PC freezes and blue screens

[Phil UK 87]

Hi guys, I'd appreciate some advice on what software to use to figure out what is wrong with my PC (Prime95 etc), so here's the situation:

A couple of weeks ago my PC started having stability problems, sometimes it would just freeze (on desktop or in browser) and there was the occasional blue screen. I think one blue screen mentioned an nvidia driver, and some of them mentioned something like "try changing video adapters".

I did a full reformat yesterday, fresh install of Windows 7 Pro x64, seemed to have fixed it until I had a blue screen today while playing WoW, but the PC restarted itself before I could read what the error was. I've started running Prime95 on blend, is that still considered a good stability test these days? Or should I run it on custom and try to use as much RAM as possible? Should I use other tools like OCCT or FurMark? And then there is the possibility that it's the hard drive that's the problem, would would be the best way to test that?

Ok here are the specs, some parts are around 6 years old (mobo, hard drives and PSU):

CPU: AMD Phenom X4 2.3GHz
RAM: 4GB DDR2 (4x 1GB Corsair)
GPU: GTX 560 1GB
Mobo: ASUS M2N-E
PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
Hard Drives: Seagate 400GB and WD 320GB, both SATA 2 and 7200 rpm, plus a 1TB external drive
Sound card: X-Fi XtremeMusic

Until recently this was a very reliable PC, I ran Folding@home for the first 6 months of this year 24/7 on CPU and GPU, no crashes. Also no blue screens or freezes that I can remember in several years, until a couple weeks ago.

I think that's everything, sorry if this post was too long, I just wanted to explain everything in detail. Any help would really be appreciated :)

[Phil UK 87]

I've now seen a minimum 12V reading of 11.392 which is pretty scary if accurate, although there was no crash or blue screen this time.

I still need to test the hard drives, could anyone advise me on how to do that properly? I did a checkdisk a while back but I remember after it finished it booted up and didn't show any error messages, so I don't know if there was a problem or not.

Same for RAM, I don't know how to test that properly. As for broken capacitors, wouldn't that just stop the system for working altogether? The only extra USB power draw recently added is the external hard drive (until recently I would leave it disconnected unless needed) which is powered by mains anyway.

As for the PSU being old tech, that wasn't a problem for the last 6 years which included a CPU upgrade and 3 graphics card upgrades, so imo if it's the PSU it's just down to the age of it.

There are no overheating issues, unless it's the PSU that's overheating which seems unlikely. The case has dust filters on the front so it's not very dusty inside, of course it could be building up in the PSU but I can't be sure. The bios hasn't caused problems in the past so I think we can rule that out.

[_I_]

to test a hdd
open computer, right click on drive -> properties -> tools tab, error checking check now
it should ask to reboot, let it scan when it boots
right click on computer -> manage -> system tools -> event viewer -> application
source should be winlogon

to test ram
download memtest86 iso
http://www.memtest86.com/
burn it to a cd or dvd and boot fro it
let it test for about 5-10 minutes, if it shows no errors ram is fine

bad caps in power supply, are not too difficult to spot
most will have bulged top, or look like they leaked fluid and it dried on or around it
examples here
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=bad+caps&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=1

[Phil UK 87]

Thanks for the advice, I'll test the HDD and RAM, as for the PSU, is it safe to open it up to have a look? I think there's usually a warning saying "do not open" or something due to electric shock.

[Granada]

@Phil UK 87

With "old tech" I actually meant the internal design. Old PSU series are less energy efficient, which means more heating up, which means faster aging capacitors, also there were more elements per psu, closer placed, so the free air corridors were more tiny - they came up with double fan designs and things like that. All in all you're making quite a step with a new one, although you don't recognize it in the end as user, except for cooling issues and efficiency.

[Phil UK 87]

Yeah that makes sense, I guess it would age faster especially after doing 6 months of folding@home. If I can't find any problems with HDD, RAM etc a new PSU might be just what I need.

[Phil UK 87]

I've ran checkdisk on the windows partition, found the log and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong. Would it say something like "error found" if there was a problem? Also running it on other drives / partitions.

[Phil UK 87]

I ran memtest overnight, 7 passes no errors. Also ran CHKDSK on all drives & partitions, all those which could be checked within windows had no errors.

The windows partition obviously was checked during boot up, the log seems ok but I'm not sure, there are some things in it that I don't understand. If anyone could have a look at it I would appreciate it, here it is:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
158208 file records processed. File verification completed.
372 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 60 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
208252 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
158208 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 254 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 254 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 254 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
25023 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
35212432 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
158192 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
8536197 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

62914559 KB total disk space.
28416868 KB in 116995 files.
91236 KB in 25024 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
261663 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
34144792 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
15728639 total allocation units on disk.
8536198 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 6a 02 00 ce 2a 02 00 59 54 04 00 00 00 00 00 .j...*..YT......
c0 00 00 00 3c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....<...........
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry if the formatting sucks, I just pasted it in. If there's nothing wrong there I might buy a new PSU and see if that helps, unless anyone can suggest anything else to help diagnose the problem.

[[☥] - CJ -]

To answer the question you asked before as i dont think anyone answered it.
To make sure mini dumps are enabled, right click on my computer and hit properties, goto Advanced System Settings then click the Startup and Recovery Tab, under System Failure make sure Write an Event is checked and for Write debugging info select Kernel memory dump.

If Automatically restart is checked uncheck it so the next time it blue screens you can tell us what error it gives.

As for the possible powersupply issue, you can try getting a new one, but if you can try to get a good brand, XFX, Corsair, Ultra X4 are good brands. No less then 600w to be on the safe side.

[Phil UK 87]

Thanks for the info, auto restart was checked so I unchecked it.

I already ordered this PSU:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/700w-ocz-modxstream-pro-ocz700mxsp-uk-hybrid-modular-86-eff-80-plus-sli-xfire-eps-12v-quiet-fan-atx-

It might seem like overkill but I'll be upgrading this system soon, and maybe overclocking.

[[☥] - CJ -]

mmmm... decent i suppose.. but you should have gone with one that has atleast 2 6pin+2 PCI-E connectors, that way if you ever upgrade ur GPU you'll be ready for it, cuz otherwise ull have to use the molex adapters which sucks and can be a lil messy as far as cables go.

it has dual rails, of which single rail designs tend to be better, but its do'able.
-

probably should have asked us for advice before you went ahead and ordered one. but that should do the trick.
-

Correction, that PSU does have 2 6pins, one of which is 6+2, so you should be set as far as GPU upgrades go.
-

If you get a blue screen again let us know what the error is.

[Phil UK 87]

I would normally have asked for advice first, but I saw a couple of reviews for that PSU which were very good, plus the 86% effeciency (if accurate) is better than anything else I could see for that price. Also I don't plan to ever use more than one graphics card (although as you say, I could). I'll report back if I have any more problems.

P.S. I'd still like to know if anyone can see a problem in the CHKDSK log above, or point me to a site that explains it. I couldn't find anything particularly useful on google.

[[☥] - CJ -]

the log looks normal to me, while i cant explain what it did just know that its normal.