Every program crashes, could it be a RAM issue?

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CBJ023

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Hello everyone, my computer was working fine until today. I started it up and tried to play a few of my games but none would work. They would all crash about a minute into the game. Mozilla Firefox and Internet explorer would also crash instantly. I launched COD5 and at the menu screen the screen would flicker, and the be rotated (I have a video of that attached at the bottom). After GTA 4 crashed this was under additional details Fault Module Name: dxdiagn.dll Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.17514. Right now the computer is basically unusable as everything is crashing out of the blue. The only problem I had before this was BF4 crashing. Mind you the game is crashing for everyone but it was working fine for me for a few weeks and then yesterday it would crash a lot, then after lowering settings and disabling cloud storage it seemed to work ok.
The power to the house was shut off while some work was being done and the computer was on. If that caused the problem what could it have done, and how can I fix it?
EDIT: It would stutter on the menu screen for COD5 but while loading Nazi zombies the whole computer crashed on safe mode the game won't launch saying directs has encountered an unrecoverable fault
Specs:
- Phenom II x4 965 OC'ed to 4ghz 1.35v
- 8gb DDR3 1333mhz RAM
- EVGA GTX 660 SC
- WD Black 1TB HDD
- Windows 7 64bit
(This doesn't happen with the other games, they run normal then crash a few minutes in my temperatures are all within their limits) COD5 stuttering video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfLUc28iX6g&feature=youtu.be
 
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CBJ023

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No, they should be up to date, I upgraded to Windows 7 about a month or two ago so everything should be up to date, and I checked about 2 days ago for new GPU drivers, but when I tried to load a game in COD5 the whole computer crashed
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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It COULD be a RAM issue, though it might be something else.

Rule out RAM via MEMTEST: www.memtest.org

You can also use the Windows Memory Diagnostic which may not be quite as good but it's easy. Run either for at least one full pass (about 30min for 8GB).
 
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CBJ023

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I have memtest running now, I have 2 4gb RAM sticks its testing. And by shut down I mean it crashed, it showed a blue screen then came up with the error. The PSU is 500W and has been running fine, I've had the computer since April it was just running Vista 32 bit. But it's a Raidmax RX-500AF.
 
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CBJ023

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memtest has been running for 2hrs. 30mins, 1 pass 0 errors test #10, and 70% complete, so it might not be the RAM but what could be causing the problems? Almost every program is crashing but why?
 
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CBJ023

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I don't think so, the system ran fine, but programs won't work right. I overclocked my CPU about a week ago and ran Prime 95 for over 7hrs. It ran without a hitch, that's with CPU load at 100% drawing a lot more power than Internet explorer would. The PSU isn't even a year old yet. But like I said my reasoning for it not being the PSU was because internet explorer uses no extra power then just sitting idle. But the program will crash. Could the house power being shut off while the PC was on have damaged the PSU? It was plugged into a basic surge protector but I want to eliminate as many variables as possible, and thank you for your help.
 
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CBJ023

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So I ran Prime 95 and furmark at the same time to make sure the PSU wasn't the issue, it ran fine, and the temps were OK. The computer seemed to run OK I played a match of world of tanks, then played GTA 4 for about 5mins then it crashed then I tried using Firefox, it crashed as well as IE so it seems it works OK then after the computers been on a little while it starts acting up
 
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CBJ023

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It might be the GPU... the colors on IE seemed weird, and before GTA crashed the picture went all weird. On the WOT menu there were red blue and green limes everywhere and the fan on the GPU randomly ramped up to full... How should I fix this?
 
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CBJ023

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I uninstalled the graphics drivers, the unistall windows that popped up was just a mess of colors. Now everythign seems to be ok. I'm going to try reinstalling the GPU drivers and see how that goes, the GPU wasn't overheating it was only reaching 71 degrees celcius on max load.
 
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CBJ023

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[strike]Well it seems I fixed it. After uninstalling the drivers IE and Firefox were fine, I reinstalled them and everything seems to be working. So I just had to reinstall the graphics driver luckily, but thanks for the help![/strike] Nevermind this didn't help
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Hey,
Try doing a System Restore recovery:

1) Create a RESTORE POINT right now (so you can go back to it), then

2) RESTORE to a point that you think the system should be stable.

If this SOLVES your problem, then great, you may just need to reinstall any programs/games added after this point (files won't be deleted though).

If this does NOT solve your problem, then you may have severe data corruption requiring you to reinstall Windows. Thus:

1) Run a diagnostic utility from the hard drive manufacture to look for evidence of drive DAMAGE

2) Carefully plan your backup (write down program names to reinstall, passwords, save any files etc). *Or better yet, if you have a spare drive, unhook all other drives and try installing Windows to it without messing with your old drive.

3) Install Windows, then the main motherboard chipset and other drivers

4) Finish all Microsoft Updates

5) Install a game known to crash and test it.

6) If stable, finish adding programs, transferring files, etc then Activate Windows.

7) *Most importantly, once stable make a BACKUP IMAGE of your Windows drive in case this happens again (i.e. Acronis True Image; compressed backup to a separate drive).
 
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CBJ023

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I've done a clean install of windows, uninstalled almost all programs, then deleted windows.old. I played World of Tanks no problem, about a minute into BF4 I got a BSOD same driver ntosrknl or something like that. The ntosrknl driver is the one causing all teh problems it seems. I'll run memtest again one RAM stick at a time, while using Vista 32bit for the first 8 months I could only utilize one RAM stick because it was 32bit, but I didn't realize the other one wasn't fully seated until I installed Windows 7 could that have messed it up? I ran WD Drive diagnostic without any issues but that was a short run trying to fix it really quick before a clan meeting. I removed my overclock and had no problems in a 30min BF4 match. Could a overclock cause the ntoskrnl driver error? Its not overheating, and was stable under 9hrs of Prime 95 but the only difference between BF4 crashing the first time compared to the second was going from 4ghz at 1.35v to 3.4 at 1.375 (stock) and being on a private server rather then public. Also I played many BF4 games before with the overclock without any problem. Also About a inch above the bottom of the monitor there's a small section that seems to flicker or move after the rest of the webpage on Mozilla its like a small line across that when scrolling down seems to move afterwards. Thanks again for the help guys this is frustrating, Vista ran better than this, and that's pretty scary.
 
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Yingda Wang

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ntosrknl is often related to ram issues. I would say about 90% of the time
I have the EXACT same problem with the same driver crashing and about the same symptoms
programmes crashes and random BSOD after a while
Zeroed my disk, Restored to factory condition. Did not work
Ran memtest for 20+hours per stick. Did not work
Ran the system with one stick(2gb ddr3) problem solved.
Now i run with 3 sticks of 2gb ddr3 instead of the 4 sticks of ddr3. 6month without trouble.
So yeah, i suggests live with one stick only for a week, if the prob is gone, then u know the source
 
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CBJ023

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Ok I'm going to mess around this next week with it. I ran BF4 two days ago crashed, removed CPU overclock ran fine, rebooted added overclock ran fine. So it might be a RAM issue, WOT runs no problem, as well as COD5. I'll watch my RAM usage in-game it might be that those two don't activate the second RAM and cause the crash. is there any program to monitor RAM usage? I know I can use Task manager but that's hard to watch in-game. It didn't crash at all yesterday I played WOT and BF4 a little. Next time it crashes I'll remove the RAM that I originally seated wrong, try playing, and run memtest overnight. If it crashes, I'll switch to the other one play, and run memtest overnight. I have 2 4gb 1333mhz RAM sticks in dual channel mode.
 
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CBJ023

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Ok yesterday it was running ok, WOT ran fine like usual, I played 1-2hrs of BF4 and had the plug-in crash, and then the game crash. Then later on I got the BSOD. I pulled out the second memory stick and started memtest last night, its been going for about 11hrs. I'll probably leave it running for 17hrs. then see if I get a BSOD in BF4 after playing a while. So far it's passed all the tests with no errors.
 
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