My PC has gone south and I need advice

[7beauties]

The only change I made to my PC recently was installing an app from F.lux for lowering the color temperature of my monitor at night time for promoting good sleep.

Last night I was watching a movie on NetFlix which I paused to answer my cellphone. After a while my monitor went in hibernation. When I mashed my "enter" key or space bar the movie began playing but my screen remained dark. I hit the reset button, my PC rebooted, and I logged in. My desktop was present for just seconds before going blank. I hit the reset button again, but this time Windows 8.1 64 bit OS won't boot. I get a blue "frowny" splash screen for a split second saying that "your PC ran into a problem ... " and on and on and on it goes, forever trying to boot. I would appreciate some insight.

I have an ASRock Extreme 9/ac Z87 motherboard
I have an Intel i7 4770K CPU
I have four 4GB sticks of DDR3 1333 RAM that I bought a long time ago
I have a pair of Radeon HD 7970 GPU's in CrossFire
I have a Sound Blaster Recon 3D Champion sound card
I have a PC Power & Cooling 950W integrated PSU

My "C" Drive is a Samsung 1TB 840 EVO SSD
My "F" Drive is a Seagate 2TB SATAIII HDD

I"m able to get into the EUFI to monitor my CPU's temperature and its fan's RPM. The CPU at idle creeps up to 41 degrees Celsius and its heatsink/fan RPM varies within a range that would seem normal. I also confirmed that my Samsung 840 EVO is the first device to boot from.

What could be wrong? What should I do? Has anyone heard of malware being associated with F.lux? Thank you very much.

 

[Berliner]

What should I do? Has anyone heard of malware being associated with F.lux? Thank you very much.

I would simply reinstall windows? I don't use 8, but I guess it also has some kind of recovery mode you can try first.

Malware - no, unless you did not download it from the manufacturer.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I've never heard of f.lux being or containing malware, though depending on where you download it, it could be possible. I find it unlikely to be the problem, though.

Run CHKDSK from a Windows Recovery or installation disc.

Boot from a Linux Live USB/CD/DVD and see if the problems persist (note: the crossfire setup may be problematic, but try anyway). Play some videos and browse the net to see if it crashes. If it does then you have a hardware issue, otherwise it's a software (or ssd/hdd) issue.

 

[phasseshifter]

check you cables make shure they are snug and tight..first step..at a time..internal and external...boot of the windows disk run from the command prompt...sfc /scannow....and the chkdsk c: ...as well..

 

[Ketchup]

I've never heard of f.lux being or containing malware, though depending on where you download it, it could be possible. I find it unlikely to be the problem, though.

Run CHKDSK from a Windows Recovery or installation disc.

Boot from a Linux Live USB/CD/DVD and see if the problems persist (note: the crossfire setup may be problematic, but try anyway). Play some videos and browse the net to see if it crashes. If it does then you have a hardware issue, otherwise it's a software (or ssd/hdd) issue.

If chkdsk doesn't work, or doesn't find any errors, unplug the Seagate and see if the computer boots any better.

 

[Bubbaleone]

The link below is a well written and detailed article from WinHelp that covers all repair options for 8/8.1 If you want, scroll down toward the middle of the page and you can jump right into booting into the 8.1 recovery environment, which is the preferred environment to work from when repairs are required. As soon as I'm done posting this I'm headed right back there to continue reading...

Repair your computer in Windows 8 and 8.1

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[DigDog]

when you fix the problem, google "window blinds". it darkens your monitor (i used it for the same reasons as you) and won't mess your PC.

 

[7beauties]

Dear Friends:

I'm very grateful to all of you who've replied. I'll clear my CMOS, troubleshoot each of my RAM sticks individually, do the same for my Radeon 7970's, and try my primary drive in another PC.

I have Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit OS, and since Win 8, you must first log into it before choosing Safe Mode or using run commands, so pressing the F8 key during power-on (to choose Safe Mode) is irrelevant.

Thank you all most sincerely

 

[frozentundra123456]

Have you tried booting into safe mode?
If you can, try doing a system restore from there.

Edit: sorry, didn't see your last post. That is really absurd. kind of defeats the purpose of safe mode if you have to boot to normal windows first and log in.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Dear Friends:

I'm very grateful to all of you who've replied. I'll clear my CMOS, troubleshoot each of my RAM sticks individually, do the same for my Radeon 7970's, and try my primary drive in another PC.

I have Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit OS, and since Win 8, you must first log into it before choosing Safe Mode or using run commands, so pressing the F8 key during power-on (to choose Safe Mode) is irrelevant.

Thank you all most sincerely

You don't need anything but the 8.1 installation disk, forget about F8 for now.The WinHelp.com link I posted in my previous reply is a compilation of every single bit of information there is on how to access your 8.1 operating system when it has otherwise malfunctioned and you can't access it normally.

I'd suggest you carefully study each method on that page, and then tryout one method at a time by following each step exactly. If you still can't access your OS afterward, go back and read it again or come back here and tell us what you tried that didn't work and we can help you. And if you see a technical term on that page that you don't understand, click on it (they're all hyper-linked) and you'll be taken to another page that explains it in detail. Diagnosing boot problems means work.

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