I'm having really weird blue screens and random restarts, think it may be PSU

Well I want to troubleshoot it for a couple reasons. Mostly, I can't afford to get a whole new computer at this point and I shouldn't need to get a whole new system either. Everything except the PSU and the MOBO is pretty new. Aside from the money aspect, I'm an extremely.... 'dedicated' Mr. Fixit. I really want to figure out what specifically is causing the problem. I see no point in buying a new system if only the PSU or the MOBO needs replaced.

Well I've replaced my PSU and I think that has solved most of my crashing. I can run the stress tests without any crashing. I can also play my games without any problems.

But now I'm getting different BSODs.


Since my last post, I have had:

NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM due to Ntfs.sys
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL due to tcpip.sys
CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION due to ntoskrnl.exe

I ran a chkdsk on my C drive, and nothing really appeared out of place.

Look, I appreciate that you're responding, but that would be like getting a new car when all you need to do is change a spark plug. As I said, everything in this machine, aside from the mobo, is less than two years old and hasn't been stressed much at all. It isn't a waste of time or money (in my opinion, that is). By troubleshooting this, I am learning more about how my PC components work together. And spending 6-$700 on brand new everything, when all I really needed was one thing... THAT would be a waste of money.

That being said, I've run into a new slurry of problems. I'm beginning to lean on the idea that my RAM slots on my mobo are bad/going bad. It's dual channel capable and has the order being A1A2 B1B2 (A is one color, B is another). Having played around with slot placement, everything I used to do worked. But, after the nightmare of trying to reinstall windows (described in the rant below), I've discovered that my RAM is only operating when placed in A1 B1 or B1 B2 (I didn't try A1 B2 because that is quite tacky). If I have anything else in any other place, regardless of kit, it will freeze or not boot past the mobo screen (it will freeze before I even get the chance to enter bios). I'm currently running a Kingston kit in A1B1. I'll mention the RAM that I have to test all this with consists of 1 Kingston kit with specs all it's own (2x4gb). Then I have a 2nd kit of 2x2gb Gskill. I have an additional stick of Gskill, from a different kit however, but with the exact same specs as the kit, but is 1x4gb. I know RAM can be picky, but as I mentioned, I've tested all sorts of combinations over the past year, and haven't seen anything like what I've been dealing with over the past 2 days. What has been working, isn't now, which has me thinking RAM slots instead of RAM. Since reinstalling windows, I haven't had any blue screen issues YET, but I also haven't tested much out yet that usually caused them in the past.


*Unrelated rant of frustration below*
I struggled REALLY hard getting windows installed, but that is unrelated. I just want to complain that I tried 4 different programs to make a bootable flash drive (Which I've done multiple times in the past), but they all were read as 'USB hard drives' in the bios menu, instead of removable drives. This resulted in a 1am trip to Walmart to buy DVDrs, and they only had 2 self checkout lines open (no other lines open), there was 12 person line where half did late night grocery shopping. Finally got home, burned that disk at max speed, and the stupid disc was apparently burned too fast because it wouldn't expand the files. Burned a second one at half speed, managed to install windows, then immediately was forced to troubleshoot RAM freezes. This has been the worst chain of 'one thing after anothers' that I've experienced in a very long time.

I agree that it could be a chain of events that has led to the current situation. However, I still have needed to troubleshoot other issues in order to further pinpoint that it is likely the motherboard. I needed to start somewhere and the PSU was cheapest. Next step in this process is indeed the motherboard. I never ruled out the motherboard, I just want to make that the last option since it will end up being expensive and time consuming. I've never bought a motherboard on my own, so there is a learning curve with specs and stuff.

Do you suggest the reseating and the underclocking because of heat issues? I actively monitor heat and fan speed constantly. Right now I've undone every overclock as well, so I'm fully stock.

Sorry I just sort of left this hanging, however, the time was not in vain.

Thanks for the input and I will consider doing those when problems arise again. As for the moment I seem to be doing entirely okay. The last thing I did was reinstalled windows and troubleshot the RAM problems. Having not touched anything since then, I haven't bluescreened out or even froze up in any way. If anything happens again I'll attempt the underclocking and see how that goes. Honestly though, if I'm going to reseat my CPU, I'm just going to seat it into a new MOBO. I'm pretty sure one (or possibly two) of my RAM slots are bad/going bad. So even if the underclocking finds something, I'll still have those issues to deal with. For now though, I'm going with the 20 year old car philosophy. I'm just going to drive this MOBO until it dies.

Anyway, thanks for the input. As for now I'll put this thread on dormant for a bit to see if I trigger anymore BSODs.