Unidentified startup/crash problem

hello; As I've yet to identify this as a malware issue I'm posting this here for now. A bit of a lengthy issue I'm sorry, as it all seems related I'm putting the whole process down here.

First, my system:
Win 7 64bit
9650 Core 2 Quad @ 3Ghz
8 GB Ram
Nvidia Geforce 460 1GB


A couple weeks ago (maybe a month or so) I was alerted that my date/time was off by windows. After looking at the bios it appeared it had reset itself. I did some brief research but wrote it off as a fluke as no other symptoms were present.

About 2 nights ago, I had fired up a game and within 5 minutes the PC did a very fast BSOD into a restart. The system however would get to the "starting windows" and then would BSOD and restart again. BSOD errors were "Bad Pool Header" and "Memory Management" and "Page Fault in non-paged area".

After forcefully shutting the PC down, the PC would not even POST upon restart. The initial fans would come on, however would not shift into the next gear as usual when the PC starts booting. After several restarts there was no change. I then however actually pressed the restart button on the case rather than the power button, and oddly the system completely shut down (rather than just restart) and started up again.

At this point I was presented with a BIOS Recovery screen, telling me the BIOS was corrupt and would repair itself, which succeeded. the PC then fully booted up into windows, I logged on and everything worked fine. At this point I know somethings not right so I have to start figuring it out. (Note at this point I can reboot all I want everything is working fine)

I already have MemTest on a disc so I decided first to download software from Western Digital to scan my particular Hard Drive.(Data Lifeguard Diagnostic) However when I started it and selected my HD, it went into that very fast BSOD again, and again would not boot past starting windows.

Same situation as before, after a full shutdown it would not post. After somehow using the reset button to fully power down and back up, I'm in BIOS Recovery again. PC Then boots up.

Now I'm pretty sure it's hardware, but no proof. I had recently RMA'd memory (twice actually, first RMA set was DOA) and the HD at the same time when I got the video card about 2 months ago, so I would have a fairly fresh system with minimal problems.

Anyway so I start memtest from a CD and get it going when I went to bed this morning. Woke up, it had made several passes and no errors and was still running. So I'm scratching off the issue of a memory problem. I restarted down the PC, it booted up fine into windows. I shut it down and left to run some errands and came back home.

When I tried to boot it up, the PC fans did not shift up as before, however I did have something on screen. I was presented with the picture in the attachment. I do not believe this was a BIOS screen, or even the POST screen. But unsure. I could do nothing but force a restart. After multiple restarts I would either have the original problem if a black screen with no POST or the picture in the attachment.

Even the reset trick didn't work. After about an hour I had given up, and as I was going through the motions I reset it again... and it worked, I was presented with the BIOS recovery screen and everything's working fine again.
Odd as it did not crash prior to that problem, and was the first time with that odd screen.

Now I suspect video card.. but not by much. I'm looking at my system temps now and the CPU cores are running stable at about 32 and the video card at 35, so all fans are running good. No screen errors either. So I start to think maybe the bootup was a PSU problem... Bios hardware monitor tells me voltages are on pa or close to with what they are labeled. (12v said 11.80 or so, for example)

So I'm scratching my head a bit. Still think it might be a HD issue, but I don't have a spare to throw in there, and not really sure what kind of test to run now. But I wouldn't think a faulty HD would keep corrupting the BIOS? Or could that potentially be malware?

I'm lost. Sorry for the long post, but thought it was all related to helping solve this issue.

 

whew, thank god for recovery bioss. It sounds like a hardware problem, but I don't know where to check first. I guess, since the bios keeps getting corrupted, maybe your battery is bad?

 

I concur,change the cmos battery.