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Clem Patafio
I'll say up front that I'm a retired PC / Systems Consultant (over 40 years), so, I've done my fair share of troubleshooting. This issue has got me stumped!
I purchased a new HP Envy 700-406 desktop PC. I've had it for about 3 years. It came with a free upgrade to Windows 10 Home, so I upgraded it. Within a few months, the system began randomly crashing.
I went through all the troubleshooting steps I could think of or find online, including System Restore, verifying and updating all hardware drivers, hardware diagnostics, etc. The system would sometimes go for months without crashing. Other times (like the last several days), it would crash multiple times each day. There was no pattern, i.e. sometimes it would just be sitting with no apps open and when I'd come back to it, it was frozen. Other times, I'd be in Outlook or browsing the web and it would crash. I could be browsing in Chrome, Edge, even IE and might crash. Usually, the crash would result in the system freezing and had to be cold booted. Occasionally (rarely), the crash would result in a BSOD. When there was a BSOD, the error code was not always the same. This last time it was REFERENCE BY POINTER. Other times, it was PFN LIST CORRUPT as well as others.
I've also gone through 3 hard drives during this time. They would become corrupted and I'd replace them... usually keeping the corrupt drive as a data drive. Each time, I would either do a clean install of Windows 10 Home or I'd use the recovery USB that I'd created early on to restore the system to the factory default, then upgrade to Windows 10 again. Each time, within a few months, the crashing would begin again!
The only reason I haven't done a refresh is that I have so many applications installed that I dread having to reinstall and reconfigure them again. I've used Macrium Reflect to create backup images... but, I'm afraid to use them to restore the system for fear that they contain some corruption that will just start the problem over again.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... GREATLY APPRECIATED!
Clem
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I purchased a new HP Envy 700-406 desktop PC. I've had it for about 3 years. It came with a free upgrade to Windows 10 Home, so I upgraded it. Within a few months, the system began randomly crashing.
I went through all the troubleshooting steps I could think of or find online, including System Restore, verifying and updating all hardware drivers, hardware diagnostics, etc. The system would sometimes go for months without crashing. Other times (like the last several days), it would crash multiple times each day. There was no pattern, i.e. sometimes it would just be sitting with no apps open and when I'd come back to it, it was frozen. Other times, I'd be in Outlook or browsing the web and it would crash. I could be browsing in Chrome, Edge, even IE and might crash. Usually, the crash would result in the system freezing and had to be cold booted. Occasionally (rarely), the crash would result in a BSOD. When there was a BSOD, the error code was not always the same. This last time it was REFERENCE BY POINTER. Other times, it was PFN LIST CORRUPT as well as others.
I've also gone through 3 hard drives during this time. They would become corrupted and I'd replace them... usually keeping the corrupt drive as a data drive. Each time, I would either do a clean install of Windows 10 Home or I'd use the recovery USB that I'd created early on to restore the system to the factory default, then upgrade to Windows 10 again. Each time, within a few months, the crashing would begin again!
The only reason I haven't done a refresh is that I have so many applications installed that I dread having to reinstall and reconfigure them again. I've used Macrium Reflect to create backup images... but, I'm afraid to use them to restore the system for fear that they contain some corruption that will just start the problem over again.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... GREATLY APPRECIATED!
Clem
Continue reading...