Freeze and crash even in Safe Mode

I am getting serious crashes, every time I boot my machine. Even in Safe Mode, and I even tried to run memtest86, and IT froze during the first test, and crashed the second time I ran it. I got some random looking error messages, but once I got a message that my CMOS was corrupted.

If I have a compromised BIOS, how do I test this, and how do I flash the BIOS when the machine crashes all the time. If it crashes during the flash, I am dead, right?

I cannot post the crash logs, as the machine freezes before I can find and copy or e-mail them.

I would be very appreciative of any help.

This may well not be your issue, but if possible, better to be safe than sorry:

There's a rootkit that's been doing the rounds since December that shows itself through blue screens with a IRQ not less or equal stop code. It usually blames the iastor.sys driver as the cause.
It starts by blue screening/freezing on random programs, then when booting to Normal Mode, then when you try to boot to Safe Mode. Eventually it will allow no access whatsoever.

If this sounds familar, Download TDSSKiller and run it in Safe Mode. Just to rule out the rootkit.
As long as you can keep Safe Mode open for 30 seconds or so it should be enough to run TDSSKiller and remove the rootkit. Persistent attempts at Safe Mode may be the way to get it open for the one or two times you need to install and run TDSSKiller.

When did this happed?
Did you recently do any hardware changes? What?

Sounds like a hardware issue since you can't even boot into the machine before errors occure. Also the fact that the system is crashing in safe mode also indicates a hardware issue.

With that said, check to see that the CPU cooling fan is working.

Let us know.

SledgeDG, I have reset the BIOS to defaults in setup, and it did not change anything. I looked at MSI update, and it does not work with Win 7 64 bit.

fimble, I will try that root kit killer. I never got an error message like that, but it was crashing on my wife and daughter while I was at work and they don't know what they are looking at or remember the errors. (LOL, my 3 year old granddaughter just walked up and said if I wanna fix the putter I have to look at the back........)

sygnus21, the only new hardware was an upgrade to 8 gigs of memory about 6 weeks ago, which is why I was running memtest86. I ran it for 18 hours after I installed the new memory and got no errors, but wanted to confirm because it is the only change made in the last year or so. I did check that the fans are working, and I got the machine up long enough to check temps and they were all fine (I have a fan controller and temp monitor).

My biggest worry was that CMOS warning that it was corrupt. If I am crashing during memtest86, can I safely flash the BIOS?

If you got a corrupt BIOS warning you may need to replace or flash the BIOS. You could try re-flashing the BIOS with the latest BIOS and see how it goes. Make sure you remember/write down your BIOS settings before doing so.

Bottom line - re-flash the BIOS. Also, for peace of mind, replace the CR2032 CMOS battery. In fact replace the battery first, then re-flash the BIOS.

Or.... you could simply replace the battery first and see what happens.

Let us know what happens.

I replaced the battery, and then the machine would not even POST. After sitting idle for a couple of hours, it did POST, but froze up in setup, while I was resetting the date and time. It just stops responding to the keyboard. It is NOT the keyboard, I tested it. The battery is new, and I tested it.

I was trying to get it to boot off of a LINUX flash drive, but it did not see the drive. I have done this in the past, so it should work. Now I am back to the machine not posting at all.

I am afraid it is hardware, and in reality a dead MOBO. I never saw a machine that would freeze in BIOS Setup, or would freeze in Safe Mode. Any other advice?

When you upgraded to more RAM did you get the same brand and type? Try running with the RAM you had before the upgrade and see what happens.

I put the ram I have in one stick at a time, and got errors or freezes on each stick. I put my old ram in, and I am up and running again. Ram problems did NOT seem likely, but here we are. I even booted up a game, and it boots fine. Amazing that I could get FOUR bad sticks. This is the second purchase of Crucial ram that has gone bad on me. The thing is, the ram that is working is Crucial.

Any more problems and I will update.

Thanks for the help, I would never have guessed my ram was bad.