I've had this computer for almost a year, and I'm dealing with two serious problems. Every three to five hours, it randomly restarts with a blue screen. The error messages vary, including memory-related errors and "SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED." I've already updated my graphics drivers and used several tools to look for corrupted files, but nothing has helped.
On top of that, some games display incorrect shading. Dark shadows sometimes appear red, while bright areas can turn green. I've noticed it in Destiny 2, Dead by Daylight, and Silent Hill f. I'm not sure whether the graphical glitches and blue screens are connected, but I'm worried that the graphics card, RAM, power supply, or another component may be failing. What should I test first?
4 Answers
Start with basic maintenance: back up your files, clean dust from the case and graphics card, and check temperatures while gaming. A failing or overheating power supply can also cause both crashes and display corruption. If the temperatures look normal, try reseating the RAM and graphics card, then test the RAM with MemTest86 or Windows Memory Diagnostic.
The combination of graphical glitches and different blue-screen errors makes the graphics card a strong suspect. If the system is still under warranty, check that before opening it or replacing parts. Visual artifacts can sometimes appear before a GPU fails completely.
The most useful next step for the blue screens is checking the crash dump files in C:WindowsMinidump. Those logs can identify whether the crashes consistently point to a driver or hardware component. Save several dumps rather than relying on just one, since the error messages may be symptoms rather than the real cause.
A clean Windows installation, followed by the motherboard BIOS, chipset, and graphics driver updates, could rule out software corruption. Make sure everything important is backed up first. If the artifacts remain after a clean install, that points much more strongly toward faulty hardware.
I’m not sure where to find those files, but I’ll check the Minidump folder and collect several crashes if they’re there.