Apps closing and screen flickering on new PC build and clean windows install

  • Thread starter Thread starter Erickson656
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Erickson656

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Hello everyone,


I don't usually post to forums but I am at my wits end with this problem and have searched everything I can find, but have had no luck in finding a solution. I recently was having issues with my desktop computer having apps randomly crash, strange network issues where the page would load and then immediately crash back to an 'unable to load page' error, as well as usb devices occasionally losing connection for very short intervals.

I tried several things to solve these issues, and eventually did a BIOS update to the mobo (x470, see below), but after that windows was unable to boot or reinstall on that machine, the BIOS was unable to be flashed back to the previous version.


I ultimately gave up on reviving the old system and decided it was time for some upgrades and a clean windows install, so I have built a new system and have purchased a new windows key since my old one was education edition from school. My specs are as follows:


Old System (I don't think this is needed, but its strange that I was having similar issues prior to the new build...):

  • Ryzen 7 2700x
  • ASUS Prime x470-pro
  • GSkill FlareX DDR4 2x8 Gb at 3200GHz
  • WD Blue 1TB HDD
  • Nvidia GTX 1070
  • Corsair 750W PSU


New System:

  • Ryzen 7 2700x
  • ASUS Prime x570-p Mobo
  • GSkill FlareX DDR4 2x8 Gb at 3200GHz (at first I reused this RAM)
  • Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2x8 Gb @ 3000MHz (I later swapped out to this RAM)
  • PNY CS6900 SSD 120GB (for OS install)
  • WD Blue 2 TB HDD
  • Nvidia GTX 1070
  • Corsair 750W PSU

The only shared hardware between the builds as of now are the CPU, GPU and PSU. (note that the GSkill RAM was used at first but was later swapped for new ones).


With this new build I was able to install windows 10 from the boot USB (although the installer had to run in safe mode otherwise it would crash...). Once I was able to get to the desktop, I went about upgrading all of the drivers for my USB network adapter, graphics card, chipset (using armoury crate) and performing the OS updates to version 1909 via windows update. I also upgraded the BIOS on the mobo to its latest version. Throughout this upgrade process I experienced many instances of installers randomly closing themselves and frequent occurrences of the screen flickering to black several times over the course of a few seconds. Additionally, explorer.exe would crash and would have to be restarted via task manager.


The driver updates seemed to have helped slightly, but the system is still not stable enough to install anything other than the base software. Now when I boot up and open pretty much any program, it will close within a matter of seconds (it rarely lasts as long as a minute or two). I also get a recurring notification about windows defender virus and threat detection being stopped and needing to be reset, but upon resetting it, it will stop on its own minutes later. I have thought that the problem was related to the RAM (due to the closing apps), so I ran several memory tests using the windows memory tool on my boot usb as well as using memtest on the GSkill RAM I was using and everything was coming back as fine. I additionally customized the virtual memory settings to use larger amount than the defaults (using the 1.5xRAM for initial size and 3xRAM for maximum size). I later decided to swap the RAM out for the Corsair models listed above and had the same issues, even with one stick at a time and when using different slots on the Mobo, and I am now in the process of memory testing these units as well (but no problems have been detected as of 4 passes). I have also tried to using the recommended overclock setting on the RAM (as specified by the RAM manufacturer) but the same issues would occur.


My other thought was that this could be virus related (due to the windows defender being turned off), however when I researched that problem it seemed to be a pretty common occurrence. Just in case I attempted to do several scans using windows defender, Dr Web, and MalwareBytes but the programs crash too quickly to perform a full scan. I then created a bootable USB with the windows defender scanner on it and did a scan at boot, which didn't turn up anything. My gut tells me there is something else at play, as I don't understand how I could have a virus on a build utilizing brand new hard drives, but I have been wrong many times before...


One final strange thing is that if I boot off from the brand new windows USB (official microsoft USB) and select the 64bit installer to try and get into the windows startup repair or command line options the system will always crash with a 'critical process failed' error, and will only run if I specify the USB drive to open in safe mode. This makes me think that it has to be either a driver issue or a failing piece of hardware, but I have upgraded most of the hardware and am using the most recent drivers for everything.


I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or suggestions that you all may have, as this issue is distracting me from getting anything else done...


Thanks in advance!

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