Computer issue, please help.

   Hello all, I recently(About 2 months ago) Purchased a DS computer, loved it, and it ran fine for about a month. I played Skyrim/Mass Effect 3 on it and it ran fine. But then I decided to reinstall WoW on it and it went downhill from there. At the same time of installing WoW, I decided to also install AVG onto it. Within a week of installing WoW I started having BSOD crashes, took the issue to tech support but have not been able to get the issue solved yet. I thought I had gotten it solved last time I talked with them, but the "fix" merly created more issues. I will list the issues/experience and any help would be greatly appreciated.

   First, the computer screen would freeze for a second or two, then go to a BSOD, but it would not log anything into the minidump, it literary BSOD for about 1 second then the computer went black and proceeded to restart itself but the monitor would not come back on(Power light on and fans on, but no output)

   This used to only happen when I was playing WoW, so I figured it was a WoW issue, I was at the time running the 64bit WoW client(beta) so I uninstalled WoW and re installed it 100% with the 32bit client, but that didn't fix the issue.

Driver issue was the next logical step, since I had only installed one physical driver,my Razer headset, I uninstalled that next, no help. Graphics card was the next driver I hit, finding out it was an older version I was jumping for joy thinking my problems were gone. But that also didn't fix the issue. When I ran Whocrashed the first few times it pointed to a driver issue, but it could not say what driver it was at the time. Finally after about the 6th time it said it was AVGfileXXX(or something like that) which after doing some research I found out AVG crashes 64 bit systems. I then uninstalled AVG, first with the windows uninstall then the AVG removal tool.

Once I did that the problem became less BSOD and more just blackout. The computer would either just freeze, or it would literary go black and do the, "Restart" which left my computer on, but with no monitor output. Also, somewhere between graphics update and AVG removal the crashes started happening everywhere desktop to restore mode. At one point the computer restarted while restarting. I also looked at the temps while playing WoW, and they seemed to be fine 35-39 degree with it logging the max of 52.

:( Since this issue has happened I would say these crashes have happened about 10-15 times. With the majority of them not logging anything, my mini dump only contains 4 of the crashes. I have also tried doing system restore three times now, when it prompted me to do so, with one of those restores crashing mid restore.

I am not a computer guru by any means, so all of these issues are really new/scary territory for me. I am not even sure if these crashes are causing irreversible damage to the computer itself. Which makes me not want to even turn it on.

At the time of me writing this It has been about 3 weeks of it just sitting here pretty much useless. Every day or so I turn it on to try a new fix, but am quickly getting discouraged because my "fixes" seem to not be fixing anything.

   I am at wits end and I really want to try re-installing windows, but I bought the advanced recovery disk/partition and I am unsure as to how to use this "service". I know if I re install windows this partition will be lost, because it is on the same physical drive as the OS. I had the Digital Storm Advanced recovery disk at the ready, and actually tried booting the computer with it in, only to find out that I had no clue as to what I was doing, so I quit to make sure I didn't do any irreversible damage.

   As to the current state, I can turn the computer on and it loads fine, gets to desktop easily, I can go to the BIOS, I can do about anything with it. I was going to do a backup, but why backup a borked computer. I do not have any restore points or backups past when the issue started happening(Stupid me for not listening to the computer when I got it and it told me to make a backup) but I always fear a crash is a second or two away at any given time. Nothing on the drive is irreplaceable as far as I am concerned. I only have Steam, Skype, Curse Client, WoW, Mass Effect, and Skyrim.

DS is closed for the weekend so I thought maybe someone on here would be able to help me with either figuring out how to use the recovery, or maybe telling me a way to fix the whole mess of things.

I have contacted Tech support(about 3 weeks ago) and even though I have received some help the issue is still plaguing me.

Please, any help would be greatly appreciated, I just don't want to have a $2,300 paper weight. =(

Edited by Aequeo - 12 May 2012 at 5:04pm

Originally posted by wisepoiboi Hi, i had the same problem a week ago what seemed to be the problem was that there was a windows update that screwed up some programs such as my 64bit ITunes which would crash my 32bit WOW.The solution I had some up with was a system restore, to a point where my computer was running fine, I then uninstalled the problem programs and reinstall them all as 32bit programs where needed.Might i ask if you have a SSD drive with your Operating system and a bunch of programs?  Or is everything on one HardDrive?

One hard drive, not SSD. I have no restore prior to when the issues started happening. My OS is 64bit, I did not install itunes on my DS pc(decided to leave that sometimes crashy/buggy beast on my older pc)

Originally posted by wisepoiboi You don't have a restore point from the time you first got your DS Computer?If not:You can just do a full restore which should bring your computer back to the settings when you first received your computer.  I believe there is a backup that comes with your DS system now that they no longer come with backup CDs (DigitalStorm-PC) I believe.Otherwise hopefully someone else can help you at this time i need to get back to work.

All of my restore points that I can load from are from within the last 2 weeks. The "advanced Recovery" that comes with the DS computer that is located on the second Partition is a TBI file, which is not a regular Windows restore. At this point I am curious as to if a full restore is good enough or should I just redo the entire hard drive with a windows re-install. TO make it clear I have no problem losing anything on this drive, except whatever this TBI file is.   Thanks for your help!

Tried the recovery boot once gain, but there are no restore points past the month of May(Started having problems in April. Finally decided to re install windows since i'd tried every driver possible. Was looking good, but then it crashed again in the desktop. But a regular BSOD just a blackout. No minidump. So, at this point it's either hardware related, in that case I am screwed, or it was the one windows update that I had installed to the PC. Any suggestions?