Windows 7: Randomly crashing Windows 7

Hi all,

I have an intermittent crash happening on average once a night. When the crash occurs, it manifests in one of a few different ways.

1. Screen goes black, I see a blinking cursor (like on a command line) and then after a few seconds I see my post-BIOS loading screen.
2. The screen's graphics get corrupted and then it proceeds as in 1.
3. Sound cuts out, 5 seconds later it proceeds as in 1.
4. Full screen video (espn3.com or the like) playing. The Video freezes, sound continues playing. I can move the mouse cursor but not close any applications. When I hit ctrl-alt-delete, it goes to a blue windows background and gets stuck on "Preparing Security Options."

More info:
* Full retail version Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
* Recently (3 months?) installed this full retail version, where previously I was using an OEM version. I don't recall these issues with the OEM version. The install was on a new SSD.
* Computer was built by me about 2 years ago (ish). It has an AMD Phenom X4 p65 Processor (3.41 Ghz) and 8GB Ram



I've tried to do some trouble shooting myself. I looked in event logs and the only thing I could see was the computer telling me that it started up after not being shut down correctly. I looked for dump files but there didn't appear to be any there. I ran memtest86 and it didn't find anything wrong. I purchased Hot CPU Tester 4 Pro and ran that, no luck.

About 2 weeks ago I noticed that the CPU was running hot (around 78 degrees C). I took the heatsink off, cleaned the surface, put it back on and now the highest CPU temperatures I see are around 62C.

I've attached my perfmon /report results and would greatly appreciate any help the experts can offer.

Thanks for reading,
Macca.

Hi,

Some of the symptoms you describe could be graphics related.

Can you give us some detail about the graphics card? make & model, and is the driver up-too-date? Can you check how dusty the inside of the case is? maybe worth a clean, and a re-seat of the card in the MOBO slot?

Regards,
Golden

Hi Golden,

Thanks for the quick response.

I've attached a screen shot of the info you asked about. Also, at the same time I reseated the heatsink, I took out the graphics card and reseated it too. Didn't seem to help. Also, I downloaded FurMark and another graphics intensive "test" application and used those to stress the card, to no avail.

Please let me know what other info I can provide.

It happens frequently enough to be annoying.

Thanks man,
Macca.

The Macca,


Before posting a BSOD thread, please read the instructions here: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions

Hi Karl, I did read that link. The only thing that I'm aware of that I didn't post was the zipped Windows_NT6_BSOD_jcgriff2 file. I didn't post that because I'm not actually getting a BSOD. If it's useful, I can post it along with anything else you identify as missing.

Thanks for reading,
M

Before posting a BSOD thread, please read the instructions here: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions

Hi Macca,

Please go ahead and follow Karl's suggestions. You might also give us a bit more detail about your hardware (e.g. PSU etc.). The easiest thing is to follow this tutorial to get the information into your system specs:

System Info - See Your System Specs

Lets take it from there.

Regards,
Golden

Okay Golden, thanks for sticking with this, I appreciate it.

Attached is the zip file containing the zipped, unmodified Windows_NT6_BSOD_jcgriff2 directory and the perfmon.html file.

I will follow the tutorial and update my profile with more information about my specs.

Thanks again,
Macca.

The macca,

Please make sure that each and every step of these requirements are fulfilled.

MEMORY DUMPS - REQUIREMENTS


Enable automatic management of the Paging file
WIN + PAUSE/BREAK key combo |
Advanced system settings (left-hand side) |
Advanced tab, Performance section, Settings |
Advanced tab, Virtual Memory section, Change |
checkmark Automatically manage paging file size for all drives |
OK | OK | OK



STARTUP AND RECOVERY SETTINGS
WIN + PAUSE/BREAK key combo |
Advanced system settings (left-hand side) |
Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery section, Settings |
in the System Failure section, checkmark Write an Event to the system log and uncheck Automatically restart|
Under Write debugging information, select Small memory dump |
in the Small dump directory: box, enter %SystemRoot%\Minidump | OK


If you get a crazy message from Win 7 about your paging file being too small, then just ignore the message since we have already made sure that the paging file is set to be managed by Win 7.

ENABLE THE WINDOWS ERROR REPORTING SERVICE
WIN key | type SERVICES.MSC | ENTER |
Scroll down to Windows Error Reporting Service |
Rt-clk on Windows Error Reporting Service | Properties |
General tab | for Startup type, choose Automatic |
In Service status, Start button (unless grayed out) | OK

Okay, I changed the settings to comply with the above instructions.

Thanks,
M