System Crashes, cannot pin source of hardware failure

[firewolfsm]

So, as the title says, my computer has been very unstable of late, and I cannot locate the source of the instability. The problems are not consistent, sometimes firefox and windows explorer, along with a couple other processes, will constantly crash and restart until windows eventually crashes completely. This can happen either with a BSOD or with odd lines covering the screen for a second until the crash.

I loaded BIOS defaults and the problems persisted.

I underclocked the CPU to 220*9 (ram down to 660) and the problems have become rare but still persist. The computer can pass at least an hour of P95 and Memtest+ at normal settings and even the overclock listed in my signature.

I just can't figure it out, PSU? I have a Seasonic 430W. Motherboard?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Full list of hardware may help. Coud be a hardware issue but it could also be curruption on the HDD or a driver issue. Try running Chkdsk and see if there are anny errors on the drive.

 

[mindless1]

Write down the BSOD stop code and any filenames it lists.

Odd lines seems likely to be a video card (hardware) crapping out.

An hour of Memtest86+ isn't even close to long enough to find rare errors, leave it running a bare minimum of 20 hours. What is the peak temp of the CPUs and northbridge during the Prime95 test?

Are you running the latest drivers or old ones? Try a separate testbed windows install if all else fails, deliberately using different driver versions even if it means going with a couple older versions in cases where you were running the current ones, and if you were overclocking when the last OS was installed, put it on stock speeds or underclocked this time to install - but if you underclock, do not leave the memory on Auto/SPD, as that may reduce the timings and cause a different error, manually set timings at same they would have been at stock speed (CPU_Z et al will show the timings used if the bios doesn't).

Take voltage readings of the PSU. If you have a CPU feature like downclocking/down-volting enabled, temporarily disable that.

Swap in a different video card if you have one available. Look at your mobo manufacturer's website, bios notes to see if they list anything that might effect you.

Peek in the case and psu (don't pop the sticker seals on it if it's under warranty still) to see if there are any burst capacitors. Check the fridge for beer, too much beer always makes me crash.

 

[Blain]

The computer can pass at least an hour of P95 and Memtest+ at normal settings and even the overclock listed in my signature.

Am I blind? :hmm:

All these steps will take time
* Drop down to single DIMMs and check for stability
* Clean all your heatsinks
* Check your motherboard for bulging or leaking capacitors
* Update your video drivers, if you haven't already
* Swap out with a known good PS
* Swap out with a known good video card
* Run CrystalDisk Info to check your HD health

 

[Pederv]

I don't see any mention of checking Windows event viewer. Are there log entries that match with BSOD's? If so are the reported cause the same?

 

[firewolfsm]

Thanks for the replies, I just don't have time to take apart my computer now. I guess I'll be running it at 2GHz until I can figure it out. I don't have any extra PSUs or graphics cards but I can test with each DIMM separately and look for bad capacitors.