Hello everyone, I hope you are ready, this might be a long story. I recently have been plagued with non-stop computer problems since when I thought it was a good time to upgrade my computer (ive had the computer for about 5 years). My computer's original working specs were as follows:
Dell XPS 9100
stock case
12 gigs ddr3, 1333mhz
intel i7, 960 @ 3.2 ghz stock cooler
gigabyte 970, G1 gaming @ 1564 core, 3668 mem
2 sata drives total 2.8 TB
blue ray optical drive
EVGA 750w g2 PSU
windows 7 professional
Output devices
3 monitors, total resolution: 5040x1050
Logitech g19s
Razer DeathAdder
Logitech 2.1 speakers
Realtek Headphones
As far as important software being run:
Custom system elements (themes, icons, pointer, animations, etc)
TuneUp Utilities 2013
Had rainmeter, didn't run it ever.
First idea I went to was to get a new motherboard, case, cpu cooler, and a second Graphics card to be able to play games better at this resolution. Although it wasn't I got all these parts when I noticed that my CPU at the time (960) was holding back my graphics cars quite a bit, and I expected it to only get worse in the near future as games are only getting better. I also realized that since my CPU architecture is completely discontinued, I wouldn't be able to upgrade the CPU alone. I then tried overclocking, and couldn't get a stable overclock to where it made a big difference. So I decided to return the motherboard. note everything worked fine. but performance was very low. My average FPS score on valley went from like 60 to 80ish I forget the exact score, and don't have access to the computer to check. Overclock helped a little. but couldn't get it stable (I'm not new to overclocking) So the things that changed were:
i7, 960 now at 3.8GHz
Phanteks case,
only 8 gigs of ram (old mobo has 6 DIMMs this one has 4)
2 970s now at a slightly lower clock speed, around 1550
Cooler master Nepton 240m
intel extreme motherboard dx58so2
(everything else was the same, except trying to install LEDS i fried my psu so i RMAed and got a new one.)
I then decided to upgrade to a 4790k, and an MSI z97a Krait motherboard.
after this things originally worked great. Valley scores were nearing 110 fps (Side story: I rarely update my computer, usually they just mess things up so I avoid it when I can) So I noticed there were more updates available for my computer so I broke from my past ways to install something like 40-50 updates. over the next few days a lot of stuff changed, because I began customizing it more.
I changed the system identity to be not from Dell anymore.
I deleted everything dell off the computer
I went on a mass cleansing of all stuff I never used in program files
I began to use rainmeter again because I found some good skins
I also began to play Sleeping Dogs again (which is horribly unstable on my computer, always has been. old GPU its didn't even run, Locked up the computer)
I began messing with the bios and overclocking.
I dual booted windows 10, on my second drive.
I defragged my whole hard drive and checked it for errors
It wasn't until playing sleeping dogs where things started to crash. I got my first blue screen after it had normal crashes a few times. I think it first blue screened after I tried updating my directx. I read somewhere that sleeping dogs corrupts directx. So I updated directx from various places, including Microsoft. But that didn't help. all the blue screen error codes had a possible cause of bad memory when I looked them up. they were
PAGEFILE_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA
MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
SYSTEM_EXCPETION (i think it was just this, it might of said something after it. this one only happened once or twice)
I have all the dump files from these except for the first few. and could tell you more info on each one if asked. After a while they seemed to get worse and would bluescreen in any game (or stress test).
Heres one thing i did notice, just before it would bluescreen (sometimes), Rainmeter would "stop responding" and that little error message would pop up. Before it could say "a problem could not be found" or something, It would BSOD. one time it popped up right after a test in prime95 failed (rounding error. more on that if asked), I hit cancel or close right away and it didn't blue screen. BUT when I started the test again, it bluescreened Immediately, within a second. I rebooted and closed rainmeter. It still BSODed though.
Then one day, when i went to turn it on, it said my copy of windows wasn't genuine... Which it is I promise. Dell or Microsoft wouldn't help me when i called, but that's a topic for another day.
So i got 16GB of Kingston Hyperx RAM 1866mhz. That didn't help, it might have even made it worse. here's some other things i tried before getting new ram
Updated computer
did a clean install of graphics driver
3 hours of memtest86+ no errors on old memory
prime95 would crash randomly
turned off all overclocks on everything (GPU, CPU)
restored my computer to BEFORE playing the game.
used just one graphics card
i set the ram to a defined speed
turned off various things in the bios.
used a different power supply.
updating directx
cleaning my computer with tuneup.
and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.
The RAM I swore would of fixed it, everyone online said that getting new RAM would fix it. So I'm out of ideas. The computer boots after the blue screens, but only if I run my power supply by itself, or else it just turns off and on repeatedly.
Any ideas on how to fix it would be appreciated, I'm a college student so I use my computer A LOT and I'm a computer science major.
Thanks in advance!
oh my current specs are
Phanteks Case
i7 4790k @ 4.4GHz
Z97A Krait Mobo
CM Nepton 240m Cooler
2 Gigabyte 970 G1
16GB Fury HyperX 1866MHz
EVGA 750w G2 PSU
BR Optical Drive
2.8 TB disk space
Unactivated Windows 7 Pro, and Windows 10
(both on separate HDDs)
Output devices are the same.
Dell XPS 9100
stock case
12 gigs ddr3, 1333mhz
intel i7, 960 @ 3.2 ghz stock cooler
gigabyte 970, G1 gaming @ 1564 core, 3668 mem
2 sata drives total 2.8 TB
blue ray optical drive
EVGA 750w g2 PSU
windows 7 professional
Output devices
3 monitors, total resolution: 5040x1050
Logitech g19s
Razer DeathAdder
Logitech 2.1 speakers
Realtek Headphones
As far as important software being run:
Custom system elements (themes, icons, pointer, animations, etc)
TuneUp Utilities 2013
Had rainmeter, didn't run it ever.
First idea I went to was to get a new motherboard, case, cpu cooler, and a second Graphics card to be able to play games better at this resolution. Although it wasn't I got all these parts when I noticed that my CPU at the time (960) was holding back my graphics cars quite a bit, and I expected it to only get worse in the near future as games are only getting better. I also realized that since my CPU architecture is completely discontinued, I wouldn't be able to upgrade the CPU alone. I then tried overclocking, and couldn't get a stable overclock to where it made a big difference. So I decided to return the motherboard. note everything worked fine. but performance was very low. My average FPS score on valley went from like 60 to 80ish I forget the exact score, and don't have access to the computer to check. Overclock helped a little. but couldn't get it stable (I'm not new to overclocking) So the things that changed were:
i7, 960 now at 3.8GHz
Phanteks case,
only 8 gigs of ram (old mobo has 6 DIMMs this one has 4)
2 970s now at a slightly lower clock speed, around 1550
Cooler master Nepton 240m
intel extreme motherboard dx58so2
(everything else was the same, except trying to install LEDS i fried my psu so i RMAed and got a new one.)
I then decided to upgrade to a 4790k, and an MSI z97a Krait motherboard.
after this things originally worked great. Valley scores were nearing 110 fps (Side story: I rarely update my computer, usually they just mess things up so I avoid it when I can) So I noticed there were more updates available for my computer so I broke from my past ways to install something like 40-50 updates. over the next few days a lot of stuff changed, because I began customizing it more.
I changed the system identity to be not from Dell anymore.
I deleted everything dell off the computer
I went on a mass cleansing of all stuff I never used in program files
I began to use rainmeter again because I found some good skins
I also began to play Sleeping Dogs again (which is horribly unstable on my computer, always has been. old GPU its didn't even run, Locked up the computer)
I began messing with the bios and overclocking.
I dual booted windows 10, on my second drive.
I defragged my whole hard drive and checked it for errors
It wasn't until playing sleeping dogs where things started to crash. I got my first blue screen after it had normal crashes a few times. I think it first blue screened after I tried updating my directx. I read somewhere that sleeping dogs corrupts directx. So I updated directx from various places, including Microsoft. But that didn't help. all the blue screen error codes had a possible cause of bad memory when I looked them up. they were
PAGEFILE_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA
MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
SYSTEM_EXCPETION (i think it was just this, it might of said something after it. this one only happened once or twice)
I have all the dump files from these except for the first few. and could tell you more info on each one if asked. After a while they seemed to get worse and would bluescreen in any game (or stress test).
Heres one thing i did notice, just before it would bluescreen (sometimes), Rainmeter would "stop responding" and that little error message would pop up. Before it could say "a problem could not be found" or something, It would BSOD. one time it popped up right after a test in prime95 failed (rounding error. more on that if asked), I hit cancel or close right away and it didn't blue screen. BUT when I started the test again, it bluescreened Immediately, within a second. I rebooted and closed rainmeter. It still BSODed though.
Then one day, when i went to turn it on, it said my copy of windows wasn't genuine... Which it is I promise. Dell or Microsoft wouldn't help me when i called, but that's a topic for another day.
So i got 16GB of Kingston Hyperx RAM 1866mhz. That didn't help, it might have even made it worse. here's some other things i tried before getting new ram
Updated computer
did a clean install of graphics driver
3 hours of memtest86+ no errors on old memory
prime95 would crash randomly
turned off all overclocks on everything (GPU, CPU)
restored my computer to BEFORE playing the game.
used just one graphics card
i set the ram to a defined speed
turned off various things in the bios.
used a different power supply.
updating directx
cleaning my computer with tuneup.
and a few other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.
The RAM I swore would of fixed it, everyone online said that getting new RAM would fix it. So I'm out of ideas. The computer boots after the blue screens, but only if I run my power supply by itself, or else it just turns off and on repeatedly.
Any ideas on how to fix it would be appreciated, I'm a college student so I use my computer A LOT and I'm a computer science major.
Thanks in advance!
oh my current specs are
Phanteks Case
i7 4790k @ 4.4GHz
Z97A Krait Mobo
CM Nepton 240m Cooler
2 Gigabyte 970 G1
16GB Fury HyperX 1866MHz
EVGA 750w G2 PSU
BR Optical Drive
2.8 TB disk space
Unactivated Windows 7 Pro, and Windows 10
(both on separate HDDs)
Output devices are the same.
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