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I'm running Windows 10 on a computer I built back in 2014. Originally the computer crashed hard; friend did a wrong move, game froze, crashed, then a “Blue Screen of Death.” Followed by the computer not recognizing a bootable drive installed. I was able to get everything back and running but often the drive wouldn’t boot and I chalked it up to my SSD finally dying.

I then replaced it with another SSD, fresh install of Windows and worked on getting all of my programs back on. I have yet to actually shut my computer down, it keeps freezing getting the “Blue Screen of Death” when doing simple tasks (like run Steam and updating my graphics drivers). I’ve been trying to run Windows Update and it keeps halting on installing the latest (I think. The 2020-02 Cumulative). It usually freezes in the teens of installing. This is from the Windows Update dialog, not when I am restarting the computer. The mouse still responds but it's like Windows Explorer crashed. Can’t click on anything nor Alt+Tab, Ctrl+Alt+Del, or Ctrl+Shift+Esc work.

I figured it was a bad Windows install so I reinstalled it. Same issue. Figured it’s a hardware issue so I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool and nothing turned up.

I have no idea what could be wrong. The obvious and easiest fix is to build a new one, but can't really afford that.

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  • Hardware can cause problems even if they only manifest in an odd way. Suggest removing and reseating memory after a close visual inspection. Remove heatsink subassembly & CPU, clean CPU & heatsink, reapply a thin layer of heatsink compound, reinstall heatsink, and after rebooting run Open Hardware Monitor to keep an eye on temps.
    – K7AAY
    Feb 29, 2020 at 0:42
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    First, sorry you are experiencing this. But honestly, this is way to broad of a problem for anyone here to really solve as it stands. The 100% best advice I would give is to do two things: First, disconnect the hard drive and see if you can boot from a USB flash drive with Linux or something similar. Past that I think the most realistic solution might be to dismantle the whole PC and rebuild it again; meaning rebuild it to the bare bones and rebuild it back up again. Clean parts if you notice dust and such. CPU and heatsink cleanup can follow after that step if it doesn’t clear it up. Feb 29, 2020 at 0:45
  • Yeah I figured it's too broad. Just hit the limit of my knowledge (more software knowledgeable than hardware) and hoped this place may be able to help me. At least in finding the next step to troubleshoot. Feb 29, 2020 at 0:54
  • If it freezes just (re) installing Windows 10, it is not very likely a software problem. Is there a BIOS Upgrade for this machine? Start it with a bootable USB key and let it run for an hour or so. Does it freeze? It is possible (not likely) the second SSD has issues
    – John
    Feb 29, 2020 at 2:59

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