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[SOLVED] PC Slowly, then abruptly, stopped working. (HELP)

Sep 13, 2019
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Hello. My PC has been working fine for about 4 years now. It recently started having issues when it randomly crashed while I was playing DOOM. This started the pattern of my computer crashing every time I played a game. I thought it was just DOOM but, upon playing Minecraft, Hollow Knight, and even Kongerate.com, my computer continued to crash. I started doing scans to find out the solution to these crashes. I scanned my memory, drives, updated my graphics drivers (Nvidia), all while using Windows integrated scans through Command Prompt (scf /scannow, etc.), or otherwise through their repair options with Shift + Restart (excluding my graphics driver's update which I did through Nvidia's Geforce app).

None of these scans resulted in any solutions or repairs, and instead, dug me deeper into a hole of problems. Various scans would point out that I needed to unlock my drive or repair a file, something along those lines. These instructions sent me down rabbit holes that led to more problems and more confusion.

After the failure with scans, I decided it was best to go the hardware route and start taking out and moving things around my computer. Considering I crashed every time I played a game, my first thought was to move my GPU to a different PCI slot. I was hoping this would work, but instead, it made everything much much worse. After doing this my computer started crashing on boot up. It is able to go through the BIOS options screen but after that, it crashes, either by restarting itself in an attempt to try and repair itself or just by crashing and not restarting. Even more confused, I attempted to move it back to the previous PCI slot, but it persisted to crash. At this point, I had almost no idea what to do so I started unplugging my drives and seeing if it fixed anything. It did not. I removed all of my RAM and individually placed them back, one ram for one boot, to see if it was a ram issue. This did not work. Each time it crashes, it either 1) gives me a different error message every time (I've noticed a trend of Kernel being an issue in the error but it is not consistent), 2) goes into automatic repair, or 3) stays off.

My last idea was the possibility that my Windows was corrupt. I tried reinstalling Windows with my Windows 8 discs and with the use of the windows installation media (flash drive). Both of these resulted in telling me that the installation media is detected and needs to be disconnected before it can update windows. This is one of the most confusing parts for me because I am trying to reinstall windows, with my windows disc, but it is telling me I cannot because it detects windows installation media that isn't even in my computer. If I try it with the installation media and my windows code, it again tells me to take out the installation media, boot up, and then insert the installation media. I can not do this because I can not boot up my computer all the way.

TL;DR - My computer crashed while playing games, after numerous scans and failed attempts to repair, I switched my GPU's PCI slot and it now crashes every time on boot up. I also receive a different error message for every crash or it just tries to unsuccessfully repair itself.

At this point, I have run out of ideas of how to fix my computer. Any and all advice or solutions would be greatly, greatly, appreciated.

A few key points:
-My computer only crashed while playing games, it was fine otherwise.
-Until I switched my GPU I was able to boot up my computer completely, but after switching the PCI slot I could no longer boot all the way.
-Every time I crashed before I switched my GPU it resulted in a different error message and continued to with boot up crashes after moving my GPU
-I updated from Windows 8 to Windows 10 a few years ago, that is why I'm attempting to reinstall with a Windows 8 disc and code.

My Rig:
-OS: Windows 10
-GPU: GTX 970 4G
-PSU: Seasonic SS-620GM Active PFC F3 (FDB Fan) (M12II-620Bronze) 620 Watts, 80 Plus Bronze
-Motherboard: PRIME Z270-A
-CPU: Intel i5-7600k @ 3.80GHz (LGA1151)
-Drives: Samsung SSD 860 EVO (1TB) (contains OS), Seagate ST1000DM003-1ER162 (1TB) (HDD)
-Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 (2x4GB), (2x8GB) 24GB total, all 3000MHz
 
Last edited:
Solution
After thinking about all the new information I am inclined to say you have a PSU issue. However, we need more information on the make and model of the PSU. Try booting your computer with 1 of the 2 kits in only just to make sure it is not some issue with one of the kits not working with the other.
I would also try to boot the computer with the Graphics card uninstalled and using the iGPU from the processor. I would also try the graphics card in a different computer if possible. I upgraded my last computer from Win7 to Win10 and had similar BSOD issues until I fixed corruption in Win10 that came from the upgrade. When you did the sfc /scannow command did it find corruption? Did you try the DISM commands? When you did these commands did you run CMD as administrator?
 
I am pretty sure he cannot even get to the desktop. Can he even get to the dump files?
Thanks, I left out a part. desperatePCuser, your computer is now licensed to Windows 10. You don't need a code to install it again. Windows 10 has retired that process. Go here and download a fresh copy to a flash drive:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
When you get to the part of the installer that asks for your key, skip past it. It will find your activation after connecting to the internet.
 
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I would also try to boot the computer with the Graphics card uninstalled and using the iGPU from the processor. I would also try the graphics card in a different computer if possible. I upgraded my last computer from Win7 to Win10 and had similar BSOD issues until I fixed corruption in Win10 that came from the upgrade. When you did the sfc /scannow command did it find corruption? Did you try the DISM commands? When you did these commands did you run CMD as administrator?
I did try to booth without the graphics card and it did not help, I still crash on boot up. I don’t have any available pc to put my graphics card into but I appreciate the idea, as it may be my GPU causing the issue. If I find a computer to test on I will. When I ran the sfc /scannow command it reported that it found no issues/corruption. I did try the DISM commands and again, sadly, it did not fix anything. I ran all commands through CMD as administrator.
 
Thanks, I left out a part. desperatePCuser, your computer is now licensed to Windows 10. You don't need a code to install it again. Windows 10 has retired that process. Go here and download a fresh copy to a flash drive:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
When you get to the part of the installer that asks for your key, skip past it. It will find your activation after connecting to the internet.
Thank you for the suggestion! I will certainly try this once I am back at my computer. I will keep posting to report my progress, if any.
 
After thinking about all the new information I am inclined to say you have a PSU issue. However, we need more information on the make and model of the PSU. Try booting your computer with 1 of the 2 kits in only just to make sure it is not some issue with one of the kits not working with the other.
 
Solution
After thinking about all the new information I am inclined to say you have a PSU issue. However, we need more information on the make and model of the PSU. Try booting your computer with 1 of the 2 kits in only just to make sure it is not some issue with one of the kits not working with the other.
Thank you for the suggestion. The PSU could definitely be the problem which I haven't thought of. But I am not sure what kits mean. If you could explain it to me I'll be glad to try it out.
 
Thank you for the suggestion. The PSU could definitely be the problem which I haven't thought of. But I am not sure what kits mean. If you could explain it to me I'll be glad to try it out.
You said you have a 2x4 kit of RAM and a 2x8 kit of RAM. Sometimes RAM kits just won't work together. Even kits of the same brand, model, capacity, speed, and timings just won't work together. The only guaranteed to work RAM is the RAM that comes in the original kit.

The PSU is a very old and outdated Seasonic offering. I personally have had issues with the M12II's in the past and do not trust them, however, Seasonic is one of the best PSU brands. I would suggest replacing it with a newer model from a local shop. If you get one from a local shop you can return it if it does not solve the issue.
 
You said you have a 2x4 kit of RAM and a 2x8 kit of RAM. Sometimes RAM kits just won't work together. Even kits of the same brand, model, capacity, speed, and timings just won't work together. The only guaranteed to work RAM is the RAM that comes in the original kit.

The PSU is a very old and outdated Seasonic offering. I personally have had issues with the M12II's in the past and do not trust them, however, Seasonic is one of the best PSU brands. I would suggest replacing it with a newer model from a local shop. If you get one from a local shop you can return it if it does not solve the issue.
Thanks for telling me what kits mean. I’ll be sure to see if kits together are an issue. The only thing that leads me to believe it’s not the ram is that I tried each ram indivually and still crashed. However, I was not aware that my PSU was outdated and untrustworthy. I’ll definitely try an updated model once I can and see if that fixes the crashes. Thanks!
 
Thanks for telling me what kits mean. I’ll be sure to see if kits together are an issue. The only thing that leads me to believe it’s not the ram is that I tried each ram indivually and still crashed. However, I was not aware that my PSU was outdated and untrustworthy. I’ll definitely try an updated model once I can and see if that fixes the crashes. Thanks!
Many people on here are of the opinion that the PSU in question is fine and reliable, however, it is a very old design now and was made cheaply.

I would get something like this:

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $99.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-23 23:35 EDT-0400


or this:

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $89.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-23 23:35 EDT-0400