PC Help Needed

So, I am new to this forum and I am not entirely sure if this topic has been covered before, but I am running into a persistent issue with my PC. Quite frequently, while I am just browsing the web or playing games, my screen will suddenly go black, leaving me with no choice but to hard reset the system. There was even an instance where I booted up to the desktop, stepped away for two minutes, and when I returned, the machine had shut itself down completely. It refused to power back on for about a minute before finally responding. This has become a recurring pattern lately. Based on my limited understanding of hardware, I suspect the culprit is either the power supply or perhaps the RAM. If anyone here has dealt with a similar situation, I would appreciate some guidance on how to troubleshoot this. Thanks. 🙂

So you're basically looking to trigger a Blue Screen of Death, right?Something along the lines of this

Grab a tool to check those "Blue Screen of Death" dump files—maybe something like http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html—and then just post a screenshot of whatever errors keep popping up.

1. Lay out your full PC specs for me, please.
2. Grab this tool and let me know what kind of CPU temps you're seeing: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
3. Also, grab this one so we can check the GPU temps: http://www.gputemp.com/

Get both of those running at the same time—then just browse the web or fire up a game—so we can see how hot things actually get under load. Honestly? My gut tells me your processor is overheating, which is likely why the whole system keeps cutting out.

Go ahead and install this too—it’ll scan through the logs generated when you hit that Blue Screen of Death, so just post the results of the scan right here: http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?...-6300+Six-Core This is my CPU.

http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/b-series/b500/ My power supply.

http://www.legitreviews.com/xfx-r795...-review_129490 And this is my GPU.

I'm running 8GB of RAM via two 4GB Corsair sticks, PC3-10700h (667 MHz).

My motherboard is http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro...px?pid=4385#ov

Those are my core components.

And John Mendoza13, it isn't a picture of an error; the entire screen just turns a solid color. Sometimes it goes blue, sometimes it's gray, with absolutely no text visible. Once that happens, there is nothing I can do except hard reset the computer.

😕

Crash Dump analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

Your computer crashed on Wed Sep 07 2014 at 14:35:54 GMT
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\070914-22261-01.dmp
The culprit here is likely the following module: atikmdag.sys (atikmdag+0xC7DBB)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF880113A1DBB, 0xFFFFF880040BA228, 0xFFFFF880040B9A80)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys
product: AMD
company: AMD
description: ATI Radeon kernel moda driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This looks like a standard software driver bug rather than a hardware failure.
A third-party driver was pinpointed as the most probable cause of this crash. I recommend searching for an update for this specific driver: atikmdag.sys (ATI Radeon kernel moda driver, AMD).
Google query : AMD SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M

Your computer crashed on Wed Sep 07 2014 at 14:35:54 GMT
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
The issue was likely triggered by this module: atikmdag.sys (atikmdag+0xC7DBB)
Bugcheck code: 0x7E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF880113A1DBB, 0xFFFFF880040BA228, 0xFFFFF880040B9A80)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys
product: AMD
company: AMD
description: ATI Radeon kernel moda driver
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a system thread generated an exception that the error handler did not catch.
A third-party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. You should look for an update for the following driver: atikmdag.sys (ATI Radeon kernel moda driver, AMD).
Google query : AMD SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

This is also a report from WHoCrashed

This is a pretty classic error you’ll run into quite often with the 7870, 6450, and several other XFX models out there.
If you haven't already, I'd suggest jumping in and updating your graphics driver first, and while you're at it, make sure you've got the latest version of the .NET Framework installed. If those steps don't do the trick, your next best move would be to look into updating your BIOS.

My GPU temperature consistently sits right around 60 degrees; I've been gaming for an hour now and it hasn't budged from 60. Meanwhile, my CPU temps are hovering steadily between 33 and 35 degrees.

Yesterday, while I was gaming, my PC suddenly cut out entirely—as if the power had been yanked from the wall for a split second. After waiting about 15 to 20 seconds, I was able to boot it back up.😕

Temperatures look fine to me—nothing to worry about there—but you should probably try updating your graphics driver since that’s clearly the culprit according to the crash log.

I've just finished updating my GPU drivers, so I'll see if that resolves things. However, I am curious: is my current power supply actually sufficient for this build? Additionally, is it plausible for system crashes to occur if the RAM is overheating?

Yeah, the power supply should be plenty. And honestly, don't sweat the RAM overheating—it pulls so little juice that there’s just no way it could get hot enough to cause issues.

It keeps happening. Next time it occurs, I’ll make sure to grab a screenshot and upload it here so you all can see for yourselves.