[SOLVED] PC crashes only while Graphics Drivers are installed

[spazbandicoot]

Hi there,

Just yesterday afternoon I did a full factory reset and re-install of Windows 10 (NOT via USB) to give my PC a refresh as it had quite a bit of hidden junk on it.

Everything was working until I installed the NVIDIA Graphics Driver for my 1060 6GB. With this driver installed, after booting, it would be around 10-15 minutes before the PC would give me a 'WATCHDOG'.., 'KMODE'.., or 'NOT_GREATER_OR_EQUAL' bluescreen.

I completely uninstalled any Graphics Drivers using Display Driver Uninstaller and the PC didn't crash. I then tried a second Graphics card that I had lying around (a 1050ti) and the PC still crashed after 10-15 minutes whenever I had a Graphics Driver installed.

As I am typing this, I have my 1050ti installed but with absolutely no Graphics Drivers. The PC has not crashed.

I consulted to the internet as I normally would and most of these forums say to try 'sfc /SCANNOW' in the Windows Command Prompt. I did this scan and it came up saying it found some corrupt files but could not fix them. Again, I went to the internet to see if I could solve this issue. I tried everything the forums recommended but sfc still says there are corrupted files that it cannot fix.

Both Graphics Cards were at stock settings and I have loaded BIOS defaults several times.

Everything was working properly without crashing before the reset.

I have no idea what the problem is and I don't know what to do next. I'm posting here as a last resort.

PC Specs:

Ryzen 3600 @ Stock, SMT on.

2x8GB DDR4 HyperX Predator 3200MHz (it is currently set to the BIOS default of 2400MHz)

ASRock B450M Steel Legend

GIGABYTE 1060 6GB G1 V2 (MSI 1050ti 4GB Single-Fan OC Edition installed instead, for now)

500GB Crucial MX500 (boot drive)

I have two Hard Drives installed but they are not currently formatted to reduce as many issues as possible.

 

[cin19]

give my PC a refresh as it had quite a bit of hidden junk on it

Do you mean the pc got virus infection? Or just too much junk program? If the PC got the infection, you are better to do clean install the win10.

Also what PSU did you have? maybe the PSU can't handle either the gtx1050ti or gtx1060.

 

[spazbandicoot]

Do you mean the pc got virus infection? Or just too much junk program? If the PC got the infection, you are better to do clean install the win10.

Also what PSU did you have? maybe the PSU can't handle either the gtx1050ti or gtx1060.

No, the PC didn't have any viruses or anything like that. It just had a lot of programs and files that I had no use for. I also upgraded from an i5-4690k to a Ryzen 3600 and saw a recommendation that people full reset Windows if they install a new CPU so that's what I've done, albeit quite late after the hardware upgrade.

I thought I was forgetting something.
The PSU is a Rosewill Captsone G Series 1000w, which may be completely overkill for my System, but I never had any PSU-related issues before my full reset of Windows 10 - Everything worked almost perfectly.

Edit: I've installed version 388.00 of the NVIDIA Driver and the PC has only crashed once in about 2 hours, compared to the multiple times within 1 hour when using newer drivers.

Edit 2: I unplugged everything in my PC and plugged it all in again to see if there were any cable issues but the PC is still crashing with NVIDIA Drivers installed, and doesn't without them. I'm very confused. Any explanation as to what is going on at all?

 

[spazbandicoot]

Update: I've wiped all drives and re-installed Windows via USB. 'sfc /SCANNOW' in Command Prompt reports that there are no integrity violations. Will be updating again soon.

 

[spazbandicoot]

Update: Reinstalling windows through the USB has fixed the problem. It must have been something to do with the corrupt Windows files?

I must apologise since this is the second post I've made about a problem that I eventually end up fixing by myself. I don't want to be clogging these forums.

Thanks to anyone that was interested.