Steam crashing computer

[Destructo]

Sometimes when i'm playing games, my computer will crash/freeze/hang, etc (sometimes bluescreen) I have to hold the power button to turn it off and then turn it back on again. I say steam is the cause of the problem as i have noticed everytime i reboot after a crash i see this: https://i.stack.imgur.com/JzIqa.png

how can i stop it crashing my pc?

[The Giving One]

It's honestly hard to say, without more information. If you have been using the computer for a long time without any issues at all, then I can only assume it is hardware failure. It happens.

Have you added any hardware in that computer lately ? Any at all.

Any other details that you can think of during the history of that computer may be relevant to mention here. Anything at all. Otherwise, it is shooting in the dark a bit, honestly.

[Destructo]

sorry if im not being very helpful. i haven't replaced anything apart from the cd drive because it stopped reading discs. but the problem was happening before i changed it.

all i can think of is antivirus maybe? i changed from sep antivirus to mcafee in feb 2017 according to the install date

i can upload some photos of all the programs installed if that helps? maybe i need to uninstall some?

[The Giving One]

Well, I highly doubt it has anything to do with software, but McAfee is a horrible anitivirus program to use with Steam and games, to be honest with you. Did you by chance have WeBroot installed before ?

Strangely enough, I remember seeing claims of that antivirus causing BSOD errors a while back, even though I cannot confirm if it actually was.

I would not continue to ignore this and keep using the computer, as your post seems to suggest above.

You can try the BIOS update if you want, but you need to be careful doing that, if you are not aware of the possible risks. It's not a big deal, I just have to mention that. But if you have had this issue for a while now, without any major hardware changes, then chances are that won't correct this issue.

It's starting to sound more and more like hardware failure to me, but I could be wrong.

Also, do a memtest to see if your RAM is having issues. You have a large amount of RAM, so maybe there is an issue worth checking.

[Destructo]

no i never had webroot installed. only sep which i then changed to mcafee (virus scan version 8.8 if that helps). I will try the memtest when im able to and see what happens. i dont really want to update and mess around with the bios unless i absolutely have to, but like you said i dont think the bios version is the problem.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by ef_ii:

it says online to go to C:\windows\minidump but the folder is empty

unless im looking in the wrong place?

It is the wrong place. By default, its C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP.

[Destructo]

ok i ran the memtest and this was the result

Module 0:
DDR4, 8192 MB, 64-bit, 2133 MHz
ChannelA-DIMM1 BANK 0 Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2400C14
Module 1:
DDR4, 8192 MB, 64-bit, 2133 MHz
ChannelA-DIMM2 BANK 1 Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2133C13
Module 2:
DDR4, 8192 MB, 64-bit, 2133 MHz
ChannelB-DIMM1 BANK 2 Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2400C14
Module 3:
DDR4, 8192 MB, 64-bit, 2133 MHz
ChannelB-DIMM2 BANK 3 Corsair CMK16GX4M2A2133C13

0.000: Detecting usable memory (32693 MB theoretical max)...
7.800: 20736 MB Test starting on 8 CPUs...
7.800: Allocating memory...
13.681: Starting loop 1
13.681: Stuck Address Test...
19.750: Random Data Test...
25.927: Move Data Test...
29.079: Bitpattern Test...
176.905: Starting loop 2
176.905: Stuck Address Test...
183.083: Random Data Test...
196.436: Move Data Test...
199.603: Bitpattern Test...
347.679: Starting loop 3
347.679: Stuck Address Test...
353.732: Random Data Test...
361.470: Move Data Test...
364.606: Bitpattern Test...
428.847: Test finished with no errors detected

[Destructo]

and i just realised the reason i cant find the memory dumps is because ccleaner deleted them :/

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by ef_ii:

and i just realised the reason i cant find the memory dumps is because ccleaner deleted them :/

1. Dont multipost, i almost missed this one
2. Delete that piece of crap that CCleaner is
3. Upload the dump when there is one

[Destructo]

ok well it froze again, no bluescreen this time but a white square appeared in the top left corner of the display
https://ibb.co/c6yKDx

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by ef_ii:

ok well it froze again, no bluescreen this time but a white square appeared in the top left corner of the display
https://ibb.co/c6yKDx

Did you look at the Event Viewer to see if you could get any clues as to what happened right as it froze ? Check the timestamps there and look for red warnings. Then check the information box associated with that red warning. You can post any of that here you feel may be helpful.

Have you scanned for any infections lately ? Sorry if this was asked already. I would suggest using safe mode only, and scanning with Malwarebytes as intensively as possible, enabling all scan options.

Again, I doubt it is sofware related, but using safe mode may help to narrow it down more, if there is an issue in that boot.

There should not be any issues or freezing or BSOD while in safe mode. If there is, that is not good news, almost surely. The longer you stay in safe mode, and the longer you can use the computer without any freezing or BSOD, then that becomes more and more possible that it is good news, meaning that you probably can resolve this, once we figure out what it is of course.

EDIT.................

Are there any new dumps ?

[Destructo]

ok i have some information from event viewer

Error 8/02/2018 5:48:27PM - Driver ACPI returned invalid ID for a child device (5).

Error 8/02/2018 5:48:33PM - The previous system shutdown at 5:47:05 PM on ‎8/‎02/‎2018 was unexpected.

Critical 8/02/2018 5:48:29PM - The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. (Source: Kernel-Power)

Error: The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
ESProtectionDriver
PxHelp20

Error: Unable to start a DCOM Server: {FFF2D28F-E4EE-44D9-8104-8E71556757F6}. The error:
"740"
Happened while starting this command:
C:\PROGRA~2\COMMON~1\INSTAL~1\UPDATE~1\agent.exe -Embedding

And a lot of errors with this message: The WinPcap Packet Driver (NPF) service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

All these errors were in the system events

also no new dumps as it has not bluescreened

[Destructo]

just ran the malware bytes scan in safe mode and here is the result
https://ibb.co/dWbH1H
basically all it found was the power iso installer.
but i still quarantined it
couldn't test to see if it would crash because csgo wont run in safe mode

[Destructo]

well it just froze again.
checked event viewer and found the following errors

The following fatal alert was received: 70.

The following fatal alert was received: 40.

After i restarted i opened steam and as i expected it said verifing installation

im pretty sure that steam trying to update in the background it causing the crashes, not sure what else it could be

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by ef_2:

After i restarted i opened steam and as i expected it said verifing installation

im pretty sure that steam trying to update in the background it causing the crashes, not sure what else it could be

Stem checks if after crash of pc all is fine.

Avast did bsod once, hard to spot. Uninstalling it solved it.

Uninstalling your antivirus might require some reading. Worth the test

[The Giving One]

It's not Steam, whatever it is.

After following the good Muppet's suggestion above, maybe try running an OS scan from elevated command prompt.

That malware may have damaged some system files or the OS otherwise.

sfc /scannow from elevated command prompt.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

EDIT..Make sure to note how exactly the scan goes. Post if Windows did not find any violations or if they were found and were able to be corrected or not.

This will be reported in the CMD window after the scan completes.