What's causing my crashes?

abibee

I've recently installed Windows 8.1 on a new computer build a few weeks old now. The thing is, I've experience 3 or 4 crashes already, including in Windows Explorer, Firefox, Grabit (newsgroup reader).

Is there a way to identify what's caused a crash after or during the event, so I know what the culprit is?

forgotmyname

Checked your crash logs? (Event Viewer)

modmonster

Did you also install it as fresh install or as an update over an existing older windows?

kingmonkey

How exactly does it crash? or does it just freeze? Freezes are generally hardware problems.

Slithery

As the OS install is new my first step would be to boot a CD with Memtest86+ on it and check for faulty RAM (it's best to let it run overnight for a thorough test).

You can either download from the memtest web site or use a Linux CD if you have one as they all usually come with it as a boot option.

abibee

@forgotmyname: I've opened Event Viewer, but I don't really know what I'm looking at or for.

@modmonster: It's a fresh install on a new build.

@kingmonkey: It freezes and the cursor is the activity circle and nothing's clickable, and ctrl+alt+del doesn't do anything, and I've had to restart by powering the computer off manually.

@Slithery: I'll look into Memtest86+ just now.

I_have_spoken

Dodgy memory, overloaded PSU/bad connection on power leads, too aggressive overclocking

debitcardmayhem

abibee wrote: »

@forgotmyname: I've opened Event Viewer, but I don't really know what I'm looking at or for.

@modmonster: It's a fresh install on a new build.

@kingmonkey: It freezes and the cursor is the activity circle and nothing's clickable, and ctrl+alt+del doesn't do anything, and I've had to restart by powering the computer off manually.

@Slithery: I'll look into Memtest86+ just now.

Try looking for Errors rather than Info in event viewer
Go to Event viewer then go to Windows ....System, sort them by Level.... look for the error events around the time of the crash/es