Crashes (freeze, reboot, BSOD) shortly after boot

chumbo · 21 May 2016

I've been recently experiencing crashes shortly after booting in Win7...

the problem only happens within +-10-15 min of booting. So after several initial crashes it almost always will finally go on working without a hitch for the rest of the day!? Which could be 10-12 hours working normally (this therefore makes me think it's not an overheating problem).
The problem has recently gotten worse, and now I can never even boot once without it crashing at least once within that time frame.

Either or all of the following symptoms could occur in one session: freeze completely, reboot on it's own or a BSOD (either while on or on the reboot). At it's worst, I think it took at least 4 or 5 crashes to get it running ok.
Yesterday and today have been good with only the one obligatory startup crash which has been the instant reboot. Although I do remember that the early symptoms were more a complete freeze forcing me to do the reboot myself.

One other interesting fact I should mention is, when I once ran the Windows Memory Diagnostics that runs before Windows boot, I ran it with the extended options as it had previously passed 2 runs of the normal test, and it froze then too! At least I think it did. There is a message displayed saying that during testing the PC might appear to be frozen, but I couldn't invoke either of the two available commands (Exit and Options) so I assume it really was frozen.
And that leads me to believe - correct me if I'm wrong! - that maybe it's hardware related since it happened BEFORE the OS was loaded! Am I right?

I just find the symptoms hard to understand...if it is a hardware failure, why does it only fail on startup?! Doesn't make sense to me.

Despite having it configured for create dump files, it almost never does. And I can't Restore either because I discovered that although my system was configured to create Restore points, for some reason the space allocated to that was 0%! (Maybe because Windows dynamically allocates space for Restore according to available HD space? And since I've often found myself with almost only a few Mbs left...maybe then Windows didn't re-increase the space after I made some available?)

Here are two photos I did of 2 BSOD I got (there were others, with different messages).

So...any thoughts?

**axe0** · 21 May 2016

You are running an Acer Product ID (PID) on a Gigabyte board.
This makes your installation counterfeit.
Troubleshooting a counterfeit installation is useless as it is not known what has been modified to your system.
A counterfeit installation contains heavily modified code which causes the system to behave in unexpected ways.
For this reason, analyzing counterfeit systems is unreliable and most analysts won't try it.

Code:

OS Configuration:          Standalone Workstation
OS Build Type:             Multiprocessor Free
Registered Owner:          Bobb
Registered Organization:   
Product ID:                00426-OEM-8992662-00006 <-- Acer PID on Gigabyte board
Original Install Date:     22/11/2014, 19:10:54
System Boot Time:          21/05/2016, 09:45:12
System Manufacturer:       Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

I recommend to install a genuine copy of Windows.
If, after you have installed a genuine copy of Windows, you still get BSOD's we'll be happy to assist you.

chumbo · 21 May 2016

Ok. Maybe it's a good time to move on to Windows 10 then. Just as a Win7 expert, how do you feel about Win10? Is it mature enough already, any known issues and what about software compatibility?
Thx,

**axe0** · 21 May 2016

I would recommend to perform a clean install right after an upgrade if you decide to upgrade even though upgrading on an unstable isn't recommended as problems could be carried over and new problems may arise with the upgrade.

I myself have no problems with Windows 10 since I upgraded, for known issues you should check several forums as it is for many different because of the variation in software, drivers and systems. The only known issue I'm aware off is a problem with command prompt though I'm not sure what exactly the problem is and if it already has been fixed as it was some time ago that I read about it.

Software compatibility is something you should check yourself, most programs run on Windows 10 where some require a reinstallation to function proper.

chumbo · 21 May 2016

Ok, thanks. I was in fact talking of a clean install as I agree, it would be asking for problems otherwise. Well, I guess I'm off to install Win10 then.
Cheers,