Question Case fan spins up loud and system crashes, usually after wake from sleep

[JasonTD]

I've been having a problem for a couple of months now where my Windows 10 system crashes on a daily basis. I leave the computer asleep overnight, and I wake it in the morning. Nearly every day, shortly after waking, the case fan spins up loud, and the overall system crashes to a black screen. The fan keeps running, and the case lights stay on. I have to press the reset button on the case to restart. After rebooting this way, the system usually remains stable and works normally for the rest of the day.

I've tried doing a reboot immediately after waking the computer (before it has a chance to crash), thinking that that might forestall the crashing. When I do this, the computer reboots successfully but then crashes with the loud fan after a minute or two. When I reboot from this crash with the case reset button (as described above), it restarts successfully and usually remains stable for the rest of the day.

I'm inclined to think it's something to do with a driver or the software side of things rather than hardware, given that the system runs normally most of the time and only crashes like this upon waking from sleep. Could someone please help me figure out what's going on and how to fix it? I'm not sure what information is helpful for diagnosing this, and I don't know how to interpret event logs and things like that. I'll be happy to copy over any information that would help investigate this problem.

Thank you!

 

[Colif]

is it this PC?

OS: Windows 10 Version 10.0.18362 Build 18362
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40 GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Cores, 4 Logical Processors
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4
Installed RAM: 16GB
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

do you have fast startup turned off? On an older PC like yours, some of the newer power modes in Win 10 aren't supported by drivers or hardware, so see if this helps with the restarts

on desktop, right click start
choose power options
in the pop up, under related settings, pick additional power settings
in next screen, on top left, click Choose what the power button does
on next screen, next to the blue/yellow shield, click Change settings that are currently unavailable
click the box next to Turn on fast startup so that its not ticked.
save changes

it probably won't help sleep as its a different process, but its likely a driver causing the problem with sleep, we just have to work out what one.
can you download and run this program - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html
what it does is shows the drivers currently being used.
Can you go into view and set it to hide all microsoft drivers, will make list much easier to deal with
can you take a screen shot showing the creation date column as well so we can figure out what drivers might need to be replaced.
upload to an image sharing website and show link here.

 

[JasonTD]

Thank you for the response! Yes, those specs from that previous post are correct for my system.

I checked, and the fast startup was enabled. I have disabled it, as you suggested. When I first built this system several years ago, I installed Windows 10 on it and had fast startup enabled at that time. Everything worked properly with it then. Is there anything that would have made it stop working over time on the same system?

I also ran the program you described, and I have uploaded the screenshot of the drivers. Here's a link to the image:

It is late here, and I will be offline until the morning (Eastern US time), so I won't be able to respond back until then. I will look forward to your advice, though, and I appreciate the help.

 

[Colif]

most users can't easily find your previous posts or won't go looking, so always helps to show specs in all posts if they might be helpful

printer drivers are pretty old
Bluetooth drivers as well
a number of older intel drivers but may not be newer ones available

I have noticed of late that devices that worked fine with win 10 at launch are starting to not work as well. I think MIcrosoft were lenient with makers for a few years but after a while they started to remove support for devices that hadn't received updated drivers. I have seen it happen with Wifi adapters a lot this year.

I don't use sleep, my motherboard is a Z97, I found I would get weird errors starting back up from it so I just don't use it, turn PC off at night instead.

Have a good sleep

 

[JasonTD]

Thanks again for the help!

This morning, the computer did crash again like usual, even after changing the fast startup settings. I realized this time that it's the fan over the CPU that spins up loud, not the case fans. Does that make a difference, or is it still likely caused by a driver?

As a first course of action, should I update the drivers you mentioned?

And, in general, is it harmful to just leave the computer running overnight and then rebooting it periodically (versus turning it off or putting it to sleep every night)? I feel like I've read that the initial powering up puts more strain on components than just leaving the system on, but I could be wrong about that.

 

[Colif]

its likely case fans and CPU fans are both run by the bios, as there are connections for them on the motherboard.

I don't think those drivers would make this happen.

When was last time you cleaned inside case? Could be fan needs dusting as it might not be any faster than normal, just louder.

 

[JasonTD]

It's only been a couple of months since I vacuumed out the case and dusted the components, so I don't think there's anything obstructing the fans. I did it when I replaced one of the case fans that had some bearings going bad in it.

This morning, after I woke the computer from sleep, it didn't do the fan / crash thing. That's the first time it's continued running normally in quite a while! I didn't specifically change anything that I think would fix it, so I fully anticipate that this is just a momentary reprieve.

 

[Colif]

Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

 

[JasonTD]

The crash still hasn't happened for the last several days, so I haven't had the opportunity or need to do more troubleshooting just yet. I'm sure it'll start happening again eventually, and I certainly will follow your guidance when that happens. I'll report back here then. Thank you!