real why computer crashes ?

[nota]

my i7 computer keeps crashing

I have tryed MS reports on the crashes
but they are useless ether miles of code or just unexpected event shutdown
does anyone make a program that tells you what is happening when the box crashes
in simple english and point to the bit that is failing to work
like the CPU is bad or the mother board is toast ?
or what software is the cause ?

[stomachmonkey]

Download Hiren

Just be careful with it.

Only run stuff that you understand what it does.

[id10t]

There are various utilities that will probe the various subsystems on a computer and test 'em. Not sure about for Windows, but most Linux LiveCD/DVD systems like Knoppix, Mint, or Ubuntu will have an option to boot to memtest which will test/stress your RAM.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by id10t

There are various utilities that will probe the various subsystems on a computer and test 'em. Not sure about for Windows, but most Linux LiveCD/DVD systems like Knoppix, Mint, or Ubuntu will have an option to boot to memtest which will test/stress your RAM.

Pretty much everything available is on the Hiren CD.

List, Hiren's BootCD 15.2 - All in one Bootable CD » www.hiren.info

[Don Ro]

That's quite a list. Impressive.

[John Rogers]

Several things to do and try and post some additional information please.
- How old is the computer?
- When was the last time it was vacuumed or cleaned? Do you have dogs and/or cats that shed hair?
- Are you an administrator on the computer, if not then you need to make your user ID an administrator?
- Does it crash at the same time with the same application running?
- How many applications are you running when it crashes?
- What happens when it crashes I.E. blue screen, monitor goes black, power supply fan winds down or any funny noise such as a "snap"?
- Start the task manager and make sure "all users" is selected and then list what processes are running, what services are running and how many users show as logged on?
- The list may be long and you need to go on line to see what is required or should be required? Stop the ones that are not required or are suspect.
- Try starting in "Safe Mode" both with and without LAN connectivity to see if the crash happens.

Good luck.

[nota]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Download Hiren

Just be careful with it.

Only run stuff that you understand what it does.

than came with a bunch of blootware and junk

and
I never found the hiren bit or could use it
any other ideas ???

[nota]

Originally Posted by john rogers

Several things to do and try and post some additional information please.
- How old is the computer?
- When was the last time it was vacuumed or cleaned? Do you have dogs and/or cats that shed hair?
- Are you an administrator on the computer, if not then you need to make your user ID an administrator?
- Does it crash at the same time with the same application running?
- How many applications are you running when it crashes?
- What happens when it crashes I.E. blue screen, monitor goes black, power supply fan winds down or any funny noise such as a "snap"?
- Start the task manager and make sure "all users" is selected and then list what processes are running, what services are running and how many users show as logged on?
- The list may be long and you need to go on line to see what is required or should be required? Stop the ones that are not required or are suspect.
- Try starting in "Safe Mode" both with and without LAN connectivity to see if the crash happens.

Good luck.

was a levlo i7 3770
but the m/b fried and was replaced with an asus p8p67le
6g ram 3 2g modular geforce gtx550ti card 500g sata3 hd
gets the this is not a levlo system prompt but works normally

crash has 3 results yellow screen lock up requires at power off/on
no connection but will auto reboot
no connection but needs to be manually rebooted by button
no real pattern to which of the 3 above results
at first video play caused random crash but is getting worse and now crash even on pelican with no video playing

the only consistent crash is trying to update windoz performance ratings

tryed an identical video card same result

[HardDrive]

Did it ever operate normally after the motherboard replacement?

[nota]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Did it ever operate normally after the motherboard replacement?

yes

it works fine between crash events
but the events are happening more often recently

what I am hoping for is a simple program to say
m/b has bad socket
or ram is bad ect
or even software is the problem

windoz said things like minidump error or unexpected crash but no what or why or which
part or program is the problem

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by nota

than came with a bunch of blootware and junk

and
I never found the hiren bit or could use it
any other ideas ???

There is no "Hiren bit".

Hiren is the guy who compiled the collection of utilities.

It's widely regarded as the best system utility resource out there.

Most Popular System Rescue Disc: Hiren's BootCD

You can keep asking but unless you want to pony up for a commercial product this is what is out there to use for the purpose you requested.

If you don't understand how it works call the Geek Squad.

What should be included in terms of hardware testing utilities.

Bart's Stuff Test 5.1.4
Long term heavy stress testing storage devices.

CPU/Video/Disk Performance Test 5.7
A tool to test cpu, video, and disk.

Disk Speed 1.0
Hard Disk Drive Speed Testing Tool.

GoldMemory 5.07
Memory Diagnostic Tests.

H2testw 1.4
Check your USB Flash memory cards, internal/external hard drives and network drives for errors with this tool.

HDD Scan 2.8
HDDScan is a Low-level HDD diagnostic tool, it scans surface find bad sectors etc.

IsMyLcdOK (Monitor Test) 1.02
Allows you to test CRT/LCD/TFT screens for dead pixels and diffective screens.

Memtest86+ 4.20
PC Memory Test.

MemTest 1.0
A Memory Testing Tool.

Prime95 25.11
This will detect for errors in CPU or RAM within a matter of minutes if an overclock is not stable, you can run Torture Test (burn-in) overnight to ensure long-term stability of the hardware.

S&M Stress Test 1.9.1
CPU/HDD/Memory benchmarking and information tool, including temperatures/fan speeds/voltages.

System Speed Test 4.78
It tests CPU, harddrive, ect.

Test Hard Disk Drive 1.0
A tool to test Hard Disk Drive.

Video Memory Stress Test 1.7.116
A tool to thoroughly test your video RAM for errors and faults.

Video Memory Stress Test CE 1.21
Tests all video RAM accessible by 32-bit CPU address space from a clean environment.

Windows Memory Diagnostic
A RAM Test tool.

[john70t]

Downloaded. Big thanks! I've only used or known of a few of those, but those programs have worked well.

nota: Time to start stress-testing various components. Fix registry. Clean and lean and backed up on something separate/disposable.
The problem will be found.

[John Rogers]

Since you said the motherboard fried I would venture a guess the CPU was damaged also. Is there a cooling system on the CPU since you said it crashes when playing video and that generally will put the heaviest load on a m/b and CPU and generate the most heat. Sounds like a new machine is in order.........but my degrees are in software so when hardware acts up I just replace it.

[nota]

Originally Posted by john rogers

Since you said the motherboard fried I would venture a guess the CPU was damaged also. Is there a cooling system on the CPU since you said it crashes when playing video and that generally will put the heaviest load on a m/b and CPU and generate the most heat. Sounds like a new machine is in order.........but my degrees are in software so when hardware acts up I just replace it.

I have looked in the bio's at cpu temp under 100f after reboot
m/b temps about 80-90f about 2 min after a crash

fans are temp controlled and do not hit even medium speed pre crash

I reloaded the w7 program today from the recovery partition
loaded drivers ect
the thing is more stable but still can crash
I retried the update windoz performance ratings it crashed

[john70t]

Isolate identify repeat confirm

[Bill Douglas]

Hiren's works for me too. I boot in mini XP and do image backups and file backups.

[nota]

up graded to windoz10 to see if that fixed the crashing last nite

can't find control panel to try the rate my computer to see if it still crashes

[nota]

d/l an apt to show the rate my computer bit IN W10

and it crashed the computer AGAIN

[stomachmonkey]

Why are you so concerned with the performance rating?

Who cares?

Especially if it makes it crash.

Pull the video card and it's associated driver.

Run the box on built in video.

Try performance test.

If it crashes remove all RAM except minimum required. (Leave video card out)

Try to crash it.

If no crash then add RAM back one stick at a time, rinse repeat.

If it crashed with minimum RAM then swap with sticks left out, try again.

You need to be methodical, focus on one area at a time.

[nota]

sorry but no onboard video output on this m/b so can't do that

I do have two video cards both the same but missing the SLI bridge connection
so only use one card at a time
I have tryed switching out the cards and in different pciE 16 slots also [have 2 on the m/b]
updated video drivers ect

memory stress tested in w7 passed ok some time ago when problems began

over all w10 is working fine after overnite d/l
and no crashes today other then the performance rating test crash
even was able to play a HD video in full screen that I could not do before in w7

the performance rating is just a way to see if it will crash
really do not need it or care about it
but maybe a clue to why it crashed

thanks for your help
will post again if I get problems outside the performance rating crash in w10