Tips about a BSOD situation

After you see BSOD the PC shuts down?

To determine whether the cause is the OS (software) or hardware, a "blue screen" with a STOP error code is needed to isolate the cause.
It would be easier in a sense to take a picture of it and upload it.🤔

Alternatively, if you remember the time and seconds when the error occurred, it may be useful to right-click on the windows icon in the lower left corner, browse to the event log in the event view, find the corresponding log in the Windowslog system, and paste it in. (It is possible to paste the wrong log.)

all my bsod's in the past were because of bad memory. never had any other source of issue.
i recommend you start there. if you have two sticks, remove one and try.

You could try BlueScreenView, and see if it points to a specific driver. However, I sometimes don't get any dumps for that program to read on my few BSODs.

Assuming you're running on Windows, type in "Windows Memory Diagnostic" to your system search bar. Run that -- it'll check to see if there's any issues with memory. RAM problems are usually the cause behind frequent BSODs, but this will give you a good starting point.

If the diagnostic says there's zero memory problems, it's most likely something else. But if it finds errors, you're going to have a variety of things you'll need to look into to nail down what's happening -- one of which being, as vinirockman suggests, switching out your sticks/moving them into different slots.

I would say it could be a bad GPU driver (especially if it's Nvidia) however since audio also freezes it's more likely a faulty RAM or faulty SSD.
For RAM testing, there is Memtest86+ and for SSD testing there is smartmontools. There is also a GUI for smartmontools if you prefer GUI.

RAM testing takes a long time (longer if you have more RAM). To find the faulty one, you need to test them one by one. If all of them pass the test, then it's more likely SSD. Run smartmontools (or the GUI package) and it will give you a detailed SMART data.

First update all driveers (slim chance). If you have access to parts to swap try that next. Otherwise save for a new machine. Didn't see a BSOD in over a decade and the ones I saw were always related to faulty hardware (or drivers).

Bsod can be a lot of things, including simple issues like driver incompatibilities after you install a program. I remember when I installed Avast the first time and it kept giving me that afterwards.

My current computer (from september 2020) has never had any BSODs.

But older ones had, and sometimes too many. One was a bad GPU which would BSOD whenever it got too hot. It ended poofing and the BSODs disappeared when I replaced the GPU.

I also had memory-related BSODs when I fiddled with timings and all that strangely named stuff when adding new different RAM.

Someone else's computer had constant BSODs and troubles due to, after testing and elimination of any other source, the motherboard. After betting it was the MB and replaced it (ready to return it if things kept wrong, ofc), the computer ran fine forever.

But the first thing I'd try is to undo the last change you say you did - remove the SSD and see if the BSODs stop. If they don't, my first bet would be RAM, second would be something defective in the motherboard, GPU or who knows. Sorry to be unspecific, but BSODs have so many possible sources...

So that sounds almost exactly what happened to me when my GPU was overheating. Turned out that the fan just was broken and only worked at partial speed at best. Get HWMonitor (at least that's the software I use) and check the temperatures actively while putting it under normal and intense load. So like start up a game maybe while looking at the temps.

For me, the screen went black, the audio kept loudly repeating the last 0.5 seconds of what it heard and stayed like that for a long time until it went either to a BSOD or until I restarted the computer.

BSODs that are this common are often caused by faulty drivers or memory which has completely failed. One time I had a 3rd party USB driver that didn't really work well in Windows 7 and would craash at least once a day.

If you have minidumps enabled (should be by default), download WhoCrashed and run it. It will analyse the BSOD logs and show what Windows thinks caused the BSOD. Sometimes the answer is right there if it's a faulty driver or software.

Having a different cause for a BSOD suggests that the memory is faulty. Run memtest like some others said or at least remove one of the sticks and see if that helps.

I would start by looking into the STOP code's it flashes at you, can dig deeper looking at the info in event viewer or the tools others mentioned here.

I personally have only had corrupt drivers and me switching my monitor setup in windows with a game running causing a BSOD(nothing like trying to force a game playing at 4k to suddenly be on dual 1080p right)...
now for the machines I have fixed for work... I have seen everything cause it.

As others mentioned, the stop code usually gives you everything, if it goes too fast, just take a picture with your phone.

Also you can try event viewer in windows, that can also show a red X with a notice to it.

Any ideas what could be wrong?

I have too many ideas what could be wrong to even begin with. Look up how to create a dump file and/or search for the error code given on the BSOD screen. E.g. is it the same error code at every BSOD event?

Your OS may have some corruption in it. Do what I'm mentioning below to check for it. This could take a while.

1. Run your command prompt as an administrator.
2. Enter what's below into it and then hit enter.
   DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
3. After that is complete enter what's below into it and then hit enter.
   sfc /scannow

If there's any issues it will find them and it should repair them.

Win 10 or 11? Try running the troubleshooters. It might be a driver issue, try uninstalled and reinstalling all drivers to make sure they are up to date and not conflicting. Is the new SSD the 2nd drive or "slave". Was the computer set up to accept a 2nd drive? Also @FateOfOne has a good point, do that also.

Start by checking the "easy" stuff. Are the fans working properly, airducts etc clean from dust?
Would be sad if your PC is damaged by a simple thing like it not being cleaned and therefore "choking".

a BSOD has normally an error code displayed, the reason for the blue screen of death....
did you remove the SSD and checked if the computer behaves the same way?

I will tell you about my past experiences:

• BSOD: that was the hard-drive. Check the health of your disks. Not sure about SSD.
• audio freeze: that was the GPU. Maybe reinstall the drivers and check whether the GPU over-heats.

Just like Andralyn said, you should start with the basic. Change the SATA cable and if the PSU has another power connector use that one too.
Next would be disconnect the new SDS and see if the PC works fine again.

Replace your memory

Besides the suggestions listed by others, you might also want to try simply changing to a different wall outlet. I've seen faulty outlets cause system crashes before.

Is it a laptop? That would be a detail worth mentioning. If so, does the cooling spin up before the crash? I had a laptop doing that, and contacting HP revealed it was caused by a known defect, and they replaced the motherboard.

re-seat all of the cards/memory
remove the new hardware and see if the issue persists.

I saw a thing now tho. "Radeon WattMan" have an unexpected system error. What's that? Anyone know?