Solved Windows 8 crashes and enters "Automatic Repair" very often

I recently built a new computer and installed Windows 8.1 64-bit on it. One day, the computer took a very long time to boot up, was very slow, and was stuck on the "Logging In" screen. I shut down the computer by holding down the power button (was this a mistake?), and turned it back on. It went into the Automatic Repair, then to the "Diagnosing Your PC" screen, and took me to the menu with different options to fix the computer. I selected the Troubleshooting option, and the computer froze. I decided to put the installation disc back in to reinstall Windows 8.1, and after that, everything was fine for about a week. Then, the same thing happened AGAIN. I have no idea why this is happening. Before running Windows 8.1, my computer ran the Windows 10 Technical Preview. With it, the computer crashed twice and went into the Automatic Repair loop. Before running the Windows 10 Technical Preview, my computer ran Windows 7 flawlessly. Any advice? Could my trail of problems have started with Windows 10?

System Specs:
Nvidia Geforce 660 (Graphics Card)
MSI A78M-E35 FM2+ (Motherboard)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (RAM)
AMD Athlon 760K Multicore Processor
Western Digital 1 TB SATA III Hard Drive
Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt Power Supply

Any advice?

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Unless someone has better advice, if it was mine I would reinstall my OS.

Hi,

Reinstalling your operating system will not do you any good. Let me ask a couple of questions.

(Quick note: The MSI boards are known to have problems like this. There is another person on here that had a 990FX MSI board with Windows 8.1, but would always restart and freeze, and have no signal issues. I've also owned a MSI Board, which also had similar issues. I've never owned another MSI board again. I'm an ASUS fan, as I have bought over 15 of their motherboards, and all of their boards have been rock solid. I have one that I've been running for 8 years without a bluescreen or failure. Very reliable and I've been overall pleased.)

1. Do you have Windows 8.1 installed in UEFI mode? UEFI mode is the optimal installation for Windows 8 and 8.1

2. Are all of your cooling systems working properly? Make sure none of your components are overheating.

There are going to be a number of things to test, as the system freezing could be caused by a number of things such as

1. Bad Drivers - Make sure all of your devices have the latest drivers installed to ensure system stability

2. Overheating - If hardware components are overheating (Graphics Card, CPU, Memory, Northbridge, Southbridge, etc) will cause random freeze ups on the computer.

3. Hardware issue - As Windows 8.1 is certified to run on that motherboard, you may have components that may be failing, or could be defective. Here are ways to determine hardware problems.

Check for memory errors by using a program like memtest86, and do 3 to 4 passes (which could take up to 3 hours, depending on the size of your RAM) If there are no memory issues, next check the hard drive.

I've used a CD boot program called "Hirens Boot CD" which has a lot of testing tools. I've used a program called HDD Regenerator, which scans for bad sectors on the hard drive, and attempts to restore bad sectors. Bad sectors on the hard drive will cause Hang ups. My friend had a WD Green 1 TB drive. Found out that a SATA port was failing on his motherboard, causing the Hard drive to have problems, especially in the boot sector. Motherboard is having problems do to a failing power supply as well. I've restored that hard drive to good working order, plugged it in to a different SATA port, and its working fine so far, but its only a small workaround until he can get a new board.

If you are able to get the system to boot, attempt to install geeks3D Furmark. its a GPU stress test software, and can also stress test your CPU.

If all of these test pass, then chances are, the motherboard is failing, and will need to be replaced.

Also make sure all of your power cords are seated properly, make sure the RAM is seated properly. You could also remove the RAM sticks and reseat them.

Are you overclocking? If so, return your BIOS to defaults and see how everything runs at stock speeds.

Your PSU is only a 430W power supply? Does that power supply have at least 20A running on the 12V Rail, and also, for the GTX 660, you need a power supply with at least 24A on the 12V rail or it will not run correctly.

Hope this helps.

Edit: I looked up that Power supply, and that PSU should be plenty of power. so PSU wouldn't be a problem.

@lmaneke,
The BIOS shows that I am booting up in UEFI+Legacy mode. Nothing is overheating, and all of my drivers are up to date. I haven't tried memtest86 nor Hirens Boot CD, but I did install geeks3D Furmark. Upon the first run, the Nvidia display driver crashed. I started the test up again, and this time, the computer stopped projecting to the monitor. However, the fan is running louder than usual, and I can only assume that the test is still running without the monitor. I am currently waiting for the results.

Bad Video card. Driver should not have failed and should not have went to black screen.

What brand is your GTX 660? I also know that different venders have troubles with drivers on their hardware. But as I said, that shouldn't have failed. You may want to restart your machine. If it doesn't reboot or doesn't detect a graphics card, then its a bad video card, or if it keeps on failing

@lmaneke,
It's an EVGA GTX 660. I turned my monitor back on to see if anything changed, but nothing did. I shut off the computer and am now running the memtest86.

EDIT: The test was running for about 5 minutes or so when the screen just went black. What does this mean?

EDIT #2: I ran the test a second time. This time, the test ran longer. 40 minutes later, the computer flipped out (see attached image). I think my computer is fixed .

Is this an issue with the graphics card?

Quick question: how can I tell if something is overheating? I've taken off the door of the case and the area around the CPU is very warm. It's cool pretty much everywhere else in the computer.

@lmaneke,
Some people have said that I need a bigger power supply. The GTX 660 requires a minimum of 450 watts, but my power supply only gives out 430 watts. This is most likely the problem and I am frustrated that I did not realize this sooner.

I am so sorry that I did not get back to you sooner. Somehow, I was not notified that you had replied to me.

Did you ever get this problem fixed.

Just to answer your questions, HWMonitor is a good program for checking thermal sensors for the CPU, Graphics, and such.
That graphics card shouldn't reach 70C while doing normal tasks. You will have some heat if you game, but if it gets up to 70 or even 80, that is running way to hot. The card should run, but it will lower the lifespan. The card should be around 30C idling.

The screen you are showing me, that is a graphics card problem all the way. Oh boy, I haven't seen a screen like that in a while. Did you by chance get a new graphics card?

Now on the power supply. As long as you have 24A on the 12 volt rail. that power supply should be able to run that card with no problems, as some power supplies offer 27 to 30A on the 12 volt rails.

Again, sorry for the very late reply "4 months actually"

Let me know if you have fixed your problem.