For the past few weeks I have been experiencing random, albeit infrequent, BSOD's.
1. Occurred while using Thunderbird
2. Occurred while using Firefox
3. Occurred while playing Dota 2
I had several processes open behind the programs listed.
What tends to happen is that the mouse and/or keyboard stops working before the computer crashes. Then it stalls at the Bios screen and will not boot up without a restart.
A few things:
1. The CPU is overclocked, but the overclock was working well on prior installations.
The other systems used MBR as opposed to GPT which the current system uses. (Don't know if this matters).
Overclocks can degrade over time. Please remove the overclock while we're troubleshooting. Feel free to resume the overclock once the system is stabilized.
Here's a list of a number of different diagnostics (all are free): Hardware Diagnostics
Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
Memory
upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
Graphics Card(s)
has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
Sound Card
I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
Monitor(s) Displays
Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
Screen Resolution
800x600
Hard Drives
One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
- Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
PSU
Why do we ask this for laptops?
Case
Silver with a neat Samsung logo
Cooling
sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
Keyboard
Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
Mouse
no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
Internet Speed
too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish
I should mention that I reformatted my system yesterday after running Prime95 for 12 hours with no errors. It's a bad habit I have gotten into when things go awry.
It isn't a bad habit as long as it fixes things (or, it shows that a format doesn't fix it - in which case we'd expect hardware).
This'll be a bit different than my usual analysis - as this will focus on things that could go wrong in the future.
The system doesn't have SecureBoot enabled. If the system is capable of it, please enable it (and UEFI) next time BEFORE reinstalling Windows (don't do it now as the system will become unbootable). If it's a dual-boot system, just leave it as is.
There's a couple of Windows Update failures in the WER section of MSINFO32. Double check to make sure that you have all updates - and stay aware of any further errors in Windows Update.
Other than the above, the system looks fine and should function without issues.
Should BSOD's start recurring, try these free tools:
- Diagnositcs: Hardware Diagnostics
- Driver Verifier: Driver Verifier Settings
Pretty sure that it has one, but haven't checked inside the case!
Memory
upgraded to 12 gB from 8 gB
Graphics Card(s)
has switchable - Intel/ATI - Used wrong drivers, now ATI card is inop :( Will have to fix it soon!
Sound Card
I'm nearly deaf, so this isn't used often
Monitor(s) Displays
Touchscreen on laptop/32" Toshiba on HDMI (laid the Sharp TV on a mouse and cracked the screen!)
Screen Resolution
800x600
Hard Drives
One Samsung 1tB drive - 5400 rpm. Gonna switch to a 7200/10000 rpm or an SSD (if I can find $500 for a 1tB SSD!)
- Switched to 500 gB Samsung 840 series SSD - WOW!!!
PSU
Why do we ask this for laptops?
Case
Silver with a neat Samsung logo
Cooling
sub-par, gotta get around to working on it soon Worked on it - still sub-par! :(
Keyboard
Microsoft Natural - the same one I've used since it orignally came out around 1995
Mouse
no Mouse - Trackball!!!!
Internet Speed
too slow when I'm waiting for a download to finish