PC Crashing Repeatedly

[AbsoluteGuardian]

So my computer has been experiencing some odd crashes for a very long time now but they seem to come and go and I've never really been able to diagnose them fully.

In the last two days, these crashes have become somewhat more frequent and they manifest in a slightly different way too.

Usually what will happen is I'll get a BSOD randomly while doing ANYTHING on my computer, then the computer will restart and that'll be it for the day, then I'll usually get a BSOD a day for a week, then it'll just go away.

In the last few days however, I've had multiple crashes a day and these have NOT brought up a BSOD. This means I can't even dig up a minidump to check what may have caused it. So far I've had these happen either while playing a game or watching a YouTube video, my graphics drivers are up to date.

My specs are as follows:

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-Bit
CPU: AMD FX-8120
RAM: 16GB DDR3
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3
GPU: Nvidia GTX 550Ti
PSU: Corsair CX500

I would appreciate any help greatly, I really can't afford for my PC to die on me right now.

 

[AbsoluteGuardian]

Just to add to this, I checked Event Viewer and it's coming up with Event ID 41 - Kernel Power

 

[Enderegg]

Searched on google about that and it only means unsuspected shutdown. Several things may cause this. Bad drivers, unstable OC, PSU degradation. With time OCs also go unstable.
Are you OCing? How old is your PSU? Did you install anything just before this started happening?

 

[AbsoluteGuardian]

Searched on google about that and it only means unsuspected shutdown. Several things may cause this. Bad drivers, unstable OC, PSU degradation. With time OCs also go unstable.
Are you OCing? How old is your PSU? Did you install anything just before this started happening?

I haven't OC'd at all, although my GPU was bought 'superclocked' by the guy who put the PC together for me, but I assume that's just fancy marketing jargon.

My PSU is less than 3 years old, I didn't install anything before this started happening.

 

[Enderegg]

I'm afraid I can't help you then. It still may be the PSU, but I think it's rather improbable. I think I saw that some Nvidia drivers were bad a few days ago, but it should be fixed by now. But think if you installed something. It may be that as well.

 

[aparnell572]

I can almost guarantee it's the power supply. Anytime you've put even minor amounts of stress on it, it unexpectedly shuts down. To test this if your pc has integrated graphics to remove the graphics and run and see if you continue to get kernel power critical error, or test with a different power supply. Generally drivers and hardware incompatibilities cause stop errors, so that's also why I'm leaning towards psu failure, good luck

 

[AbsoluteGuardian]

I can almost guarantee it's the power supply. Anytime you've put even minor amounts of stress on it, it unexpectedly shuts down. To test this if your pc has integrated graphics to remove the graphics and run and see if you continue to get kernel power critical error, or test with a different power supply. Generally drivers and hardware incompatibilities cause stop errors, so that's also why I'm leaning towards psu failure, good luck

Okay I can definitely confirm it's not the PSU. I had it replaced today, from a Corsair CX500 to a CX600 and the same thing continues to happen...What are my options right now?

 

[LukeFatwalker]

This sounds like a driver issue.

1) Boot into Safe Mode and disable/re-install the drivers affected. BSOD's always list which driver is affected.

2) Try running Windows Recovery Media and choosing 'Startup Repair' as it may be a critical system driver

If the other two options don't work, 3) Back up your data and re-format your PC.

You may also look into working in a backup solution to your daily routine, whether that be a disk imager or a snapshot tool like Rollback Rx or Comodo Time Machine you do need a backup for when things like this happen.

 

[AbsoluteGuardian]

This sounds like a driver issue.

1) Boot into Safe Mode and disable/re-install the drivers affected. BSOD's always list which driver is affected.

2) Try running Windows Recovery Media and choosing 'Startup Repair' as it may be a critical system driver

If the other two options don't work, 3) Back up your data and re-format your PC.

You may also look into working in a backup solution to your daily routine, whether that be a disk imager or a snapshot tool like Rollback Rx or Comodo Time Machine you do need a backup for when things like this happen.

I'm not getting BSODs, that's the issue. I used to, but this seems to have evolved into just pure crashing now. No BSOD, no minidump. Nothing.

 

[LukeFatwalker]

This sounds like a driver issue.

1) Boot into Safe Mode and disable/re-install the drivers affected. BSOD's always list which driver is affected.

2) Try running Windows Recovery Media and choosing 'Startup Repair' as it may be a critical system driver

If the other two options don't work, 3) Back up your data and re-format your PC.

You may also look into working in a backup solution to your daily routine, whether that be a disk imager or a snapshot tool like Rollback Rx or Comodo Time Machine you do need a backup for when things like this happen.

I'm not getting BSODs, that's the issue. I used to, but this seems to have evolved into just pure crashing now. No BSOD, no minidump. Nothing.

My recommendations still stand. These issues can happen even if you don't see a BSOD.

 

[AbsoluteGuardian]

This sounds like a driver issue.

1) Boot into Safe Mode and disable/re-install the drivers affected. BSOD's always list which driver is affected.

2) Try running Windows Recovery Media and choosing 'Startup Repair' as it may be a critical system driver

If the other two options don't work, 3) Back up your data and re-format your PC.

You may also look into working in a backup solution to your daily routine, whether that be a disk imager or a snapshot tool like Rollback Rx or Comodo Time Machine you do need a backup for when things like this happen.

I'm not getting BSODs, that's the issue. I used to, but this seems to have evolved into just pure crashing now. No BSOD, no minidump. Nothing.

My recommendations still stand. These issues can happen even if you don't see a BSOD.

Well I can definitely try the Recovery Media but disabling or reinstalling drivers is out of the question because I have no way of telling what's failing without getting a BSOD.

 

[LukeFatwalker]

This sounds like a driver issue.

1) Boot into Safe Mode and disable/re-install the drivers affected. BSOD's always list which driver is affected.

2) Try running Windows Recovery Media and choosing 'Startup Repair' as it may be a critical system driver

If the other two options don't work, 3) Back up your data and re-format your PC.

You may also look into working in a backup solution to your daily routine, whether that be a disk imager or a snapshot tool like Rollback Rx or Comodo Time Machine you do need a backup for when things like this happen.

I'm not getting BSODs, that's the issue. I used to, but this seems to have evolved into just pure crashing now. No BSOD, no minidump. Nothing.

My recommendations still stand. These issues can happen even if you don't see a BSOD.

Well I can definitely try the Recovery Media but disabling or reinstalling drivers is out of the question because I have no way of telling what's failing without getting a BSOD.

True. It's likely your Graphics driver but I know it can be a pain.

 

[AbsoluteGuardian]

I don't know if this lends itself to anything, but I've also noticed that some programs will just randomly stop working while I'm using my PC. So far I've noticed this with Chrome and Skype, and this definitely hasn't been happened prior to these crashes.