Legacy machine showing odd BSOD signs and various malfunctions
Legacy machine showing odd BSOD signs and various malfunctions
Hey there! I’m not someone who reads or writes much on forums, but I use it mainly to fix issues. I often watch Linus on YouTube and he frequently talks about the LinuxTechTips site. That’s why I thought it best to share my experience on this topic. Let’s dive in.
I owned a gaming PC that I gave to my brother after buying a new one. Last year, he upgraded most components—motherboard, CPU, RAM, and GPU—to make it suitable for gaming. Until then, everything ran smoothly on Windows 7. We decided to reuse the old parts with an older machine so we could play together occasionally. I used the old PC until it stopped working for some reason.
Since I’m clever and know more about computers than someone my age, I thought I could handle it myself. Six months ago, I built the new PC with a cheap SSD and Windows 10. It lasted about two weeks or maybe three before freezing up at the login screen—similar to what we experienced before.
My dad usually assumes a faulty PSU or virus first when he faces PC problems, especially if the power supply isn’t from a reputable brand. But in this case, it was from a local company. So I replaced the PSU, and it worked for about two months.
Initially, the PC booted with BSODs related to memory management a couple of times a week. After a month, it was 2-3 times daily. I checked online and suspected bad RAM. I tried swapping RAM, changing its location, but nothing worked. It seemed like two faulty sticks were possible, though rare.
I also thought RAM or SSD might be the issue. I ran Mem84 for a night and found nothing. Then I considered the HDD or SSD being bad and swapped them out. The new SSD lasted a week, but then I got BSOD again—possibly because I couldn’t remember the exact cause.
Later, I removed the SSD and installed a new HDD from my brother’s PC, which worked fine with fresh Windows 10. The same happened on the other side: the old HDD also worked in his machine. This led me to suspect a faulty motherboard.
I changed the PSU, and it fixed things for about two months. After that, I faced another problem: after a BSOD, the motherboard couldn’t recognize the boot drive. I had to manually connect/disconnect SATA cables and restart repeatedly.
Then I tried the SSD again, but it still failed after a week. Eventually, I removed the SSD and connected the original HDD plus the new SSD to another PC. It booted normally, but I couldn’t confirm if the drive was working.
I also removed the SSD and connected it to another machine to test. The Windows in the new SSD worked, but the original drive was disconnected. This suggested the issue might be with the storage itself rather than just the drive.
In short, I’m still puzzled. The PC seems to have multiple potential causes—bad RAM, faulty PSU, motherboard problems, or even storage corruption. I haven’t tried changing the CPU or case yet, but people say those usually don’t fail after a week. I’m also unsure if the data corruption happens randomly or under specific conditions like heavy gaming or idle time.
I’m at a crossroads: either I throw it away and start fresh, or I dig deeper into these possibilities. Thanks for any insights you can offer—I really appreciate it!
I've looked into using a different ISO for Windows. It might be related to your specific ISO setup.
Alternative source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software.../windows10
It seems like you're wondering if you should have done something and are trying your best. Let me know how I can help!
I attempted it and it kept failing. During a game, the computer froze and I had to hardreset the PC. Then I encountered a "Reboot and select proper Boot Device" message. I accessed the BIOS, but the SSD drive wasn't detected—only the HDD was recognized. After restarting a few times, the issue persisted. I unplugged the SSD, shut down and restarted the PC, then reinserted it. The drive was detected and Windows booted successfully after a day. This problem worsened each day.
I used a tool from WD to assess the health of both SSD and HDD. Everything looked fine with the SSD, but there was a warning for the HDD. I don’t recall the exact message, but it seemed related to bad sectors—perhaps the program only displayed up to 200 and it exceeded that limit. I’ve also tested running the computer with just one drive for both, but it still fails with either SSD or HDD.