PC Randomly freezes, BSOD or just resets

[ubuysa]

I don't think we've checked your RAM yet have we? 0xC0000005 can be caused by bad RAM - though it can have several other causes - and I think it would be wise to eliminate RAM soon, especially since you seem to be having apparently unrelated problems.

Download Memtest (free) and use the extracted tool to make a bottable USB containing the Memtest software. Boot that USB stick and Memtest will start running (as long as you don't move the mouse or press and keys). It will take several hours to run so let it run overnight, this free version only does 4 iterations of the various tests but that's good enough to find 98% of RAM issues.

Let us know what Memtest finds - even one error is a failure.

 

[FunkyMuky]

I have done two memtests which came up with no issues, but I haven't tried this one, so I'll run it overnight and let you know

 

[ubuysa]

I have done two memtests which came up with no issues, but I haven't tried this one, so I'll run it overnight and let you know

The Windows one is nowhere near as thorough as Memtest. No memory tester is ever guaranteed to find all faults but Memtest is the go-to memory testing tool for most people in the know.

 

[FunkyMuky]

The Windows one is nowhere near as thorough as Memtest. No memory tester is ever guaranteed to find all faults but Memtest is the go-to memory testing tool for most people in the know.

No errors

 

[ubuysa]

No errors

Well that's good news.

I do suspect a hardware cause now, since you've done a clean install and you still have issues. Try running a chkdsk /f on your SSD. It might also be wise to run a chkdsk /r on the HDD.

 

[FunkyMuky]

I'll try the chkdsks. The only other issue I've had is the headphone socket at the front is only giving sound out of one side and when I plugged the thumb drive into the usb port on the same panel, it didn't recognise it until I removed the usb sound dongle I had plugged into the socket next to it. Might be totally irrelevant, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

 

[ubuysa]

I'll try the chkdsks. The only other issue I've had is the headphone socket at the front is only giving sound out of one side and when I plugged the thumb drive into the usb port on the same panel, it didn't recognise it until I removed the usb sound dongle I had plugged into the socket next to it. Might be totally irrelevant, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

Well that's clearly not right. Try the chkdsk but now you've said that I think I'd call PCS. Point them to this thread so they can see what you've already done.

I'm becoming increasingly concerned that you have a hardware issue there.

 

[FunkyMuky]

So, it's been over a week now and initially, after doing the chkdsk, (it didn't flag any errors that I could see), the PC ran fine for a couple of days without issue. I downloaded and installed a game from Steam and it worked fine, no issues with loading tracks in AC, iRacing or rf2. At this point, I decided to try downloading Forza Horizon 4 from the Xbox Game Pass, as this seemed to crash previously when downloading. Within a few minutes of starting the download, I got a BSOD and these continued until I stopped the download from the MS Store. I then had a couple of BSODs randomly. And so, I'm back to square one with this. I don't know what would cause it to crash when downloading this game - it is quite large, but it's only getting to 4-5% download.

I've also tried a few other things that I had originally tried before reinstalling, such as the verifier, which kept throwing up HIDCLASS.SYS as the cause of the BSOD's. Previously, I had thought it was the drivers for the quite old Logitech wheel, but the PC crashed before I even plugged the wheel in or installed drivers, so I don't think it's that.

I've tried downloading the latest ASUS motherboard drivers, but now I'm getting no sound whatsoever out of the front headphone socket. with the attached error message when I troubleshoot it.

Do you have any suggestions, or should I just take it back to PC World, where I bought it from?

 

[FunkyMuky]

This is what the reliability report looks like

 

[FunkyMuky]

As per your note re. BSOD's, I've uploaded the Memory.dmp file here...

MEMORY.DMP

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[ubuysa]

The dump you provided is inconclusive unfortunately, the BSOD was a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION and was caused because a spinlock (a serialisation technique) was held for too long. This is usually caused by a bad driver, since the kernel itself it well tested, but there's no indication (that I can find) of this being a driver issue.

Looking back you've had lots of curious issues, from crashes during a reinstall, strange USB port issues, strange audio issues, random hardware indicated crashes, and crashes during downloads. You've reinstalled Windows and run a clean Memtest so I'm now 100% convinced you have some sort of hardware issue.

I would take it back to PCWorld. Don't let them fob you off by sending you to PCS, your contract of sale is with PCWorld and the PC is not fit for purpose - when you buy a new Ford car from a dealer it's the dealer who is responsible if it doesn't work, not Ford - same here. PCWorld are responsible for either fixing it, replacing it, or refunding you.