Hi guys,
I've been using this computer for quite a while now with no real problems. A couple of months back I upgraded it from 3GB of RAM to 8GB of RAM, and also from an ATI Radeon graphics card to the NVIDIA GTX 460. Everything was fine until a couple of weeks back when I started getting BSODs. At first I thought it may have been a virus as I couldn't access anything. Software was inaccessible, and even right-clicking made explorer.exe terminate and I had to run it again. I got so frustrated I just didn't use my computer for a couple of weeks, and instead used my laptop.
So here I am on my PC again. I did run an avast! virus scan and everything checked out fine, same with Spybot S&D. The BSODs I suffered were something to do with page files, and perhaps something about a memory error. (The error message.) This led me to the belief that it might be faulty RAM. I searched online and found Memtest86+, installed it onto my USB drive, rebooted and ran it. Unfortunately, it did seem my RAM produced many errors. However, I couldn't find any kind of log file from Memtest86+, so it hasn't proven very useful. I'd like a recommendation for some software I can run within Windows itself, or if I must run at boot-time, one that will record logs so somebody can make sense of these RAM errors. Since I bought the RAM recently, if it is that I should be able to send it back to the manufacturer.
One thing worth mentioning is that it usually switches from Aero to the Basic Windows theme before it BSODs, which makes me worry about whether it could be a GPU problem. I'm sure it isn't overheating as the company I bought the components from (I also got a new PSU) assured me they'd be fine. And it's Christmas for goodness' sake.
I'm about as confused as you might be. Since using it again, I haven't had any of the software errors I had a couple of weeks ago. Everything seems to work. But I did have a BSOD earlier today, and whilst writing this post it switches to Windows Basic (which made me panic and quickly save this post in Notepad), but soon after it switched back to Aero and everything is working... for now.
Any tips?
Thanks.
p.s. Here's the crash report from the last BSOD, though I doubt it will be of much use:
I've been using this computer for quite a while now with no real problems. A couple of months back I upgraded it from 3GB of RAM to 8GB of RAM, and also from an ATI Radeon graphics card to the NVIDIA GTX 460. Everything was fine until a couple of weeks back when I started getting BSODs. At first I thought it may have been a virus as I couldn't access anything. Software was inaccessible, and even right-clicking made explorer.exe terminate and I had to run it again. I got so frustrated I just didn't use my computer for a couple of weeks, and instead used my laptop.
So here I am on my PC again. I did run an avast! virus scan and everything checked out fine, same with Spybot S&D. The BSODs I suffered were something to do with page files, and perhaps something about a memory error. (The error message.) This led me to the belief that it might be faulty RAM. I searched online and found Memtest86+, installed it onto my USB drive, rebooted and ran it. Unfortunately, it did seem my RAM produced many errors. However, I couldn't find any kind of log file from Memtest86+, so it hasn't proven very useful. I'd like a recommendation for some software I can run within Windows itself, or if I must run at boot-time, one that will record logs so somebody can make sense of these RAM errors. Since I bought the RAM recently, if it is that I should be able to send it back to the manufacturer.
One thing worth mentioning is that it usually switches from Aero to the Basic Windows theme before it BSODs, which makes me worry about whether it could be a GPU problem. I'm sure it isn't overheating as the company I bought the components from (I also got a new PSU) assured me they'd be fine. And it's Christmas for goodness' sake.

I'm about as confused as you might be. Since using it again, I haven't had any of the software errors I had a couple of weeks ago. Everything seems to work. But I did have a BSOD earlier today, and whilst writing this post it switches to Windows Basic (which made me panic and quickly save this post in Notepad), but soon after it switched back to Aero and everything is working... for now.
Any tips?
Thanks.
p.s. Here's the crash report from the last BSOD, though I doubt it will be of much use:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 2057
Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1a
BCP1: 0000000000041790
BCP2: FFFFFA8001BED180
BCP3: 000000000000FFFF
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1