Numerous problems including BSOD at startup and freezes

[TimVerheijen]

Hi forum,

This has been an ongoing issue for months, and I cannot find out its cause. It has been happening ever since I upgraded the components below:

• Intel Core i5-7600
• Asus Prime B250-Plus Motherboard
• Seagate Barracuda, 2TB HDD
• 2x Crucial CT2K4G4DFS824A 4GB DDR4 RAM

My first thread was on Tom's Hardware forum when my PC started to show me a BSOD at startup.

As MemTest did not show any RAM errors, I made another thread which seems to have disappeared ever since. A kind member helped me out and was under the impression an unknown driver was causing errors.

It isn't just the BSOD at startup what's wrong with my PC now, so here is a list:

• BSOD at startup, sometimes 2-3 before a correct boot
• Unable to install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 (minor issue, but I think linked to the bigger picture)
• Random freezing:
  • Does not seem to have a cause
  • Seems to last less long (10 mins) on (visually?) less intensive programs, such as a browser or a small game
  • Sound keeps running (YouTube video plays all the way through, though screen is frozen, game audio is stuck in a ~10 second loop)
  • I wait it out now, when the PC unfreezes usually all applications are suddenly closed
  • When going through the BIOS it froze as well
  • A restart helps momentarily but the PC will freeze again. Waiting out the freeze will usually not cause another freeze
• Steam suddenly thought two games were no longer installed, but when I tried to reinstall it found all game files
• Windows is now unable to install an update (error code 0x80073712). It says some files needed by Windows Update are damaged or missing
• Unable to do a clean reinstall of Windows 10 ("There was a problem resetting your PC: no changes were made")
• PC games have become hard to play recently because of short freezes of <0.5 seconds (sometimes longer). These are more likely to happen when shots/explosions happen, or when my character spawns.
• I have tried to fix the BOSD by reinstalling my PC twice. Note that with these reinstalls my HDD was untouched (C: is on my SSD)

I am not a PC expert, but I would think that these issues are linked to a failing disk drive.
I really do hope you could help me out, as you can imagine the pain it is to work with my PC now.

Cheers!

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