Need PC help badly

I'm having some issues recently with my PC that I cant seem to figure out on my own. I know very little about PC's so beyond basic attempts to solve the issues I'm not totally sure what to do next. It is several years old but was not used much at all prior to me using it. I got it from a buddy who got it and never ended up playing it, and I got it for almost free! It was actually a pretty significant upgrade for me, but lately its worrying me...

DONT JUDGE MY POTATO PC
Operating System
Windows 8.1 64-bit

CPU
Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz 37 °C
Haswell 22nm Technology

RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 (11-11-11-28)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. Z97-HD3 (SOCKET 0) 28 °C

Graphics
VX2255wm-4 (1680x1050@59Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4600 (Gigabyte)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (MSI) 28 °C
SLI Disabled

Storage
1863GB TOSHIBA DT01ACA200 (SATA ) 30 °C

Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSC0

Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

Booted great and has run wonderfully for the most part for a few weeks now. However, lately I've been getting some system errors that force a restart, and more recently some Chrome issues that cause pages to need to be reloaded. The forced restart issues only happen 1-3 times per day, if I'm on the pc all day.

First and most common error so far, "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT"

MAYBE-related information... When I got the PC i noticed it had 4 slots for RAM. Two of the slots were already taken. I added a stick from my previous PC into the new computer in one of the vacant slots. It seemed to work fine, I actually noticed a small difference in operation after I installed it. Around the same time I also started using an older USB headset that I had laying around, and it gave me a few issues before finally working for me. I did not get any errors prior to installing the RAM and using that Mic. I read online that this error can be hardware related, so I stopped using the mic and switched the RAM into the other vacant port. (It was suggested that maybe the port was damaged or something)

This did not solve the issue.

Today I got a different error and forced restart, this time being "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT".

Also today Google Chrome started forcing me to reload web pages and showing errors "Error code: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION and Error code: STATUS_BREAKPOINT", sometimes back to back. (I don't know if this is related or not, as I did clear my cache/history and it seems to have fixed that particular issue, so probably not but still maybe worth mentioning)


So far I have only been able to try a few different things to fix it, since 1. I'm a computer idiot and 2. I have no idea what the issue is to begin with..

One answer to the forced restart errors was to use OutByte PC Cleaner, run the scan, and perform and tweaks and fixes they suggest. So after reading some reviews to ensure it wasn't going to give my PC EVEN MORE AIDS, I ran it and although it did make a noticeable difference in how my pc is operating, I'm not sure if it has solved the issue until the issue happens again.

I also ran chkdsk /f, it did its thing upon reboot, and I have no idea if it found/fixed anything. No idea how to check what it did.

It has also been suggested to me that I may have a bad hard drive. When I did my OutByte scan it gave me a rating on several performance areas and I was well above average on everything it checked, EXCEPT for HDD speed.. 45.7MBps is my current speed according to this and average is 96.0MBps. So someone suggested that my HDD might be bad and just need a new one.

Id rather not buy a new HDD and that not be the issue, but I'm scratching my head here. I will have to wait to see if I get another error to see if any of my attempts tonight have worked or not, but I'm going to assume they won't. If anyone could help me out Id be glad to get in disc and give you any other info you need to narrow it down if it makes dialogue easier. If I think of any other details that may help Ill add them. Thanks in advance.

SIDENOTE : It seems like it happens most often when I'm gaming, but when I'm on the PC I'm usually gaming so it would be likely that it just happens to be when I'm gaming rather than the gaming that's causing the issue.

Today it forced restart and gave me the PFN_LIST_CORRUPT error while I only had chrome open with 3 tabs, discord and steam in the background.. So it cant be totally gaming specific or anything.

EDIT: Adding my HDD info, in case it helps.

Manufacturer TOSHIBA
Heads 16
Cylinders 243,201
Tracks 62,016,255
Sectors 3,907,024,065
SATA type SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number 25A6HE8TS
Firmware Version Number MX4OABB0
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 209 times
Power On Time 48.2 days
Speed 7200 RPM
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ
Max. Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Interface SATA
Capacity 1863 GB
Real size 2,000,398,934,016 bytes
RAID Type None

EDIT2: I am going to double check the RAM and make sure that I do in fact have two 4GB sticks + one 8GB stick, rather than two working 8GB sticks and one that's broken.. Double checked RAM sticks and all is as it should be.

Hey Hem
Sounds like a hardware error likely due to bad drivers.
Start by upgrading to Windows 10.
You can still do it for free : https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/
If you have a pirated Windows 8, you can "make it legit" using "Assistive Technologies Offer" - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/how-you-can-still-get-windows-10-for-free/2159c2a7-a925-4fa3-9a03-08a5e1ecf891?auth=1

I tried this not that long ago and I thought that I discovered that you cant get it free anymore? I will try again, I was planning on buying it in the near future if I have to. I keep my drivers up to date and check them frequently, do you mean that they can only update so much without me going to Win 10?

Hit me up on disc bro.

This.


Remove the RAM stick you added yourself. Pretty much all the error are related to the RAM. And you said it yourself, it didnt happen before.
Somehow the ram is not fully compatible.


Uninstall "OutByte PC Cleaner" while you are at it, its nothing but useless bloatware.

And I would strongly advise you to try this for reading your HDD S.M.A.R.T. values.
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
The other HDD Information you posted before is all pretty meaningless.

Ontop of that I would also try this.
Open command prompt as admin
then run this command
sfc /scannow

It will launch a scan for bad windows files really.
You dont have to worry about the log it generates at the end. Unless there are tons of errors but I dont expect there will be to much.

You can still get windows 10 for free, if not buy it really cheap ( $10?)
You can just download the .iso yourself and put it on a USB stick using something like rufus.
https://rufus.ie/
To get the actual .iso I would recommend this software.
https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool

From there you could just buy a grey market key.

I believe that I may have solved the previous issues by updating my BIOS, among many other things that I cant remember. We spent 5 hours working on it and trying to download Windows 10.

Is it possible that the outdated BIOS was causing issues with the RAM I installed?

I havent had any issues for a while now, but Im still getting an error when I try to download Windows 10, so its on to another issue. =/

Hey hem,

Gotta agree with the above guys you should never mix ram, it will only go as fast as the slowest stick but the differing speeds will conflict with eachother either actively or eventually whether you notice it or not.

HeY cHiNg ¯\(???)/¯

Miss ya bud =]

So if I ditched the two 4GB sticks and replaced it with two 8GB like the other one I have you think that would work alright? Or is it possible that the PC is too out of date to work with the newer/bigger RAM sticks?

Until I get the error again I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope. If anything else happens my next step will be to remove the 8GB stick for the time being. I might just be acting stubborn right now but RAM solution doesn't make 100% sense to me yet when I still have several things that need to be updated. I didn't sleep last night and spent 5-6 hours with chaaaarl doing various things and updating what we can but we are stuck on an issue now and seemingly running out of things to try. =/

I haven't had an Error since just before I made this post. So maybe we at least solved that..

well obviously 2x8 would be better then 2x4
if you can get another 8gb that is exactly the same as the one you already have ..as in same speed same timings same voltage same actual chip

then obviously go 2x8

normaly mixing ram these days is not that big of an issue, but sometimes it simply is regardless

also by the sound of things you were running 2x4gb in channel a and 1x8gb at half speed in channel b
In total you would have 16gb of ram
but a single stick in its own channel will always run at half speed, it needs the other stick for it to achieve the normal speed
its called DDR for a reason after all
Double Data Rate

just a quick example with a 2x4gb 1333mhz kit
try reading out your ram using a program like speccy, it will say 666mhz for example, while in reality, if running properly, with both slots of the same channel used, it will run at 1333mhz, its normal intended speed
if not running properly, it will still say 666, but if you installed both sticks into separate channels, you wont get the x2 factor and you will have halved your ram speed by installing the stick into the wrong slots

most slots these days are
ABAB
usually the slots for A channel also have a different color then the slots for B channel


A bios update might have fixed it ... somehow reset a bunch of values previously making things bug out, like old manually set timings or voltages, sometimes even slot specific
helll, a updated bios could even have found a matching xmp profile that wasnt there previously

point is, RAM is very weird, mostly its fine if done correctly, even mixing ram these days,usually fine, but after all it is still ram and can be weird for many reasons

"but a single stick in its own channel will always run at half speed, it needs the other stick for it to achieve the normal speed
its called DDR for a reason after all
Double Data Rate"

Actually this isn't correct, double data rate and multi channel memory are separate technologies. DDR will always run at double data rate, as the data is transferred on both the up and down clicks of the clock, meaning the transfer frequency is double the clock frequency. This happens regardless of how many sticks and in what channels you are running, otherwise you might expect a quad channel board to allow your RAM to be QDR, but there is no such thing.

Multiple channels allows access to more DIMMS at once without the hampering of the bandwidth of transfer, but this is not necessary for DDR to function. Whether a piece of software displays the Double Data Rate frequency or half of that simply depends on whether it is talking about the frequency of the clock or the data transfer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-channel_memory_architecture

Edit: me stupid, there is QDR, but again it doesn't relate to channels.

Not sure if you were running an XMP on your RAM when you made the swap, but if you were, you might need to ensure that the XMP profile is turned off if you're not sure what your RAM is capable of. If the XMP profile hung from the previous RAM and tried to overclock the memory you installed after the fact, it could cause some issues quite spectacularly with your memory.

If you haven't already, go into your bios and load the default "optimized" profile and check that XMP was turned off in the advanced overclock settings.

Edit: here is the PDF for your motherboard. It goes over everything you need to know about navigating the bios.

Can confirm the color difference, I have two black slots and two grey slots. The two 4gb were in the same color slot. Still haven't had an issue since I did some forced updating and cleaning up though..

ofcourse ..i shouldnt be making long posts the middle of the night around 4 am xD
i somehow started thinking back to my 990x days and its triple channels and proceeded to have a massive brain fart

I’d navigate over to bleepingcomputer and post there. There’s a number of reports you can run to get more information and then post the reports on that forum. A corrupt driver is possible, but Windows 8.1 support ended in 2018. You can get 10 for about $5.

Got 10 now. Have updated everything I can at this point as far as OS, drivers and BIOS. Removed the 8gb stick and still having occasional issues.

buy a cheap ssd and install win 10 there. make sure you only install chrome or firefox in that ssd. do not install any other stuffs there.

send me a message of your recent issues.

btw have you tried with only using a single ram stick

I am actually having the same issue, I’m on windows 10.
I checked my ram and everything seems to be okay. I think it’s my hard drives that need replacing as they are quite old.
My pc can be idle and just randomly BSOD.


I can live with it until i can afford to buy some new drives

I would tell you the same as the other guy.

try this for reading your HDD S.M.A.R.T. values.
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

if your HDD doesnt have "smart" support its properly to old and i would replace it on that point alone already