Self-built gaming PC having BSODs and freezes; can't pinpoint cause.

@TwoCables Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure to check out the site.

I already tried my luck with PCHelpforum and Microsoft's forums, but neither posts have had many responses. Ironically, a guy on PCHelpforum actually criticized my having multiple forums involved .

I think involving more than one forum is a very good thing to do, because there being more people involved means having a larger knowledge pool to draw theories and answers from, and with that a greater chance of solving an issue. It's just common sense.

I just thought of something; I'm using the stock Intel cooling fan for the CPU. I bought thermal paste, but I didn't use it because I had read that the stock fan is ok unless you plan to overclock. Should that cause any problems?

Dem0nGam3r said:

@TwoCables Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure to check out the site.

I already tried my luck with PCHelpforum and Microsoft's forums, but neither posts have had many responses. Ironically, a guy on PCHelpforum actually criticized my having multiple forums involved .

Wow. Some people. You'll never get that kind of a response on here or over on Overclock.net (well, the chances are very slim because there are bad apples in every community). All we care about in these communities is arriving at the solution!

Dem0nGam3r said:

I think involving more than one forum is a very good thing to do, because there being more people involved means having a larger knowledge pool to draw theories and answers from, and with that a greater chance of solving an issue. It's just common sense.

Yep! There is a very old book that says that the wisest thing to do is to consult as many different people as possible instead of just one person. Of course, I'm paraphrasing it, but that's the gist of what it says. So, your feeling is absolutely correct.

For the Minidumps not saving then, try these instructions:

• Dump Files - Configure Windows to Create on BSOD

@Golden No, I didn't run Prime95 yet. I'm rather concerned that it (and that other CPU stress test you mentioned) could damage the CPU. Besides, I'd like to eliminate the GPU and RAM first, as they're easier and safer to rule out. Are those programs safe to test the CPU with? Because if so I would still like to use them after I've eliminated the GPU and RAM as suspects.

@BlueRobot I already made sure that the settings were configured to create dumps, but the fact is my minidump folder is literally gone since the repair install. Unless it's a hidden file and I need to enable viewing it, I think I'm in big trouble. What do I do about that?

@ganjiry I already tried a complete removal and clean install of my video drivers (I'm quite certain I did everything right), and even tried downgrading them to no avail.

Also, guys, my computer seems to take significantly longer to boot and definitely takes longer to load once at the desktop since I did a repair install of Windows. Any reason for the slowdown (and that missing minidump folder)?

Thanks to everyone for the responses! I really appreciate the help!

The tests are safe as long as you follow the instructions carefully, and have tried Option Two of Dump Files - Configure Windows to Create on BSOD?

I'll read that after I type this up, but I'm really more concerned about my computer running twice as slow as before the repair install. Also, do you have any idea why my minidump folder is gone? It was under C:/Windows/minidump before, and now it is GONE (I'm not even sure the option two thing will work if the minidump folder is missing, and I want that folder back anyway). Do I need to do another repair install?

I'm very concerned that I've irrepairibly damaged Windows, and my situation is now even worse than before.

Does a repair install remove chipset/LAN/USB/audio drivers? I need to get my computer running fast again and retrieve the minidump folder before I do anything else.

I'm kind of panicked right now about the whole thing. As if I needed another issue to fix .

By the way, what is that download under option two?

Upon Googling my problem, I came up with a SevenForums article in which someone pointed to this article:

Crash Reports - Read

I guess it's just a matter of creating the file myself?

I still need some help with the problem of my PC running slowly after the repair install.

Device Drivers - Be sure to have these handy to reinstall. They do not always remain after the repair (upgrade) install.

I would recommend installing all the latest drivers, as they may have been deleted from the operating system after the Repair Install. The performance may be a result of having the in-built Windows drivers instead.

The Crash Reports tutorial shows how to read WhoCrashed reports, which is a program that provides very little information about a BSOD, and suggests setting the dump files to be created using the same tutorial I provided earlier.

The file which is attached within the tutorial is simply a registry file which can be merged with your registry, to allow configuration of the dump files to be saved, in case that registry entry is corrupted or missing from your registry.

I would suggest carrying out the hardware tests already mentioned, since 0x124 bugchecks are almost always hardware related.

• Stop 0x124 - what it means and what to try