PC is CLEAN, but BSOD!!!!

[Spider-Who?]

Adobe CC has been running rather slow lately (Photoshop in particular), so I decided to upgrade my ram from 8 to 16gigs two weeks ago. Things seemed fine, but a few days later I started getting the BSOD at irregular intervals without rhyme nor reason. I don’t have any viruses and I keep the PC tuned up (defrag, clean registry, etc) every week. All drivers and OS are up to date.

Saturday morning I did a clean reinstall of the OS and things seemed to be fine, but Sunday night it auto-updated some windows software and upon restarting, I got the BSOD again.

The computer is about 4-5 years old so I'm due for an upgrade, especially with my job, but I'm trying to hold out so I can save extra cash for a good custom PC (as opposed to slowly upgrading a Best Buy tower).

The PC I currently have is:

Gateway DX4840-11e

Windows 7 Professional x64
Intel Core i3 550 @ 3.20GHz
HDD: 1 TB HDD

RAM: 16 GB PC3 10666 DDR3
Graphics Card: Nvidia GT 545
Power: Dynex 520W ATX

Any thoughts on what it could be or how to find the source of the issue?

 

[Wadaltmon]

I actually just resolved a similar problem today. My problem was that the first two slots for my memory were actually broken, thus rendering me only able to have 2x4GB modules in my computer. Another issue I looked into, though, was memory addressing via the actual OS, but that doesn't seem to be your problem. When your computer actually gets past the POST screen, does it show that you have 16GB in your OS, or does it still say it has the 8GB? Or does it just not boot up at all?
I also had a similar issue on my laptop, which I later figured out was just fried memory on the video card and the RAM module. Have you tried using different modules in the same slots?

 

[Spider-Who?]

It boots up and works fine (until it randomly decides to die). It recognizes all 16GB of ram - I even ran the memory diagnostic tool, which turned up no errors. The last time it died (yesterday morning), I checked the Event Log, which showed several errors with the Net Framework. Forget off hand what it was (not on my home PC), but in involved not being recognized by some applications (ie Windows Media Center). This was after it failed to install a couple of Windows Updates.

 

[runawayboulder]

Even though it's not showing errors I would either take the RAM out completely or replace it and see what happens.

 

[Teelie]

I had to fix a computer with a stalled up Windows update the other day. I don't know which update it was but it stuck at 19/26 and after much fiddling, using safe mode, etc. I finally was able to get everything resolved and working. As far as I know there have been no BSOD's but I'll have to ask about it, it's not my computer.

I bring it up because it is possible this is something to do with a recently installed update, perhaps one to do with Framework.

 

[runawayboulder]

A lot of BSoD's are caused by memory or driver issues. Since Spider-Who? said it started when he upgraded the memory, chances are it's incompatible with the system despite working for a few days.

 

[Teelie]

There is that too. I'm meticulous when it comes to checking compatability but you don't always know when something states it is compatible only to find out, no it's not. I've had that happen in the past.

 

[Wadaltmon]

This is pure speculation, but it could be something with the speed of the RAM as well, that the BIOS is compensating and automatically bringing down the speeds of the modules at some point.