Computer keeps on crashing, suspect it's due to flash

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Feb 8th, 2018 10:42 am

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Feb 5th, 2018 12:55 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 5th, 2018 12:55 pm

Computer keeps on crashing, suspect it's due to flash

My computer seems to always crash whenever I am either watching youtube videos or I have the website opened in another tab. I suspect it's flash related except I uninstalled flash on my computer and I turned it off in my browser (chrome). At first I thought it was maybe due to my browser so I switched browsers to firefox and made sure flash wasn't installed on it but then my computer also crashed after 2 days of use. Sometimes the crash isn't instant when watching youtube videos but several hours later. I still am not sure if it's caused by youtube or something else but I'm not sure how to check it? There is a lot of content that I consume on youtube so giving up using youtube wouldn't be ideal.

33 replies

Feb 5th, 2018 1:43 pm

konsensei: Deal Fanatic; Mar 17, 2006; 6884 posts; 5801 upvotes; Burlington

Feb 5th, 2018 1:43 pm

my bet is on gpu overheated, or if you are using integrated graphic, your cpu heated up

+2

Feb 5th, 2018 4:06 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 5th, 2018 4:06 pm

soupmaster666 wrote: ↑ Try turning off any unnecessary crap that is running in the background. I think you can do it in the Task Manager on these newfangled OSes. On Windows 7, it would be Start > Run > type "msconfig" > OK > "Startup"

Turn off any crap you recognize but don't need. Don't turn off anything you aren't sure about.

I already have all the background programs turned on to a bare minimum. Also I have tried to run a virus scan with housecall but it seems to always crash and I get the blue screen.

Feb 5th, 2018 5:37 pm

will888: Deal Expert; Dec 12, 2009; 20760 posts; 8982 upvotes; Toronto

Feb 5th, 2018 5:37 pm

I had issues with 3 computers, two desktops and a laptop crashing (blue screen, watchdog violation) out of the blue late last year. For a few weeks, I was pulling my hair out trying to understand why. The logs say the problem is with ahci driver which has not changed recently. I have many other computers on the same OS and running similar software without issue. After some troubleshooting, I pinpointed the issue to bit defender antivirus. Whenever there was network activity, the antivirus can trigger the blue screen. Printing to my wireless printer guaranteed a blue screen. If I disconnect from the internet, there is no problem. If I disable the antivirus, no problems. I uninstalled the antivirus and only reinstalled it recently. The problem has gone away so far. I know the cause now, but still don't fully understand why. I don't have malware on the three computers.

Feb 5th, 2018 5:53 pm

teleguitar: Deal Addict; Oct 27, 2007; 2261 posts; 110 upvotes

Feb 5th, 2018 5:53 pm

will888 wrote: ↑ I had issues with 3 computers, two desktops and a laptop crashing (blue screen, watchdog violation) out of the blue late last year. For a few weeks, I was pulling my hair out trying to understand why. The logs say the problem is with ahci driver which has not changed recently. I have many other computers on the same OS and running similar software without issue. After some troubleshooting, I pinpointed the issue to bit defender antivirus. Whenever there was network activity, the antivirus can trigger the blue screen. Printing to my wireless printer guaranteed a blue screen. If I disconnect from the internet, there is no problem. If I disable the antivirus, no problems. I uninstalled the antivirus and only reinstalled it recently. The problem has gone away so far. I know the cause now, but still don't fully understand why. I don't have malware on the three computers.

An 'antivirus' program shouldn't crash a computer. You probably have/had malware or trojan or whatever it was that caused it.... Have you rebooted at all recently? I think some sophisticated programs can be 'dormant' after a supposed 'fix' only to return later from something that cause it to run or start again.

I wouldn't conclude that you don't have anything so quickly. Sometimes, these programs don't catch something and you need a third party app. Although, I don't know if you are using free software or are subscribing to something. Anyway, just my two cents. Maybe, it really is gone but just tossing out another possible scenario.

Feb 5th, 2018 6:12 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 5th, 2018 6:12 pm

konsensei wrote: ↑ my bet is on gpu overheated, or if you are using integrated graphic, your cpu heated up

I just cleaned my computer with an air compressor and there isn't too much heat when I touch my laptop yet my computer is still crashing. It just crashed when I tried to run panda antivirus with nothing else running. It was almost done the scan too. I don't know if it's my router or if it's something else. I'm contemplating just reimaging my machine right now.

Feb 5th, 2018 6:48 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 5th, 2018 6:48 pm

I ended up reimaging my computer. Hopefully this will solve the issue. I haven't updated my chrome yet because my image has an old version. Hopefully when I update it, I won't experience this issue again.

Feb 5th, 2018 8:08 pm

darXider: Member; Jan 19, 2017; 426 posts; 120 upvotes

Feb 5th, 2018 8:08 pm

teleguitar wrote: ↑ An 'antivirus' program shouldn't crash a computer.

it shouldn't but it will sometimes. these programs put their hooks into the operating system's kernel at a very low level to be able to have the first access to the file system, network stack, and memory in order to "monitor" activity to detect malicious programs. this is a very complex operation, and there are many ways it can go wrong (a piece of software always has bugs). and if it goes wrong, it will crash the OS' kernel which results in a BSoD.

Feb 6th, 2018 9:34 am

gontori: Deal Addict; Jun 17, 2012; 2330 posts; 338 upvotes; In another world

Feb 6th, 2018 9:34 am

wolf30 wrote: ↑ I ended up reimaging my computer. Hopefully this will solve the issue. I haven't updated my chrome yet because my image has an old version. Hopefully when I update it, I won't experience this issue again.

If that doesn't work, do a fresh OS install.
If that doesn't work, probably a faulty hardware.
Take your hard drive to another computer and work from there for a time to see if the problem replicates.

Feb 6th, 2018 10:42 am

The Canterbury Tail: Deal Addict; Jan 10, 2009; 1312 posts; 731 upvotes; Toronto

Feb 6th, 2018 10:42 am

Is it crashing (freezing up, blue screen etc), turning off or rebooting?

Feb 6th, 2018 12:18 pm

willilumplump: Member; Dec 7, 2015; 479 posts; 104 upvotes; Ottawa, ON

Feb 6th, 2018 12:18 pm

Have you run memtest to check for bad RAM?

Feb 6th, 2018 12:18 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 6th, 2018 12:18 pm

The Canterbury Tail wrote: ↑ Is it crashing (freezing up, blue screen etc), turning off or rebooting?

It's giving me a blue screen then restarting

Feb 6th, 2018 12:35 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 6th, 2018 12:35 pm

Update: It looks like the computer restarted overnight after I upgraded my chrome and I left youtube paused in the background. I may try to remove chrome and install an older version of it to test things out because everything was fine yesterday with the older version of chrome even though they kept on pestering me to upgrade the browser.

Feb 6th, 2018 7:13 pm

toomuchpie: Sr. Member; May 29, 2008; 780 posts; 307 upvotes

Feb 6th, 2018 7:13 pm

Why are you so set on it being flash? If anything, this seems more like a hardware error to me. Why don't you actually take a look at the blue screen logs and try to find some more information there?

Feb 6th, 2018 9:09 pm

SomeGuyGG: Deal Addict; Aug 25, 2005; 1535 posts; 485 upvotes; Kitchener

Feb 6th, 2018 9:09 pm

willilumplump wrote: ↑ Have you run memtest to check for bad RAM?

This. Sounds like some RAM has gone faulty if it is still rebooting after a fresh windows install. Also try safe mode, leave it on over night see if it still works in the morning, if it is a driver conflict that will show you. When you re-imaged it, how old was the image?

Feb 6th, 2018 9:19 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 6th, 2018 9:19 pm

SomeGuyGG wrote: ↑ This. Sounds like some RAM has gone faulty if it is still rebooting after a fresh windows install. Also try safe mode, leave it on over night see if it still works in the morning, if it is a driver conflict that will show you. When you re-imaged it, how old was the image?

Actually so far everything has been fine except for my computer restarting last night when I was asleep. I've had youtube open all day and no issues. I'm gonna try that ramtest thingy tomorrow and see what happens. I'll try your suggestion too if I'm still getting these blue screens of death.

Feb 6th, 2018 9:20 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 6th, 2018 9:20 pm

toomuchpie wrote: ↑ Why are you so set on it being flash? If anything, this seems more like a hardware error to me. Why don't you actually take a look at the blue screen logs and try to find some more information there?

How do I do that?

Feb 6th, 2018 9:23 pm

SomeGuyGG: Deal Addict; Aug 25, 2005; 1535 posts; 485 upvotes; Kitchener

Feb 6th, 2018 9:23 pm

https://www.howtogeek.com/222730/how-to ... -or-froze/

Check out these helpful tips.

Feb 6th, 2018 9:41 pm

wolf30 [OP]: Deal Addict; Dec 28, 2005; 1743 posts; 158 upvotes

Feb 6th, 2018 9:41 pm

SomeGuyGG wrote: ↑ https://www.howtogeek.com/222730/how-to ... -or-froze/

Check out these helpful tips.

Alright I fired up the reliability monitor and it shows that windows stopped working at 4:59am and says video hardware error. I also downloaded bluescreenview and it automatically loaded up some dump file but I'm not sure what I should be looking at.

Update: I just ran Windows Memory Diagnostic and it said there was no errors. So I guess this rules out ram?

Feb 6th, 2018 11:47 pm

toomuchpie: Sr. Member; May 29, 2008; 780 posts; 307 upvotes

Feb 6th, 2018 11:47 pm

wolf30 wrote: ↑ Alright I fired up the reliability monitor and it shows that windows stopped working at 4:59am and says video hardware error. I also downloaded bluescreenview and it automatically loaded up some dump file but I'm not sure what I should be looking at.

Update: I just ran Windows Memory Diagnostic and it said there was no errors. So I guess this rules out ram?

No, it doesn't rule out RAM. You should test it with memtest86+ to rule out RAM. You can burn it onto a cd or use a usb flash drive. Beware that it never stops running though, and you just need to end it at an appropriate time - I would say after it does 1 complete pass. However, if there is something wrong with the ram, it USUALLY shows the errors within a minute. If it does (you'll see red), then you can stop the test because either the RAM is faulty, or sometimes the motherboard (RAM socket?)

What did bluescreenview indicate caused the BSOD? If I remember correctly, it highlights it and puts it at the top of the list. Also, you can download WhoCrashed to have it try to diagnose the issue as well. Post your findings here.

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