New Homebuilt PC Crashes During Everyday Tasks

There's several things that could be the culprit...

It might be the CPU overheating...try reseating the CPU heatsink. Install HWmonitor or something like it to monitor CPU temps.

It might be the PSU...do you have another PSU that you could try? If not, at least try unplugging and replugging in everything, just to be safe.

It might be the GPU...try reseating it as well.

Does your BSOD screen give an error code?

Download bluescreenview from Nirsoft and see if it gives you an indication of what system files or drivers may be the cause.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

It could also be your RAM...
Type: Memory on (search programs and files)
and select: Memory Diagnostics, click on the {restart now option]
This will restart your computer and run the Memory Diagnostics program.

If it passes this test, then move look into other things like CPU/PSU or GPU.
I had a similar problem until I finally decided to check the memory...

I RMA my memory and now I have no problems.
(still I did the same test when I got my replacement memory just to make sure
and it passed the test with flying colors)

note: in my case the memory diagnostics test failed at just 14% and the PC shut down.
If your memory has a similar problem, this is how to know for sure.

Thank you all for the quick replies!

drwho1 : i ran the diagnostic and it came back with no errors.

sephmeister : I downloaded blue screen and 2 files are shown both are .dmp files.

Augray37 : it is not the cpu overheating. I have a Corsair H100 and the temps never go beyond 40 Celsius. As far as the PSU goes i do not have another one to try that would power this system. Yes the BSOD gives me a error the next time I log in.

Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 4105

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 3b
BCP1: 00000000C000001D
BCP2: FFFFF800024AD7F5
BCP3: FFFFF8800C6A6980
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\070112-80106-01.dmp
C:\Users\Marcus\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-88858-0.sysdata.xml

For both .dmp files that appear the address that caused the crash is ( ntoskrnl.exe+7f1c0 )

Yes.. unfortunately that's a very generic and unhelpful .dmp file.

That system is fairly decked out... did you go with an SSD? If so then you may need a firmware update. Alternatively I'd also recommend updating the BIOS on the motherboard as it may improve stability.

This sounds like RAM to me. Lower your mhz on your RAM (e.g. from 1600mhz to 1333mhz) and see if the problem goes away.

Yes i am running with two 60gb ssd's in RAID 0 for my boot drive. and a 3tb HDD for storage. My BIOS has the most recent update.

it could be a few things. first off download cpu-z and see what your ram speed and voltage is. look under the spd info for the ram rated speed and voltage. you may have to set the dram speed and timing and the correct voltage by hand. look at the ram part number and see if it on the mb qal list or the ram vendor qal list. if it is start with one stick. run memtest86 or run it as you normally do...see if it locks up. if it fine add one more dimm. if that dimm is fine and there no errors..move that dimm to the next slot and add one new dimm. if three dimms are fine move the working dimm to the last slot and add the last dimm. if the mb hangs it could be a voltage or timming issue with 4 dimms from that vendor. also look to see if there 1.5 or 1.65 volt ram.
right now some ram is made for intel mb...1.5v or less. and some older chips 1.65 are used for amd mb.

Im sorry but i am not very familiar with CPU-Z. I have downloaded it and under the Memory tab my DRAM Frequency is 671.1 MHz. Under the SPD tab it shows my voltage is 1.50V. Is this right? Isnt it supposed to be 1600MHz?

How do i do this? In CPU-Z my ram says it is at 671.1MHz with 1.5V......

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682... this is the link to the ram im using

DDR means double data rate, so your ram is running at 671.1X2=1342.2 or simply 1333 ish speed

Oh ok! thanks. so should i make it run at 1600MHz? How would i do this

manually change it in the bios. motherboards have ram speed set to auto which usually makes ram get set to 1333 speeds.

I changed the ram to 1600 and i got an error as soon as the pc restarted saying that windows failed to boot due to overclocking and it asked if i wanted to go back to the bios to change the setting. what did i do wrong?

try changing the voltage to 1.60 1.65 for the ram and then reboot .. your timings might be too tight as well i recommend setting the timings to auto and then progress to the speed settings

is there any chance of this damaging anything?

there is a tiny risk always when increasing voltage, but 1.6/1.65 is usually safe as there do exist ram that have this as the starting voltage.

i cant find where to adjust voltages