[Close Please] Strange Shut down

[Acerola]

My PC has been shutting down randomly lately.... Not just randomly, strangely.

Yes, strangely.

Some time yesterday as I was browsing the net, my PC randomly powered down. I had Diskeeper in progress and two instances of MPC-HC open (one paused on a h.264 episode for later and one playing music) when a very quick flash of the transparent black screen that shows programs closing before shutdown appeared. After that, the PC skipped the normal blue Shutting Down Windows screen and immediatley powered off (all lights, fans, everything.)

Here's the really strange part. About 8 seconds after the total shutdown and my subsequent stun induced stupor, the PC fired back on. Completely, to nearly the exact state that it shut down in. I clicked task manager and it showed that of the previous 80+ running processes only 55 remained. Beyond that, and the lack of my MPC and Firefox windows, the restart was accompanied by a loud continous static sound coming from my Onkyo Reciever.

Disabling and Re-enabling my device in playback devices fixed the audio issue. A quick log off and login of my user account and all my processes were restored.

I mucked around, too tired at the time to get into it. I ran full scans with Malware Bytes and Norton 360, as well as with Trend Micro's RootKit Buster. A quick look inside the case showed nothing amiss. Today, I logged in and within 90 minutes of MPC and Firefox browsing it occured again. Same thing, complete crash before bouncing back to a near exact state of pre-crash, with the wonderful audible addition of static. I opened up the Event Viewer and.... Well...

Event_Log_of_Terror

So, Yea. I feel a little overwhelmed. After the first occurrence I noticed TrustedInstaller present in the task manager, running at 8%~ utilization. I saw there was 20~ windows updates waiting to update so I installed those applicable (There was an update or two for PXI based hardware -- which I don't think I have.)

I'm thinking the problem is related to TrustedInstaller. It seems to pop up in task manager several minutes before the shutdown. The only recent changes I've made to my PC are the following; I purchased from an off-brand low-price store a 55-in-1 card reader (which itself was off-brand and low-price), installed Diskeeper 12 and defragged all my drives, with the exception of my SSD which I instead optimized. I'd also like to point out this event;

Yep, this one

System information:
Win7 Home Premium (6.1 Build 7601)
i7-3930k HT-on Core Parking-off
Gigabyte x79 UP4 (BIOS 7/16/12 Version .04.06.04)
GTX 680 + 560 Ti-Physx (334.67 Beta)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB (C Drive)
ST2000DM001 (2TB 7200 Seagate)
ST3000FM001 (3TB 7200 Seagate)
Toshiba Canvio External (1TB 5400)
16GB Corsair Vengeance (1600)
H100i Equivalent Watercooling for CPU (5 Hours of VirtualDub = 75C Max @ 4.6Ghz)
5x Rosewill 120mm fans (2x intake infont of HDD's, 2x exhaust below GPU's, 1x rad-Pull)
1x Cooler Master 120mm (rad-Push)
1x 240mm (exhaust, case top)

Any help would be appreciated. I've never had to ask for help from a forum before so, if any other information is required; just ask.

*Update - Fixed the Event 12 issue. Reinstalled several previous windows updates after noticing a correlation between my problem and another user with a very similar machine (x79UP4 Win7 Agility 3.)

**Update - Would just like to point out that Trend Micro's HouseCall program (free, portable .exe) caught two problems that Norton 360, MalwareBytes and RogueKiller all missed. It didn't catch anything from an initial scan, but when pointed to the Windows folder it picked up and fixed the above two problems. Going to run "sfc /verifyonly" again. (I ran it yesterday but failed to mention it in the post as I kind of forgot.)

***Update - "sfc /verifyonly" found violation and "sfc" was unable to fix them. I checked the cbs log and it looks like theres only one or two errors related to a missing public key file for "PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64 (9)". Also, it turns out that Event Log wasn't as nightmarish as I'd imagined... The Blue lines are fixed, Green are beneficial.

****Update - I believe I've confirmed TrustedInstaller as the problem. After starting SpeedFan I opened Windows Update to check if the update to "PXI Hardware" could have meant my old mouse as opposed to the scientific devices of the same acronym. I checked two updates, one for my Fresco Logic USB3 Hub's and the other for the PXI mouse device. I clicked install and... Nothing. TrustedInstaller wouldn't appear in the task manager and the updates weren't downloading. I attempted to run "sfc" in safe mode but it failed. I backed up and deleted TrustedInstaller.exe and attempted to run "sfc" again. It failed. I grabbed the TrustedInstaller folder from another PC and overwrote. I attempted to run "sfc" again and it succeeded repairing 3 files. Windows Update now works again.

*****Update - Picture of the possibly failing CPU fan charted in Green...

 

[VanquishGaming]

What were your cpu temps? This doesn't seem like software to me

 

[Acerola]

What were your cpu temps? This doesn't seem like software to me

64C at the time of the first shutdown. I've since opened the case and haven't topped that since. I live in a carpeted area, and the weather at the moment makes it impossible to take it outside. So until I can get my antistatic wrist strap back or some gloves, I can't really touch my RAM. I've reseated everything else though, except the front dash that connects the X-dock to the motherboard as it's a pain to reach (CM Storm.)

I should add that I've never used these forums before and wasn't sure where to post this.

 

[VanquishGaming]

64 is high for that cpu. Try checking your thermal paste.

You don't really need gloves or anything. The chances of hardware frying from static is quite slim but its your computer so its up to you.

Also turn your h100i rpm up to full load and see if that helps.

 

[Acerola]

I took a closer look and my rad had some dust deep in the fins. Fixed that and temps dropped by 4C at Idle. My rad is in Push-Pull with a 2000RPM Rosewill 120mm as the pull (since if I understand correctly it's more difficult to pull then to push mechanically speaking) with a weaker CM 1400rpm as Push. I intend to upgrade the 1400rpm CM fan but am not sure what to. Fans are pretty cheap at Newegg/Tiger.

I have SpeedStep and all power saving features off. As for the static, I have two cats and all my furniture is covered in fleece. Add in the shag carpeting and... I have no confidence without a strap.

Speaking of that 1400rpm fan, I've noticed a few times in HWiNFO that it'll drop to 0rpm. There isn't an accompanying temperature spike, so I'm assuming maybe it's grinding and needs lubricant? Going to start SpeedFan and start a graph log of that particular fan.

 

[Acerola]

It has been 24 hours of continuous load since the last random shut down so I believe whatever was broken has been fixed. I'm assuming it was TrustedInstaller, but it could have been Malware too. Kind of sucks not to have a definitive answer.