Windows 7 Persistent BSOD and CTD problem

[Splendid Belt]

Hi. I've been having a persistent BSOD and CTD problem with my desktop PC for over a year now. It's getting to the point where it's unuseable.

I upgraded frmo Vista to Windows 7 in an attempt to resolve the issue, but sadly it's still there. I then went back and upgraded again as a 'fresh install' option, electing to remove all previous data, but even this didn't work.

Although interestingly, it's stored my previous data in a folder called 'Windows.old' which it won't let me delete, even though I have the admin (and only) account on the system. When I use cccleaner and similar programmes, it claims to fine registry problems in this folder which I'm unable to do anything about. Could this be the problem?

The pC is fine for general use, but the problem happens whenever I try to use it for gaming. I've scanned for malware using various utilities (I have AVG installed), updated the Direct X drivers, checked the video card drivers are up to date, checked for RAM errors, and checked my GPU and CPU temps (60 degrees, and up to 85 degress respectively).

Here's a BSOD message I had:

STOP 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x91CDa6C4, 0xA752C500, 0x00000000)

dxgkrnl.sys - Address 91CDA6C4 base at 91CD80000, DateStamp 4ce78ffe

After this I ran the latest Direct X web installer, but I'm still getting both BSODs and CTDs.

I can provide my DXDiag info if that helps. Really grateful for any help, this has been going on too long!

 

[Splendid Belt]

Yes I removed AVG after that last crash.

I tried to update the BIOS using MSI's updater tool 'Live Update'. It downloads the new BIOS fine, but stops working when I tell it to use it (and I've tried lots of times). I found the file it downloaded manually, but the exe file seems to do nothing. Why is everything so complicated!

 

[Splendid Belt]

Okay, just had some small measure of success.

I tried the MSI update utility again, which detects your BIOS and checks for a newer version. This time it managed to update my BIOS successfully. The slightly less good news is that I had a Checksum error on reboot, but I press the option to load default settings, and Windows seemed to boot normally from there - I'm writing this on the PC in question.

So I've successfully flashed my BIOS, and I'll report back to see if I still get crashes.

 

[Splendid Belt]

I don't want to get ahead of myself, but it's possible that I'm finally BSOD free. No crashes last night, and none again today - so completely stable since I flashed the BIOS. I'll give it another couple of days before I start dancing on the table, but it looks like your advice might have solved it for me Elmer!