Hello ya'll, first time poster here. Like many first timers, I have a problem I can't fix.
I have a win 7 64 bit pc I built myself. 1 year, no major problems. My computer is now, however, hard crashing VERY often. It will hang up, freeze, and either I will have to hold the power switch, or the screen will throw up a bunch of craziness (odd colored pixels / total chaos) and then restart the PC.
This started when I downloaded a game on steam (specifically, Deux Ex: Human Revolutions). I, admittedly, began uninstalling other programs while that program was installing. The game then proceeded to do what I described above: hard freezing. Weirdly, I could still alt tab and have some access to my PC. The game, taking up monitor 1 wouldn't go away, but if I had a browser open on monitor 2 I could access the web until the system ultimately buckled. I thought this was limited to the game's instability. I began to get more worried however as these crashes started happening more often.
Recently, whenever I left my computer alone, I would come back to it having crashed and restarted. It appears it could no longer go into sleep mode. After more and more of this, I decided to do a fresh install and delete all the info on the drives.
I've done that, and am currently using a fresh install of windows 7. I'm downloading drivers, all is good...and then freeze up. I restart, start updating again, downloading, browsing the web, etc.... until I refresh a website. I notice it isn't loading. I try google (to test internet connection) and it is starting to "lag" as though my connection failed. I go towards the start menu, mousing over my task bar. The minimized applications "preview" window comes up, but the start menu button is non functional, and then I freeze. No ctrl-alt-delete, or alt f4 works. Weirdly, the preview windows is still working. I could watch my download from steam happen in the little preview window on the task bar. After about 60 seconds, the computer gave a quick windows screen (I think the ctrl-alt-delete screen, not sure. very quick) and then the PC crashed.
Windows is installed on an SSD drive, and I have a 750gb HDD for most everything else. I was installing a game on the HDD when the computer crashed.
I don't know if I have a corrupted HDD, or a corrupted SSD, or a broken mobo.
Lastly, we do get more than a fair share of power outages here. I wouldn't be surprised if, even after only a year, something just got worn out. A lightning strike about 6 months ago fried my cable modem and the ethernet port on the mobo.
Any help is appreciated. -- John Stevens
I have a win 7 64 bit pc I built myself. 1 year, no major problems. My computer is now, however, hard crashing VERY often. It will hang up, freeze, and either I will have to hold the power switch, or the screen will throw up a bunch of craziness (odd colored pixels / total chaos) and then restart the PC.
This started when I downloaded a game on steam (specifically, Deux Ex: Human Revolutions). I, admittedly, began uninstalling other programs while that program was installing. The game then proceeded to do what I described above: hard freezing. Weirdly, I could still alt tab and have some access to my PC. The game, taking up monitor 1 wouldn't go away, but if I had a browser open on monitor 2 I could access the web until the system ultimately buckled. I thought this was limited to the game's instability. I began to get more worried however as these crashes started happening more often.
Recently, whenever I left my computer alone, I would come back to it having crashed and restarted. It appears it could no longer go into sleep mode. After more and more of this, I decided to do a fresh install and delete all the info on the drives.
I've done that, and am currently using a fresh install of windows 7. I'm downloading drivers, all is good...and then freeze up. I restart, start updating again, downloading, browsing the web, etc.... until I refresh a website. I notice it isn't loading. I try google (to test internet connection) and it is starting to "lag" as though my connection failed. I go towards the start menu, mousing over my task bar. The minimized applications "preview" window comes up, but the start menu button is non functional, and then I freeze. No ctrl-alt-delete, or alt f4 works. Weirdly, the preview windows is still working. I could watch my download from steam happen in the little preview window on the task bar. After about 60 seconds, the computer gave a quick windows screen (I think the ctrl-alt-delete screen, not sure. very quick) and then the PC crashed.
Windows is installed on an SSD drive, and I have a 750gb HDD for most everything else. I was installing a game on the HDD when the computer crashed.
I don't know if I have a corrupted HDD, or a corrupted SSD, or a broken mobo.
Lastly, we do get more than a fair share of power outages here. I wouldn't be surprised if, even after only a year, something just got worn out. A lightning strike about 6 months ago fried my cable modem and the ethernet port on the mobo.
Any help is appreciated. -- John Stevens