Blue screens with Dell Latitude E-Series

[kaj73]

We have a couple of Dell Latitude E5500 running for some weeks now and we see blue screens at least once a week, sometimes daily. Dell support assumes that the FortiClient is the cause for this. As we are currently quite helpless we have to follow every trace. More details on the hardware: - Dell Latitude E5500 - Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 CPU - 4GB DDR2 RAM - Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit NIC - WLAN: Intel WiFi Link 5100 or Dell WLAN 1510 More details on the software: - Windows XP Pro SP3 - latest Dell BIOS and drivers - FortiClient 3.0.603 In most of the cases we see a " BAD_POOL_HEADER" blue screen with stop code 0x00000019, but also " DRIVER_CORRUPTED_EXPOOL" (0x100000C5) and " DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" (0x100000D1). Analyzing the mini dump with WinDbg results sometimes in " Probably caused by : FortiPFW.sys" , but not always. I know that v3.0.603 is outdated already and we will of course upgrade to the latest version, but is there any know problem with FortiClient 3.0.603 that could cause such problems? Is anybody else experiencing problems with FortiClient and Dell Latitude E-Series or with similar hardware? Are there still open issues with Dual Core CPU or with WLAN drivers?

[vanc]

I did see a similar crash before. Don' t remember which build I used. Still recommend to upgrade to 3.0.614 and see if the crash happens again.

[kaj73]

A little update on the situation. We also expirience problems with the latest build 3.0.614 of FortiClient. And it happens not only on the E5500 but also on other, much older Dell models like Latitude D505 or D520 (Windows XP Pro SP2/SP3). We run D505' s for a couple of years now with older versions of FC without problems. So it definitely looks like FC is the cause. We will downgrade now, probably to 3.0.541 or 3.0.470 (both versions run on different clients without problems, we use only VPN).

[vanc]

If you use the VPN, I recommend to install VPN without firewall. You can do that by choosing " Custom" when install. You can also downgrade. But the VPN component may be a bit out-dated too. But if you only use VPN, it may not matter.

[vanc]

BTW, the new FortiClient 4.0 has a lot of improvements in the stability of its firewall component. But it' s not released yet. I have been using its beta for about month on several PCs and laptops, it' s pretty stable.

[Carl_Wallmark]

Vanc: can you tell us a bit of the new features that will be in 4.0 ? or is it classified ? ;)

[vanc]

4.0 is not classified any more. There is a public beta released several weeks ago. But since then, more stability fixes have been added. Here are the new features from the release notes. 1) New GUI. (like it or not, it' s a bit far away from the dated blueish background). 2) WAN Optimization (work together with Fortigate) 3) Online Software Update (so you will be notified with newer releases and upgrade in-place) 4) Endpoint compliance (work with Fortigate) 5) Firewall new network confirmation (let user choose trust/public with new networks) 6) FortiClient VPN Light (standalone IPSec VPN client without anything else) 7) Aggressive Caching for Anti-Virus. (Big performance improvements compared with 3.0). The GA is pretty near. But I don' t know a firm date.

[Carl_Wallmark]

thank you vanc ! looking forward to test the GA release !!