Is Windows 7 Causing My PC Freezes?

[adamgrippo]

So in September I built a new PC, and everything works great.
I unfortunately have an issue where I play games and my PC freezes up and a very loud obnoxious noise emits from my speakers. I am forced to hard reset my comp. This happens in many random games like Evil Genius, Company of Heroes, and most recently Battlefield 3.

Specs:
AMD Phenom X4 965 3.4GhZ
GTX560Ti
8GB DDR3
MSI 880 GM Micro
750w Power Supply

I have checked my CPU and GPU temps and they sit around 20-40C based on what I am playing.
In EventViewer I see only the 6008 Error, which is an unexpected reboot from me restarting my PC.

When I built my new PC, I tried to reinstall my WIN7, but realized I had one of the sheisty Upgrade versions...
I installed it anyway, because I wasnt about to drop another 200-300 dollars on the complete OS.
(I no longer have my Vista OS discs)


Could me using this technically incomplete version of Windows be causing my crashes?
Thank You

edit: I'd also like to mention I am a member of Microsoft's ExpertZone, I was going to buy the Win7 Ultimate for 15 dollars but the day my paystub was verified my Microsoft they stopped selling the OS...

edit 2: this has been happening since the first day of the PC's use

 

[boldor]

Even an upgrade version of w7 shouldnt be crashing randomly. Although my experience says that a faulty installed OS can have almost random symptoms

BUT I would guess that your problem is a faulty RAM stick or PSU. Try switching ram slots. Or even removing one. If it still doesnt work, if possible, try another psu in ur rig.

 

[adamgrippo]

I mean when I installed the OS i was supposed to install it over Vista, which I no longer had :S

But I'll try moving some RAM around and see what happens

Thanks

 

[inn0v8]

Since the CPU is overclocked is the GPU? if so reduce then stress test... My version of the ultimate stress test is as follows...

Download Prime95 and HWMonitor, run them both while something is covering the PC, IT WILL GET VERY HOT...

If it can last awhile ~30 minutes then you may have another issue (other than RAM and CPU) that the system cannot report such as a weak PSU...

If Prime95 messes up almost right away then you have overclocked your CPU or RAM to the point of instability...

Check if there are any CPU updates for AMD, as AMD has a history of instability issues with their hardware (Windows 2000 didn't like certain Athlon XP and ThunderBird parts) and Windows...

WHQL certified drivers are recommended by Microsoft as they have been tested, any update that is provided by Windows Updates will always be WHQL Certified...

If your motherboard has integrated graphics then try running the system with the integrated graphics instead of the Geforce to check for stability...

Check OS integrity with SFC /SCANNOW from a command line...

Practically all of these tests can be performed with either Hiren's BootCD 14.1 or the Ultimate BootCD 5.1.1...

Give some of those things a try and let us know how it goes...

 

[seltz]

if it was working up until now i would suspect software to be the issue, i would run some scans with a trusted and updated antivirus, and use asc and clean your system up, check your drivers as well, for one reason or another they could be the issue.

 

[adamgrippo]

Unless I bought the CPU Overclocked, I never overclocked it

And this has been a problem since September 9th, the day I assembled* it it froze while I was playing Deus Ex: HR

I'll try to run some tests

 

[inn0v8]

I got ahead of myself, I thought the 965 ran at 3.0GHz and assumed overclocking was performed on the system...

However DO try the rest of what I typed...