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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.