Windows 7: Freezes, crashing and random restarts (very few BSODs)

Hi,

I'm getting frequent crashes on my HTPC in Windows 7 usually without a blue screen of death (I have had maybe one or two BSODs). Sometimes the computer will crash almost as soon as I switch it on (i.e. when I'm using internet explorer), sometimes it crashes when watching a bluray in media center and sometimes when doing nothing at all.

The system was stable, however about 5 months ago I installed a new CPU and cooler, and about a month or so later I started getting these problems. I have tried the following:

- Virus scan
- Memory check (memtest86 multiple passes)
- CPU stress test (prime95)
- Hard drive check disk
- Graphics card stress (furmark)

The graphics card did show signs of overheating and the PC crashed shortly afterwards, however I have since tried the onboard graphics card and the problems are still there. The fact that the PC can crash shortly after booting also suggests its not this.

I can only think of three things that it can now be:

- Power supply (no idea how to test this, the power supply is a good quality Corsair, with more than enough power for the components and like I said, the system used to be stable).
- Motherboard (could be this I guess - potentially I damaged it when I installed the new CPU)
- Windows 7 (hence the reason I'm here!)

In trying to fix the PC I have used a registry fixer by a reputable company (I forget which one).

I can find two mini dumps on the PC (both from yesterday when I was doing some testing) with the following strings:

010211-12573-01.dmp 05/06/2011 16:33:25 DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL 0x000000d1 00000000`00000070 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000 fffff880`0418e2c0 usbehci.sys usbehci.sys+72c0 x64 ntoskrnl.exe+70740

051511-56066-01.dmp 05/06/2011 16:20:39 KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 0x0000001e ffffffff`c000001d fffff880`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`04474800 aswSP.SYS aswSP.SYS+15501 x64 ntoskrnl.exe+7fd00

I've tried searching for information about these, but there is nothing particular clear or relevant to my situation, so I'm all out of ideas - any help would be gratefully received!

Thanks for your help in advance.



Additional Info:
Attached zip file contains all the recommended BSOD files etc.
System specs are:

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (Upgrade from Vista IIRC)
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640
Motherboard: Asus M4A785D-M Pro
Memory: 4GB Cosair
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 4550 Passive
Displays: Sony HD
Screen Resolution: 1080p
PSU: Cosair HX 450W
Case: Lian Li PC-C37 (Modded)
Cooling: Corsair H70
Hard Drives: Corsair V32 SSD Samsung 1GB

Hi :)
Ur minidump points to aswSP.SYS,that is avast security system (conflict).
So for first step remove avast and for now download and install MSE http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/mse.aspx
-----------------------
Wait and...
Please post back with any results!

Thanks for your help, I've uninstalled avast and installed the M$ version - for a brief moment I thought you fixed it - the PC worked for a while so I took the opportunity to run some virus scans (all came up clean), but during one of the scans I had a crash.

No BSOD - just a white screen with lots of artifacts on it - required a reboot to fix. I'm thinking this is a hardware problem but would love to be corrected.

This now is a graphic card issue,just try to completely unistall and update the driver.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
BUT that...<<just a white screen with lots of artifacts on it>>worries me in some cases thats mean the graphic card is damaged,lets hope not.

Hi Panais,

Sorry for the delay in reply - I couldn't try this until I got home from work this evening.

I reinstalled the graphics driver, and to my disbelief it seems to have worked! I haven't managed to crash it since, and I've been trying!

Hopefully this is the end of my problems and I'm not speaking too soon! Thanks ever so much for your help - its really appreciated.

I owe you a virtual pint

You are welcome!
Glad to hear good news

Unfortunately I spoke to soon - crashing is back. I don't think it can be the video card, as I have the same problem with both my HD 4550 in the PCI-E slot, and with the HD 4300 on board graphics.

I think it must be hardware - I'm assuming its the motherboard as I can't see it being the power supply, although happy to be corrected...!

I have some other odd things occuring - one thing is when ever I log in using logmein, the computer often crashes, and when I click whilst logged in this way,things happen twice (like a click on a program, and it will load up to of the same program etc).

The whole things seems really odd - I'm tempted to do a reinstall to see if this improves the situation.