Pc Spontaneously Reboots Or Blue Screens

Windows 7
AMD Phenom XII 555
Asus M4A88T-V motherboard
8GB RAM
boot drive is Transcend 256GB MLC SATA III SSD 370

My computer randomly crashes, either in the form of displaying a BSOD, or simply spontaneously rebooting. It used to be only once in a while and I could deal with it, but the problem has become so severe that I can't even use the PC for more than a few minutes at most without it crashing. Often it won't even fully boot to the log in screen before spontaneously rebooting.

I ran memtest86. No errors were found. I reseated the RAM just in case. I am able to boot Ubuntu Live (v18.04, the latest available) from a USB and there are no issues whatsoever. This tells me that it is not likely a hardware issue (other than the SSD since Ubuntu isn't booting from or using that drive) but probably a corrupt file in my Windows installation. I boot from a Windows rescue disk and ran chkdsk. File system errors were found and corrected. I rebooted and everything seemed to be good to go. I thought I had fixed the issue simply by running chkdsk. But about a day later the problem started happening again. (Before chkdisk, there is no way the system would be stable for that long, so I thought for sure the problem was fixed.) So now it would seem that the file system errors were caused by the problem, not the cause of the problem.

I boot into Ubuntu again and ran smartctl to check for SMART errors on my SSD. None were found. I want to run GSmartControl, but it doesn't seem like I can manually install packages on a Live instance of Ubuntu, and it's not in the Ubuntu Software center. I also want to run Transcend's diagnostic software, but I need Windows for that. I will be ordering a SATA-to-USB cable so I can use my laptop to do this. In the meantime, is there anything else I could try? Is there any possible way this could be a hardware (RAM or CPU perhaps) issue that just doesn't show up at all in Linux because the OS interacts with the hardware in a different way than Windows does? I really suspect corrupt file or problem with the SSD. What else could I try to check for those?

Thanks!

 

Boot into Safe Mode and run SFC Utility.
https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/sfc_utility.html
Upload the log file which will be on the Desktop.

 

Unfortunately Safe Mode is not exempt from the random reboot problem. I will try this but I don't know if the system will be stable long enough for me to complete it.

 

Couldn't even get into Safe Mode. I managed to boot from my rescue disk and run chkdsk again and for now the system if stable, but it probably won't last. I've attached the log you requested.

Question: Does SFC only analyze the file system on the drive from which it is run, or does it always anlyze the boot drive? I copied it to the desktop because I was not sure about this, but would it yield the same results if the batch file were downloaded to and run from the D: or E: drive?

 

You must run SFC from the drive on which Windows is installed.

 

Should be good, then, since I ran it from the desktop. Do you see anything in the logs that would point towards the issue? To me it just looks like it scanned a bunch of stuff and didn't find any problems.

I left the computer running overnight, which I normally do anyway, but I specifically left it running to see if it would crash. It did. I woke up to the "insert OS disk" white text. I boot with the rescue disk and ran chkdsk but no errors were found. Still can't boot into Windows. I now have the boot SSD connected to my laptop and I ran Transcend's diagnostic software which found no errors. Currently running a full virus scan on the drive. But it seems like a Windows problem. I really don't want to wipe the drive and start over if I don't absolutely have to. There's got to be a way to repair the OS. What else can I try?

 

The SFC log shows no errors.

You can repair Windows 7 without losing your files and programmes.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/243190/how-to-repair-a-corrupt-windows-7-installation.html

 

The article specifically says, “if your PC can’t fully boot to the Windows desktop, this repair guide is not for you.”

This repair guide is not for me,

 

Sorry, I forgot about that.

 

Is it possible to repair by booting from the install CD? I can access the folders mentioned from Ubuntu to delete the temp files.

 

Follow the instructions here.
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-perform-a-startup-repair-in-windows-7-2626170

 

This issue is resolved. Details below for those interested. And a question at the end.

Although far more stable than Windows was, I found that Ubuntu would occasionally freeze, but only when doing something like playing video. (Windows would freeze for no apparent reason, and usually couldn't even get to the login screen before spontaneously rebooting.) I ran a CPU stress test and immediately found the problem. The CPU temp quickly climbed from around 60 degrees C at idle to almost 90! So I took the PC apart, cleaned all the dust (haven't done that on this machine in a few years, so it was time) and applied fresh heatsink paste (never done that on this computer). Now the CPU idles around 20 degrees and has not gone one degree above 40. Problem solved. It's been a few days and the system is stable. Turns out this was a hardware issue, no software, after all.

I am not the least bit surprised that a 10 year old PC needed new heatsink paste (I know the stuff dries out over time, I've just never had a computer long enough to need this done so it wasn't my first thought), and I'm also not at all surprised than an overheating CPU will cause the system to hang. I *am* however very surprised that this would prevent Windows from even getting to the login screen and also prevent Safe Mode from working at all when a different OS works perfectly fine unless under heavy load. I would not have thought just the boot processes would be so taxing on the CPU. Anyone have any insight on this? This REALLY looked like a file system issue because the first time I ran chkdsk, it fixed errors (which were probably caused by crashing, not the cause of the crashes) and then the system was stable for almost a full day before acting up again. Why weren't the symptoms consistent?