I really could cry! Random shutdowns of clean install W7 Ultimate SP1

Mellon Head said:

Looking at this thread, I'm starting to suspect bad or flaky hardware.

Rothgar, have you opened the computer and had a look at the power connections recently? Are they all snug and tight? Perhaps one is loose and causing your crashes with resulting ill effects on your installation.

Or your PSU or motherboard might be on the verge of going south on you. Another possibility is that the processor is getting too hot and crashing or rebooting the system to automatically get the temp down.

These are just some of the things that need to be considered, IMHO.

I've copied and pasted the thread title you suggested but nothing comes up with that title.

Would you mind copy and pasting the link to the thread you are referring to please?

Layback Bear said:

Take a good read through this tutorial by Jonathan King.

RAM - Test with Memtest86+

I'm back to watching.

Thanks. I'll try that.

It's getting bad now. I started thumping the keyboard very hard in the hope of smashing it.

Sorry. My fault. I thought you'd said, "Look at this thread" so I searched for term after!

My misunderstanding.

I stripped the PSU down and looked for bad capacitors. None. Also, HP system has LED troubleshooting codes and it does not display any signs of issues. Issues shuts itself down and reports overheating via LED codes. Again, none are displayed.

I cannot find any suggested BIOS settings on HP website. I don't know if I should be running IDE, AHCI or RAID.

One thread I read probably on here was that if you set Sata Emulation type then install OS and change Sata Emulation that that can cause issues.

ThrashZone said:

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
It has been a common problem so don't cry :)

It's a lot easier to clean install these days with the unofficial sp2
There are essentially 3 updates needed for a clean install of windows that will get you updated through April of 2016

KB3020369 & KB3125574 & KB3172605 all can be downloaded from the catalog using internet explorer
Microsoft Update Catalog

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/...ows-7-and-8-1/
When manually installing updates you need to switch your update settings to Never check for updates and restart the machine first.

After restart you will need to ensure the built in windows update service is stopped and set to manual first too or it will conflict with the stand alone installer.
Attachment 391768
Afterwards reset the windows updates service to what it was before and update settings to your preference and check for updates
Should be only 50 or so updates left to install.

I also have all 3 needed updates on my OneDrive to make it easier for people to get them :)
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AsjD7o6P3KLKj2TjShn8-SumV1rr

Have now reinstalled after using DISKPART to create one partition. I feel a lot more comfortable seeing bootmgr in the same partition as OS rather than in a System Reserved partition. The 100Mb partition is correct. I borrowed a working drive from my brother and that has 100Mb partition on.

Now for backup. How reliable is the Windows System Image option?

Oh my days!

Everything was going swimmingly after today's reinstall.

I've actually been working in it. It's been fine for the best part of the day. I knew it couldn't last.

I'll upload photo tomorrow.

I went away from the PC. 2nd time today and letter a program running. Came back. All looked fine. Decided to end process I was doing and save file. Go to save file. NO C DRIVE! Just not there in My Computer.

That's a very good idea Thrashzone.

I often forget where I put things even though I tend to be very thorough.

Think I am going to do one of the installs in Audit mode on a dummy drive then I can transfer it whenever I like.

I spent the day yesterday, after the PC crashed again on Sunday night and corrupted some files and perhaps registry, on a drive my brother lent to me. Ran 100% fine.

I even swapped the power supply from the known good workstation but, even now, I can't recall when I did that. I think I did it yesterday morning early on to see if that resolved the issue but got Bootmgr again.

I am going to do a spare drive today and see how that goes. Then once I am happy that it can survive a day without crashing I will out the original PSU back in and finalise my thoughts on it.

The HP PSU's have a green LED which can be seen through the rear fan. It was flickering from time to time on the one I used when I was having problems. HP advise that it should be changed.

I wonder if anyone knows a fix. It's not capacitors. They all look good.