Computer crash - what could it be?

Afran

Afran

Afran

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6 Oct 2008
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757
So, I've been having these sporadic crashes the past ~month (ish) and I've not really any solid idea what's causing it. This is somewhat of a repost as (I) unintentionally derailed my other one with what appeared to be causing the crash however it was totally irrelevent hence posting again as I doubt people would revisit the previous.

I had problems with this system initially; the motherboard was faulty, and following replacing that I had tons of BSOD's (I'm sure some of you saw the thread on that), and ended up replacing the RAM after confirming it was faulty.

So, I say these crashes are sporadic because I can crash three times in one day, once in a week, or not at all for two weeks to suddenly crash again, it also happens at no particular moment given it has occured when my pc has been on for a long time, under load (gaming) and once when just idling on the desktop.

There's no BSOD's, no application hangs, no slow downs of any sorts before the crash happens, no motherboard beeps, no crash dumps, no indicator at all that I can see, so my first question would be, which pieces of hardware can cause a crash like this without producing any kind of error?

The crash is sudden, the system will just instantly freeze and I'll simply reboot and everything is fine.

I'm currently thinking it's the SSD as one or two people pointed it out to be the likely cause, however I want to make sure it couldn't be anything else before I contact ocuk about an RMA

Note that apart from this the system is running flawlessly, there are no issues with temperature, loose wires and whatnot.

My specs are below and I'm running Windows 7 64bit

Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor
Gigabyte Z87-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black (CC-9011023-WW)
CoolerCooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
Samsung 840 Basic 250GB SSD
MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
 
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Thank you, Afran.

You said you had a faulty motherboard and faulty RAM. Upon installing the new motherboard and RAM, did you re-install Windows 7? If not, that's one of the things I would do before sending off the SSD.

You could even run sfc /scannow (from Command Prompt, as Administrator) before doing that. But even if Windows reports itself as clean, I would still re-install it and all the drivers etc again, as the previously faulty RAM may have caused a problem somewhere down the line.

It's good practice for Windows/drivers installed with bad RAM to be re-installed with good RAM.

Prior to doing that, remove the GPU and use motherboard/CPU graphics. Flash/update the BIOS to latest version. Then, after re-installing Windows, update any firmware (if available) for the SSD. And run it for a day or two like that. Then plug in the GPU and its drivers, and test further.
 
I did reformat after replacing the RAM after which it took roughly four-five weeks for the first crash to occur.

One thing I hadn't already done that you mentioned though is update the SSD's firmware, which I have now done, could it really just be that causing it? :)

(I updated from DXT07B0Q to DXT08B0Q)

Are you also saying the only hardware that would cause a crash and not give any bsod/crash dumps/etc be the SSD anyhow?
 
Afran said:
I did reformat after replacing the RAM after which it took roughly four-five weeks for the first crash to occur.

One thing I hadn't already done that you mentioned though is update the SSD's firmware, which I have now done, could it really just be that causing it? :)
Click to expand...

Okay cool. Never know. Trial and elimination.




Afran said:
Are you also saying the only hardware that would cause a crash and not give any bsod/crash dumps/etc be the SSD anyhow?
Click to expand...

No. I've had those kind of crashes with bad RAM. But it's not the only thing which can cause it.

Did you try sfc /scannow?
 
Afran said:
Just did, it said this:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and succesfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log" etc etc, hmm..
Click to expand...

Okay. Please reboot and scan, and do this several times. See if it keeps finding files that it repairs, or if it finally gives you several clean reports in succession. Reboot each time.
 
Danny75 said:
Okay. Please reboot and scan, and do this several times. See if it keeps finding files that it repairs, or if it finally gives you several clean reports in succession. Reboot each time.
Click to expand...

Erm so just did this a few times (each time a clean report) and now I'm getting "This copy of Windows is not genuine"? I be confused
 
Danny75 said:
Interesting. Try checking for Windows Updates, see what happens.
Click to expand...

Works fine, one optional update available (Bing crap)

In System it says "You must activate today. Activate Windows now." so I click that & get "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to acess the item."

I also tried running slui.exe as admin, same message

Don't tell me I have to format agaaaaaaaain :<
 
Afran said:
Works fine, one optional update available (Bing crap)

In System it says "You must activate today. Activate Windows now." so I click that & get "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to acess the item."

I also tried running slui.exe as admin, same message

Don't tell me I have to format agaaaaaaaain :<
Click to expand...

Well, at least you're getting somewhere. Not sure if the corrupt files (which were repaired) or this issue were the cause of your crashes, but it's nice to find this stuff and sort it out regardless, right? :)

Did you ever activate your copy of Windows within 30 days of installation?
 
Danny75 said:
Well, at least you're getting somewhere. Not sure if the corrupt files (which were repaired) or this issue were the cause of your crashes, but it's nice to find this stuff and sort it out regardless, right? :)

Did you ever activate your copy of Windows within 30 days of installation?
Click to expand...

I suppose, didn't expect this to happen though lol, and yep, I've not had to reactive in quite some time
 
Afran said:
I suppose, didn't expect this to happen though lol, and yep, I've not had to reactive in quite some time
Click to expand...

Okay my friend. I'll leave it there for someone else to hopefully continue helping you, as I don't know how to sort that activation issue out other than format and reinstall again.

One more thing, do you have CCleaner? If you don't, download it, and run the Cleaner, and also the Registry Cleaner.

If anything else comes to mind I'll let you know. All the best.
 
Danny75 said:
Okay my friend. I'll leave it there for someone else to hopefully continue helping you, as I don't know how to sort that activation issue out other than format and reinstall again.

One more thing, do you have CCleaner? If you don't, download it, and run the Cleaner, and also the Registry Cleaner.

If anything else comes to mind I'll let you know. All the best.
Click to expand...
Aye good program that, I've managed to re-activate windows now and /sfc scannow is still showing zero errors.

So, perhaps the scannow fixed the crash? Or maybe the SSD firmware update? Given how sporadic the crashing can be, we'll just have to see... Time for sleeps~ and thanks!
 
Just wanted to give an update and thanks to Danny75 (inb4 it instantly crashes after I type this) as either the scannow & reactivating windows or the firmware update seems to have completely fixed the crashing, given I haven't crashed for 30 days now. :)
 
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