Question PC randomly reboots

[jason712]

Hi everyone

For the last few weeks I've had an issue where my PC suddenly restarts. I've tried looking for clues in event viewer but all I can find are the following:

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

I made sure to adjust the settings so the PC doesn't restart when there's an issue but to no avail.

I'm on windows 10 - 64bit version 1909
Have 16gb of ram. AMD Ryzen 7 2700x process. GTX 2070 Nvidia. PSU is Corsair TX850M 850 watts.


Each time it restarted I was doing something different. Today I was playing a game, yesterday I was on a Zoom call and the time before that it was idle on the desktop.

I tried using the free version of WhoCrashed which found nothing. I have formatted my PC and freshly reinstalled W10 - on the latest version. Ran memtest86 which completed 4 passes with no issues. I've updated my BIOS. I've replaced the hard drive to a new NVMe, I've replaced my PSU. At this point I'm basically building a new PC.


I used OCCT and it found nothing. I've plugged the PC directly into a new outlet and no luck. I'm fresh out of ideas at this point.

 

[deustroop]

On the technical side
The system doesn't reboot every time it is used just infrequently ?
There is no connection between the failed applications (uses) ?
Once the system reboots, without shutting down, how functional is the machine opoerating under that condidtion (no shut down ?)
Describe exactly the monitor messages if any as they appear during the event.

Something to consider
that amongst all the old and new parts parts flying around
no has mentioned the main board.

 

[jason712]

On the technical side
The system doesn't reboot every time it is used just infrequently ?
There is no connection between the failed applications (uses) ?
Once the system reboots, without shutting down, how functional is the machine opoerating under that condidtion (no shut down ?)
Describe exactly the monitor messages if any as they appear during the event.

Something to consider
that amongst all the old and new parts parts flying around
no has mentioned the main board.

Yeah it's infrequent, when it does reboot it appears to always be twice in the day within 2 hours of each other and that's it. Times it has rebooted so far is around 11am, 4-6pm (most common) and 7pm.

I left the PC running overnight with a folder open and it didn't reboot once. Was fine all day until 4pm when it did, then again around 6pm.

No connection with applications that I can tell, it's rebooted while idle on the desktop. Machine seems fine upon reboot, no error appears and reboots in a few seconds. The motherboard is Gigabyte 470x Auros gaming wifi 5. Currently the oldest piece in my machine is 2 years old.

 

[deustroop]

How do you know it does not shut dawn before a restart ?

Can you beg a loaner board just to see ? And when installing it watch for contact points between board and case that will short the system.

 

[jason712]

How do you know it does not shut dawn before a restart ?

Can you beg a loaner board just to see ? And when installing it watch for contact points between board and case that will short the system.

Not sure what you mean by shut down before restarting. The PC appears to literally lose power and immediately reboots. It even makes that beep from the speaker.

No I don't but I'm trying another wall outlet tomorrow and if it happens again then I will likely have to buy a new mobo.

 

[deustroop]

The regularity of the restarts points to an exogeous source. In fact 4-7pm are the times my wife goes to the gym! Lol.
The pattern reminds me of the case of hiccups I had on Monday-Wednesday. They came for hours , every 5 seconds, then stop for hours, then start again, in a long progression. Luckily they gave me rest so I could sleep. But started up again in the AM.

I took'em out finally. I drowned the hiccup in glasses of water. What a relief .

 

[VirtualLarry]

Random reboots, are just "computer hiccups". Now we know. Pour some water into the PC, maybe that will make them go away. (No, really don't.)

Seriously, though, random restarts are often caused by Power or Temp-related issues, can be "bad RAM" too.

I would:
1) Reset BIOS to "UEFI defaults".
2) DON'T set XMP
3) DON'T overclock
4) See if it's stable then.

It's fairly rare, but it could be a "Bad CPU". There are definitely a non-zero number of bad/buggy Ryzen CPUs out there.

 

[jason712]

Random reboots, are just "computer hiccups". Now we know. Pour some water into the PC, maybe that will make them go away. (No, really don't.)

Seriously, though, random restarts are often caused by Power or Temp-related issues, can be "bad RAM" too.

I would:
1) Reset BIOS to "UEFI defaults".
2) DON'T set XMP
3) DON'T overclock
4) See if it's stable then.

It's fairly rare, but it could be a "Bad CPU". There are definitely a non-zero number of bad/buggy Ryzen CPUs out there.

At this point, I'm close to pouring water on the damn thing. Yeah the three components that could be bad are the GPU, MOBO or CPU. Wish there was a way I could test them like Memtest86. The only thing I did was stress test my CPU and GPU for an hour and it was fine. Max temps for the CPU was 80 after 45 minutes at 100% load.

I haven't overclocked, but will try to reset the BIOS.

 

[Shmee]

It sounds like you have done a fair amount of due diligence in testing already, between memtest86, and OCCT for GPU and CPU. It sounds like either a PSU or CPU issue to me, though as mentioned it could be motherboard as well. And you mentioned you already replaced the PSU, so that should not be the problem. Therefore, I would suspect CPU mainly, or possibly motherboard.

You could still try swapping in a spare video card if you have one. Next, I would recommend trying a different CPU, if possible. Some other compatible AM4 CPU. I mention CPU first as it would be easier to swap then the whole motherboard, and your Windows 10 license would stay without needing to reactivate / get a new one. I would be leaning towards a faulty CPU a bit more than motherboard anyway. If this still does not work, I would try to RMA the motherboard possibly if still under warranty.

 

[quartzz1]

I was recently having blue screens......W7...once every 7-10 days. it turned out to be iastora.sys, which didn't like me adding an SSD to the secondary SATA (laptop). I changed to ATAPI.sys and it fixed it

I'm not sure how W10 deals with re starts compared to W7. I'm assuming W10 isn't set to automatically restart.... I also by chance had a look at cleaning out my laptop fan. it had 5 years worth of fluff built up around the out-vent. removed the fluff, and I've reduced the temp of an i5 mobile cpu from about 60-90, to about 45-60 (yes, 30 degrees C cooler)

 

[MtnMan]

NMI caused by memory parity error? Will cause PC to reboot immediately, with indication as to why.

 

[jason712]

Wanted to wait a few days to make sure but I changed the outlet and it's been almost a week with no sudden restarts so I imagine it was something to do with that. Odd as no other electronic had an issue but I guess no other electronic uses as much power as the PC. Happy for this thread to be closed. Thanks everyone.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I have an issue where some of my outlets in my bedroom (computer is there) may not be grounded properly as my APC warns me that there is a problem with certain plugs in my room and had to move it to one that has a green light on it suggesting it's properly grounded. It's an older complex so that doesn't surprise me in my case, but maybe it's something along those lines for you too.