Am I unlucky with computers?

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My dad tried a system restore. We'll see how that goes first.

Still getting blue screen of death....seemed to be caused by trying to install a program though (in this case Java. Seemed to work after having Firefox closed though. System restore has alleviated the problem but not solved it, so I think the issue is a defective hard drive.

At this point, if you have run Malwarebytes and have updated and run your virus scan, and have attempted a system restore and we know the temps in the case are in the normal range. We know due to CPUz and GPUz that the CPU and GPU are running within spec so it is time to start looking at cables and RAM.

Turn the box off and disconnect from power. Let it cool 5 minutes.

Clean the PC. Use a vacuum with the crevice tool (don't touch the pc with it just use it to suck) and use compressed air to loosen dirt and dust and push it towards the vacuum.

If your hard disk is SATA (narrow cable about 1/2 inch wide), VERY CAREEFULLY and with an electrostatic wrist band attached, re-seat the SATA connectors on both the disk side and at the MOBO. Do be careful here. The connectors are delicate and I have seen people accidentally crack the headers just by jiggling them to get a better connection. If you do not yet have the snap in place type SATA connectors, now is a fine time to buy them and install them.

Remove and reseat any and all PCIe cards. I would actually remove all but the video card to eliminate a bad PCIe as the culprit. If you are running SLI or Crossfire, remove one card and the bridge and just run a single card for the time being.

Ensure the RAM is seated properly. I would unseat and re-seat the ram. Do not do this unless you are totally grounded and incapable of imparting an electrostatic shock to the RAM. Use a wrist strap.

I recommend you not touch the processor or the processor's heat synch unless you are prepared to re-seat them and are familiar with that process and have the tools and heat conductive solution to re-mate the processor to the heat synch.

These are all simple steps that may solve the issue but are more dedicated to eliminating possibilities.

The next step is memtest as alluded to by several people here.

CranialRectosis, thank you for all your support but it seems to have been entirely an issue of not having a Java plug in for Firefox and Adobe Flash 11.4 being hostile towards Firefox. The issue seems almost entirely resolved, but thank you for all your help. There are no viruses on here whatsoever and your tips helped me optimize this computer's speed in the process.

"a Java plug in for Firefox and Adobe Flash 11.4 being hostile towards Firefox"...

Why we start with software and not hardware issues.

I wish you well in your computing.

Regards,

H

You know what I do? All that anti-spyware/anti-virus crap does is slow my computer down, and half the time you eventually end up getting a virus anyway... So what I do is, if my computer is running unusually slow or just acting weird, I check the task manager. If I see any processes I don't recognize, I shut them off. If they persist, I'll do a file search for them and then delete them. if THAT doesn't work(because sometimes they just turn themselves back on as soon as you shut them off), I repeat the last step in safe mode, and that takes care of it. In the event that those simple things CAN'T take care of my problem, well, I have my hard drive partitioned so that I only have the space needed for the operating system and some programs on one partition, and the other contains everything else. That way, in the event that I need to reinstall windows, I never lose any of my stuff. That, and I also have multiple computers in the house networked to each other, so I can always borrow one's hard drive space to back things up. I recommend trying this. It also helps to know how to mange a computer properly.

I still have a dell from 2001 that runs just fine because everything that's not necessary is disabled/deleted. msconfig is your friend.

One thing I have noticed on all my computers though, lately, is Chrome is being a RAM whore for some reason. Just to open up Yahoo's homepage, I'm seeing at least 3 chrome processes, one of which is eating up 77 megs, which is just insane. Is anyone else experiencing this as well? I may need to switch to a different browser again... Maybe chromium or Opera or something.

The worst RAM whore that comes to mind is when my Windows Media Player wouldn't stop updating...always made it freeze constantly for a few seconds going through the library and made all other programs inoperable while it was open.