I've been dealing with some persistent crashes on my PC for several months now, and despite my best efforts to troubleshoot, I haven't been able to find a solution. Most of my components are relatively new, being only about a year and a half old, yet the crashes happen at the most random times. They occur during safe mode, after completely reinstalling Windows, while gaming, or even when I'm just watching a movie – sometimes happening a few times in a row right after booting up or not at all for days! Recently, during a particularly frustrating holiday weekend, I faced multiple crashes both during boot and gaming. I'm starting to suspect the problem might be hardware-related, possibly the RAM or motherboard, especially since I've already swapped out my graphics card and performed various tests like reseating components, monitoring temperatures, and running memory checks, all with no conclusive results.
2 Answers
It sounds like a real headache! For those random crashes, definitely focus on gathering your dump files. They provide great insights into what might be causing the BSOD. If you can boot into Windows normally or via safe mode, check your C:WindowsMinidump folder. Make a zip of any crash logs you find and upload them to a file sharing site like Mediafire, so we can take a deeper look at what's going on. A good mix of dump files will help pinpoint the issue better!
This could definitely be related to either your boot drive or memory issues. Make sure to check whether your SSD is failing, especially since you mentioned crashes that coincide with accessing certain drives. If you can, try swapping storage drives or even testing the RAM sticks one at a time to identify any faulty ones. I’ve seen storage issues cause similar symptoms if the drive’s on its way out.
Got it! I recently pulled out two of my RAM sticks and had a brief crash, but the PC ran fine afterwards for a while. It's weird because I also noticed my M.2 drives got weird and disappeared in BIOS, but after reformatting them they’re visible now. I wonder if the motherboard could be to blame? What’s the best way to test my RAM given the sporadic crashes?