coffee table it normally sits on adequately clean of dust, cigarette and incense ash, biscuit crumbs and other mess. Fans on laptops are often located on the underside of the machine, so if you’re an incorrigible slob like me, this gunge builds up over time (say, a year and a half), gets sucked underneath the computer, blocks up the fan’s grille, causes a dangerous buildup of excess heat and fries your hard drive. Consider yourselves warned, kids…