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#1
BSOD after several days of Firefox issues
I've detailed problems I've had since Windows Update ran important updates on the 15th here-
Firefox issues- sudden total PC freezing
But in summary-
1) night of the 16th, Firefox freezes, PC won't respond, I have to unplug and do a forced manual restart.
2) I disabled several plugins. Right after the PC gets a bit jittery, I figure Firefox is doing stuff in the background as it lasts a couple of minutes
3) night of the 19th I get the same freeze with Firefox upon starting the browser. Was almost around the same time of night as the freeze on the 16th
4) morning of the 20th, about 5:30 AM the PC freezes again, Firefox is NOT running, but it lasts maybe 30 seconds. Event viewer suggests the video driver was failing to respond
5) about 6:45 it does this again, only to BSOD and restart, but sits on a black screen
6) hit power button to shut down, restart, Windows sits at the black logo screen and doesn't load
7) shut down manually, open case, replace SATA cable to hard drive, restart
8) System tools run because Windows didn't boot, startup repair runs. Diagnostic shows no specific fault found, only a generic issue. This runs and PC reboots to a previous good state, and I haven't had any issues since.
I'm set to record BSOD info but I cannot find the dump file, I think Windows failure to restart failed to create the dump. I also think the manual restarts failed to log other issues. I did not see the screen long enough before reboot to recall what it said.
I'm trying to determine the cause of all this. Faulty video card driver? Unfortunately I seem to be at the most recent driver for this integrated chip. The WU on the 15th causing issues? Maybe, it's the only change since. Bad hardware? WD's HDD utility, sfc /scannow and Chkdsk say the hard drive is fine, though that SATA cable was old and bent at a good angle in the case so maybe...
Likewise, it's possible the update goofed with Firefox or its plugins, but the 2 forced power downs and reboots could've caused issues. The fact both Firefox freezes occurred around the same time at night also seems strange- conflict with a running windows process scheduled for around then?
I want to figure out what happened, to hopefully make sure these issues are done. I've 99% ruled out malware after scans with several programs. If this is a Windows issue I do have my Gateway system restore and install discs(it's not a Windows 7 retail disc, it's W7 restore for this specific model PC) and could either reinstall Windows, or if the HDD perhaps is going bad, could pop a new one in(bought a spare in January and kept it in storage unused)