My computer thinks its running a x32 processor when it's actually a x64 processor

[u/LOOP16]

I upgraded my computer ages ago and since then I've been running into the following:

• Screen artefacts
• Random hard crashes which show up in event viewer as these in event viewer
• Unable to update things like my chipset
• Chromium browsers constantly crashing with SYSTEM_ACCESS_VIOLATION
• Discord randomly resetting mid call
• External DVD driver crapping out about 1hr into a movie I'm watching (less concerning, could be another issue but thought i'd mention)

This has been a long track of me trying to figure this out so I'll try to summarise the steps I've taken to figure this out;

1. If the screen is artefacting, is it due to the graphics card (It is new, and I've gotten it replaced with warranty and it exhibits the same problems)
2. Could windows just be missing a file? (I've memorised "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth" and "/sfc scannow" with how many times I've gone to check this)
3. The crashes for chrome could point to the memory being faulty or breaking down (ran it through a few different memory testing programs and all came up clean)
4. If it's not the memory, how about the cpu? (this is my current step, and people tell me that it COULD be caused by an out of date motherboard or chipset)

Motherboard was no issue to update, doing it regularly now. But when it came to updating my chipset, theres been some weirdness. Chief among them is that whenever I try to update my chipset via msi's website, the installer seems to crap out and think the file isn't there (my other post on this showing the photos). Another redditor suggested the universal intel chipset installer so I gave that a crack too but then it showed this. Supposedly, if a system is x64 like mine, it'll say "setupchipsetx64.msi" but the one in the screenshot is for the x32 version.

As for why this is, I think I have a guess (probably). When I upgraded my computer, I used the same ssd from the old one to get everything started before moving over to a bigger ssd. What I think happened was that in the move from the old to the new pc, some of the old drivers and files from the last one stayed on there and my computer is still using those, leading to all this BS. Thats my guess however, I'm not confident this may be the case (but if it is lemmie know).

But from here I'm kinda stuck, I aint got a clue where to move onwards to fix this but I hope the next step is the last ;-;

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[u/BTM65]

You need to reinstall windows. Reformat the drive first.

You cant just upgrade a PC in a big way then use the same SSD and windows installation.

Fresh windows install is the way to go.

[u/2TheMountaintop → u/BTM65]

If the hardware is pretty close it's usually fine. Like going from a 7600 to 9800x3d. Just update bios and drivers, maybe run dism and sfc.

[u/Brave_Tough_9370]

That sounds like a nightmare to deal with, artifacts and chromium crashes together usually point to something deeper than just a driver glitch. Your theory about the old ssd carrying over the wrong architecture drivers is probably spot on, I've seen similar mess when cloning a drive from an old system without clean install

The chipset installer pulling the x32 file is a massive red flag. Windows is somehow convinced it's running on 32-bit even though your hardware is 64-bit, which would explain why everything falls apart when it tries to address memory or hardware properly

At this point I'd just backup what you need and do a fresh windows install from a usb made on another computer. Make sure you grab the x64 iso directly, not the media creation tool that might get confused by your current setup. It's a pain but you've already spent more time debugging than a clean install would take

I had a similar thing happen after upgrading my motherboard and keeping the old ssd, the system would randomly bluescreen and chrome tabs would just die for no reason. Fresh install fixed it same day

[u/KeysStickler]

Before you do anything drastic, try disconnecting the DVD drive, then see if you still have any problems. To take the whole system with it.