[SOLVED] Common fixes for spontaneous restart (Win10)

[tomseurocat]

I've been dealing with my PC (Win10) just restarting spontaneously for a couple of months now. After it first started a thought it may be something that I installed on the rig, so I started by uninstalling programs that I recently installed, with no affect. I then decided to reinstall Windows 10 itself and it had no affect. My power back up unit was getting to be about 4 years old and I knew it wasn't holding a charge, so I got a new APC brand UPS and the PC spontaneously restarted just a little bit ago. I'm at a point now that I need some more direction on what steps to take now to find out what may be causing this to happen. Quite inconvenient when I'm working away and my PC decides to restart. I've had it happen when working in multiple different programs, so I don't know at this point what program or hardware would be causing this to happen.
Any thoughts would be appreciated?

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition?

Heavy use for gaming, video editing, or even mining?

Disk drives: make, model, capacity, how full?

= = = =

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes, warnings, and even informational events that correspond withe the restarts.

Start with Reliability History: much more user friendly and the timeline format can be very revealing.

= = = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verify by sight and feel that all cards, connectors, RAM, and jumpers are fully and firmly in place.

Use a bright flashlight to look for signs of damage: bare conductor showing on wires, browning or blackening on system components, swollen components, kinked or pinched wires, odors, loose screws, etc..

 

[tomseurocat]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.
I have the HWinfo report linked below.

Include PSU: make, model, wattage, age, condition?
Corsair RM650x , 650, 2 years, like new.

Heavy use for gaming, video editing, or even mining?
Both gaming(madden 20, NCAA14 via RPCS3 Emulator) and video editing (Vegas Pro 18). I have no idea what mining refers to.

Disk drives: make, model, capacity, how full?
Internal Drives:
Both M.2 drives are within 2 years old and are less than a 1/4 used.
2 more 3.5 in SSD's 4-5 years old
3 older HHDs one that serves as my user file drive
External Drives:
3TB seagate
4TB seagate Both are at about 75% capacity.


= = = =

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes, warnings, and even informational events that correspond withe the restarts.

Start with Reliability History: much more user friendly and the timeline format can be very revealing.

The reliability history report stated that I had a 144 error code and said that I needed to update the GPU driver. I did, but I can't see that as the answer since I've updated the driver numerous times since this started happening.

= = = =

Power down, unplug, open the case.

Clean out dust and debris.

Verify by sight and feel that all cards, connectors, RAM, and jumpers are fully and firmly in place.

Use a bright flashlight to look for signs of damage: bare conductor showing on wires, browning or blackening on system components, swollen components, kinked or pinched wires, odors, loose screws, etc..
I just cleaned out and did this visual inspection a couple of weeks ago. Everything looked good.

See answers above, but here is the HWInfo report.

 

[Ralston18]

The PSU may look "like new" but my thought is that the PSU is beginning to falter/fail.

Especially with the power demands being placed on it. Like many products these days, PSU's have a designed in EOL (End of Life). Heavy use at high wattage levels causes PSUs to degrade even faster. All the more so if the PSU is of lower quality due to design, components, and assembly.

(Note: by "mining" I was referring to "bit-mining" but other cryptocurrencies are being mined as well.)

Error Code 144:

"Description: A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly." [My underline.]

Consider that insufficient power at some point of peak demand could be the issue. However GPU drivers are indeed an immediate suspect and updated accordingly. However, if multiple updates did not fix the problem then there is some other problem.

Could not get the HWinfo report (326 KB?) and, as a rule, I rarely download any such files regardless of size.

Basically all that is needed with respect to the system hardware is the make and model information for the following build components:

Motherboard
CPU
GPU
RAM
Installed PCIx cards.
Attached external components (USB)
PSU (Make, model, wattage, age, condition)
Drives(s): Makes, models, capacity, how full)
Use of overclocking

My suggestion at this time is for you to read the following link from within this Forum:

Best Power Supplies of 2021 - Top PSUs for Gaming PCs | Tom's Hardware

Not with the intent to immediately purchase another PSU but to use the provided calculators to assess the power demands of your system. If any component provides a range of watts then use the high end value. For a GPU I use the recommended PSU wattage.

Run two or three of the calculators and do your own manual total as well - then add 25% more to your manual total.

If you have a multi-meter and know how to use it the the following link may prove useful. (Or get help from a knowledgeable family member or friend.)

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158