Computer keeps crashing. Specs and Details Below.

[cfraiser88]

Hi All,

I am having a problem with consistent crashing of my gaming rig. I had persistent problems with Vista that I believe were operating system related. A few weeks ago I upgraded to Windows 7 and those problems went away. However, after a few weeks using Windows 7 I started having a BSOD about ten or fifteen minutes after bootup. I am thinking it is my HD failing because I can be listening to some music or on the internet and everything will freeze. The screen will begin a slow fade with colors washing out to white before the BSOD appears. I have had problems in the past with this HD not being recognized at all and I thought I had fixed that with changing out the SATA cable several months back. The HD does appear in the BIOS on bootup. Sometimes it will run for hours without a hitch and everything is really fast and works well. Other times, as I mentioned, several minutes post boot I will be doing something and the computer becomes unresponsive and eventually crashes. I don't hear anything clicking so the HD does not at least sound like it is failing but at this point it is the only thing I can imagine being wrong.

I have everything backed up and attempted to do a fresh install of Windows 7 rather than an upgrade from Vista. About a third of the way into the install the files quit copying and my machine crashed again. This is why I am thinking it is a hardware issue and not software. I have listed my hardware specs below. The only thing I have added to these specs since I got the machine a year and a half ago is 4 GB of ram. That was right after I got the machine (which was custom built) and everything ran fine except for a few driver hiccups until recently. Any input you guys could offer would be helpful.

CPU: (Sckt775)Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo E8400 CPU @ 3.0GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache 64-bit
CD: (Special Price) LG 20X DVD+/-R/+/-RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer [+10] (BLACK COLOR)
FAN: INTEL LGA775 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK
FLOPPY: NONE
HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+11])
HDD2: NONE
IEEE_CARD: IEEE 1394 CARD AND DRIVER [+19]
MOTHERBOARD: Biostar TP45 HP Intel P45 CrossFire Chipset LGA775 FSB1600 DDR2/1066 Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)6GB (2x1GB) (2 X 2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory
NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
OS: Windows 7 64 Bit Home Premium (Formerly Windows Vista(TM) Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)
POWERSUPPLY: STANDARD CASE POWER SUPPLY (500 W)
SOFT: Windows 7 64 Bit Premium (formerly Vista 64 bit premium)
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS 24/7 LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
TVRC: TV Tuner with FM Stereo + Remote Control
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 1GB 16X PCI Express

Thanks,
Chris

[so0ky]

I know your intentions were good, but next time before you wipe your drive take a look at the event viewer, which I assume is still present in Windows 7. It would be really stupid if Windows stopped logging itself. How to get there in Windows 7 is beyond me, because I have to wait till christmas to get the OS.

Or, if you do decide to wipe the drive, save the log files. The log files really help in determining what is truly causing the problem.

Now I'm going to go ahead and assume your Windows 7 disk is the full OS, and not an upgrade disk.

This would make sense pointing to hardware as the culprit, because a fresh set of OS files aren't being installed properly. Statistically, the number one cause of blue screens is bad memory. So really, this would be a good place to start....

I think I would go ahead and burn the ultimate boot CD. In this CD, not only do you have hard drive diagnostics, but I believe you have memory diagnostics as well. You can double check online what all utilities it has. Otherwise, you are going to have to use more disks. You would have to download and burn Memtest86+, and then you would have to download and burn a hard drive diagnostics program on a seperate disk. The Ultimate Boot CD might have all the utilities you will need on one disk.

First thing I would do, is diagnose the RAM. The second thing I would do, is diagnose the hard drive as that is what you suspect. I've seen on other handy disks that there are processor diagnostics as well, if you see something like that, do that too.

If all of these tests pass, you are going to have to take out unvital hardware and see if the problem persists.

If all the diagnostic tests pass, and removing unvital hardware still doesn't solve the problem, I would post back with exactly what you did and the results.

Good luck.

[bucksfanjimj]

I suspect a bad motherboard and possibly the psu. Biostar is not a good brand and you don't give any details for the power supply. What is the make of that psu?

[fdsa0]

it's maybe caused by your hard disk

[Money2themax]

I know your intentions were good, but next time before you wipe your drive take a look at the event viewer, which I assume is still present in Windows 7. It would be really stupid if Windows stopped logging itself. How to get there in Windows 7 is beyond me, because I have to wait till christmas to get the OS.

Or, if you do decide to wipe the drive, save the log files. The log files really help in determining what is truly causing the problem.

Now I'm going to go ahead and assume your Windows 7 disk is the full OS, and not an upgrade disk.

This would make sense pointing to hardware as the culprit, because a fresh set of OS files aren't being installed properly. Statistically, the number one cause of blue screens is bad memory. So really, this would be a good place to start....

I think I would go ahead and burn the ultimate boot CD. In this CD, not only do you have hard drive diagnostics, but I believe you have memory diagnostics as well. You can double check online what all utilities it has. Otherwise, you are going to have to use more disks. You would have to download and burn Memtest86+, and then you would have to download and burn a hard drive diagnostics program on a seperate disk. The Ultimate Boot CD might have all the utilities you will need on one disk.

First thing I would do, is diagnose the RAM. The second thing I would do, is diagnose the hard drive as that is what you suspect. I've seen on other handy disks that there are processor diagnostics as well, if you see something like that, do that too.

If all of these tests pass, you are going to have to take out unvital hardware and see if the problem persists.

If all the diagnostic tests pass, and removing unvital hardware still doesn't solve the problem, I would post back with exactly what you did and the results.

Good luck.

you didn't beta it? i did so i could help people with it and yes it has an event manager it's the same as vista in that sense

it's maybe caused by your hard disk

i doubt it and btw your link doesn't work please enplane what you were trying to link to

[bucksfanjimj]

I wouldn't worry about that link, Max. It goes to a Russian site. LOTS of viruses and trojans come from there.

[Money2themax]

I wouldn't worry about that link, Max. It goes to a Russian site. LOTS of viruses and trojans come from there.

funny my whois said it goes to a Chinese site but still lots of viruses