Recently my PC started crashing alot. I thought it was overheating so I started monitoring the cpu temp to make sure and even while playing a game it would only have a rise in temp of a few degrees.

At idle it would be around 47 degrees Celsius and while playing a game it would get to around 54 degrees. Not sure if thats high or not.

Then it had a big series of crashes and I had to do some kind of windows recovery thing and now I get all these error popups saying bad image for such and such .exe.

been like that for a week without crashing and I could play games and stuff no crashes. then it crashes today. (just once so far) It crashed and crashed again shortly after windows booted up. then again on the screen where it offers to boot in safe mode. Now I am booting into safe mode.

my question is on my next action. is it hardware or software or maybe both. and what should I do? I have a copy of win 8 pro ready to go but its just a download code not a disc or anything so I could wipe it all and start fresh with win8 if that would fix my problem.

I would probably do a clean install of windows and see how that works.

Your CPU temp is more than fine. Are you experiencing your crashes when doing something in particular (like playing a game)? When you say your PC crashes, are you getting a blue screen or does the computer just freeze up?

Before just doing a clean install, you can try to update all the drivers you have on your PC.

Its usually while not much is going on. And it usually just dies. Sometimes I get a blue screen but its less common than just dying.

@devil240z: Dying as in the computer shuts off, or the screen just freezes and you can't move the mouse?

@andorski: A bit of static and then it reboots.

@devil240z: A reboot makes me think that it's a PSU issue. Do you have a spare PSU that you can swap in with?

I have problems with that sometimes too; your RAM might be overheating? If you have bad airflow in your case, your CPU could be fine (depending on your cooler), but other components could heat up too much and cause a fault. Just a thought, as I am not a doctor, but my machine has problems not unlike this during the summer months.

@andorski: No but this would be the second PSU that crapped out in this PC if thats the problem.

@devil240z: What kind of PSU's are you buying? Are they from a decently reliable brand?

Also, do you ever notice power surges ever happening in your home? Do you plug your PC onto a power strip that offers surge protection?

Also as @thebrainninja said, the problem could be your RAM if it is overheating or has bad sectors. Same goes for the HDD/SSD that the OS is installed on. Might be the motherboard too - although that is just a wild guess on my part.

I guess at this point you can just do a clean install and see what happens. If problems persist then you can eliminate the issue being on the software side.

You can use Memtest86 to check if your RAM is faulty. You burn it onto a disc and then boot the disc on start up. I have used it and was able to replace my faulty RAM which kept giving me random problems.

@andorski: My first PSU was a corsair and this one is whatever they had at best buy when I had to get a new one.

My PC is plugged into a backup battery. But I might try a different outlet/surge protector combo and see if anything changes.

I just really don't want my PC to die right now. I'm not in a position to replace it.

I would do a full format & reinstallation of Windows.