Vista Machine hard crashs

[D3agl3]

Hey so I have been having a problem with my tower over the last month and have exhausted myself trying to troubleshoot/fix it, and am totally open to suggestions.

The Machine:

Acer brand main board (EM61SM)
amd athlon 64 x2 dualcore 5000+ (2.6 ghz)
4 gigs ddr2 ram (been in it for a year)
Radeon HD 5670 1gig ddr5 gpu w/ passive cooling
1 500 gig 7200 rpm WD hdd
1 300 gig 5200 rpm seagate (not in the machine anymore)

Ok so it just hard crashed on me one day, no bsod, no error messages, nothing in the event log about it at all, except to say that windows didn't shut down right last time. I can play games fine, but if I start multitasking on the desktop or playing flash games in firefox or using to many tabs in firefox it crashes.

I completely dismantled the machine, cleaned it, cleaned the circuits on the ram and GPU (white eraser) cleaned off old thermal paste and the CPU cooler, applied new thermal paste, put the whole thing back together and it kept doing it. made me think it was a PSU problem. so I put up with it for a few days until I could get a new PSU, and in the mean time I ran memtest 86 on it for 14 hours straight (13 passes, no errors) I ran furmark and prime 95, both for 6 hours each with no issues, monitoring the temp's (never reached over 60 degrees) all the voltages seem to be steady and where they should be (open hardware monitor) and I bought a new PSU yesterday (EVGA 500B 500 watt PSU) and popped it in the machine, got it running and started multitasking to check, hard crash. so I backed up my data and wiped the drives, fresh install of vista, and I barely got the thing going again as it crashed just as I was logging into vista for the first time, at the part where it says "testing your system components please wait." so I can play games on it fine (decent games to such as metro last light, dayz, payday 2, etc...) but as soon as I try to multitask or open too many tabs in firefox it crashes.
any thoughts on the matter?

 

[Tmagic650]

Can you upgrade to Windows 7?

 

[D3agl3]

I could yes, or 8, but would this really solve my problem? are you implying that it is a software issue?

This system has been running vista for a couple years now and hasn't had issues like this before.

 

[Tmagic650]

You might try another better video card

 

[D3agl3]

Okay, I thought perhaps I'd get real actual advice / suggestions on my problem. I'm aware that this system is older, but I'm still using it for stuff, so unless you actually have something useful to say about it I suppose I'm done checking this forum. Not only did you not answer my question to your first post, I doubt changing my video card for something newer will improve the issue.

 

[mailpup]

....and am totally open to suggestions.

Your response to someone who is only trying to help you doesn't seem to bear this out.

 

[D3agl3]

Yes because not answering my question to his first response, and then being told I should try changing video cards even though the one I'm using is working perfectly well seems like such a not troll answer.

 

[mailpup]

You weren't told to do anything. It was a well intended suggestion even though it might have been an incorrect one. Be a little more tolerant of the advice given by unpaid, volunteer helpers here. Tmagic650 tirelessly tries to help hundreds of people in this and other forums here and, while you are not required to gush with gratitude for his efforts, you could at least not kick him in the teeth for trying. You have an unwarranted sense of entitlement.

 

[Tmagic650]

Thanks Mailpup,
D3agl3, multitasking uses a lot of memory and CPU resources. You could try another set of memory and make sure that no debris is in or near the memory slots. Also, make sure you didn't apply too much thermal paste to the CPU die

 

[D3agl3]

Well I did clean out the whole case, sparkly brand new looking. (much Like I had initially mentioned) and I have tried swapping out the ram with other ddr2 1 gig sticks and still had the same problem. I am fairly sure I didn't over do it on the thermal paste as all my temps are good, but I will clean it off and reapply a couple small squares later today as I get time for it. Sorry Tmagic, I am grumpy in the mornings, and your answers seem very much like the troll answers I was getting from another forum, well perhaps not quite as troll-y as the guy that told me I should just keep my tower in the freezer... I didn't mean to "kick him in the teeth for trying" as mailpup put it, and I'm not sure how voicing my opinion gives the sense that I am self entitled... but I believe voicing my opinion is a basic human right... I would also point out that I said I was TOLD to TRY changing out the video card, But I shall refrain from going any further down this road as I wouldn't want to offend anyone... I'm convinced that perhaps the CPU is just old and tired, and perhaps it is almost ready to throw off this mortal coil.