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Long story that I'll try to make short:
Was running a Phenom 9650 at 2.7 GHz no problems, first with Vista, then with Win7 RC. Started getting stability problems but then I thought I had solved them. Did a clean install of Win7 Pro final when I got it through MSDN. Discovered I still had stability problems. For example the computer would BSOD and reboot the first time I turned it on in the morning, every time. Then it would remain stable throughout the day. I would also get some freezes in Windows, but only a few times a week.
I put the CPU back to default, and again thought the problems were gone. Bought a Ph-II 955BE because the 9650 was too slow for me at 2.3 GHz and I didn't want to overclock again and potentially make my system less stable. Discovered it still had stability problems. Unsure if it was unstable with the 9650 at 2.3 GHz because I only used it for a short while like that. Replaced my 4x1GB RAM sticks with 2x2GB because I suspected dodgy RAM or maybe problems caused by running four sticks.
Now the system is nearly stable, but still kind of flaky:
-About once a week, the system will BSOD for no apparent reason. This usually happens when the system is idle, or only has a couple of simple websites open. Strangely, it has never happened when running a game or other demanding applications. It's usually some kind of STOP error. Last time, it was "0x109: CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION", which could mean anything (faulty RAM, misbehaving driver...).
-When visiting websites with lots of embedded flash video (Youtube etc.) the system will freeze completely after a few minutes. This happens in IE, Firefox and Chrome. I can't even move the mouse cursor or use ctrl+alt+del. I have to hit the reset switch.
I'm not sure if the two issues are related - A Google search reveals that a few users seem to suffer from the flash video lockups, regardless of whether they are running XP, Vista or 7, Athlon or Intel CPUs, Nvidia or ATI graphics...
Obviously my problems must either be caused by faulty hardware or by some software or driver problem. So far, I've mostly looked into the hardware, replacing both the CPU and RAM. I guess the next step would be the mobo, but that's expensive and time-consuming, especially since I don't want to get another DDR2 board now.
But something I haven't considered until today is: Since I installed Win7 final while my computer was in an unstable state, is it possible that the installation itself got corrupted or damaged? Maybe a small number of Windows system files are damaged, and every time it accesses those (about once a week), it BSODs? Is it possible for something like that to happen, and only cause problems about once a week (provided the flash video crashes are unrelated)?
Was running a Phenom 9650 at 2.7 GHz no problems, first with Vista, then with Win7 RC. Started getting stability problems but then I thought I had solved them. Did a clean install of Win7 Pro final when I got it through MSDN. Discovered I still had stability problems. For example the computer would BSOD and reboot the first time I turned it on in the morning, every time. Then it would remain stable throughout the day. I would also get some freezes in Windows, but only a few times a week.
I put the CPU back to default, and again thought the problems were gone. Bought a Ph-II 955BE because the 9650 was too slow for me at 2.3 GHz and I didn't want to overclock again and potentially make my system less stable. Discovered it still had stability problems. Unsure if it was unstable with the 9650 at 2.3 GHz because I only used it for a short while like that. Replaced my 4x1GB RAM sticks with 2x2GB because I suspected dodgy RAM or maybe problems caused by running four sticks.
Now the system is nearly stable, but still kind of flaky:
-About once a week, the system will BSOD for no apparent reason. This usually happens when the system is idle, or only has a couple of simple websites open. Strangely, it has never happened when running a game or other demanding applications. It's usually some kind of STOP error. Last time, it was "0x109: CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION", which could mean anything (faulty RAM, misbehaving driver...).
-When visiting websites with lots of embedded flash video (Youtube etc.) the system will freeze completely after a few minutes. This happens in IE, Firefox and Chrome. I can't even move the mouse cursor or use ctrl+alt+del. I have to hit the reset switch.
I'm not sure if the two issues are related - A Google search reveals that a few users seem to suffer from the flash video lockups, regardless of whether they are running XP, Vista or 7, Athlon or Intel CPUs, Nvidia or ATI graphics...
Obviously my problems must either be caused by faulty hardware or by some software or driver problem. So far, I've mostly looked into the hardware, replacing both the CPU and RAM. I guess the next step would be the mobo, but that's expensive and time-consuming, especially since I don't want to get another DDR2 board now.
But something I haven't considered until today is: Since I installed Win7 final while my computer was in an unstable state, is it possible that the installation itself got corrupted or damaged? Maybe a small number of Windows system files are damaged, and every time it accesses those (about once a week), it BSODs? Is it possible for something like that to happen, and only cause problems about once a week (provided the flash video crashes are unrelated)?