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 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.

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

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.

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

Thanks,
M