Desktop running slow, constantly crashing with error Kernel-Power 41

wizloc

Commendable
Sep 1, 2016
15
0
1,510
I have a desktop that I purchased from Newegg and have owned for a few years now. When I bought it, it was running Windows 8. Not long after purchasing it, it started randomly crashing, where it would give me a screen that says "🙁 Your PC has run into an issue. We are just collecting some information" or something similar, then restart to a blue Windows 8 install screen. When Windows 10 became available, I upgraded, but the crashes keep happening and now I can barely use the computer for a couple of minutes before it shuts off. It still goes to the blue Windows 8 install screen even though I am now running Windows 10. Everything is running extremely slowly, even simple things like opening a browser window. The event log says Kernel-Power 41. I have seen some forums suggesting it could be a faulty psu, and I have ordered one and it is on its way, but would that also be the cause of the general slow behavior? Or is that a sign that another component is failing.
 
Solution
Yes

its possible your previous PSU did that damage, bad PSU can wreck other parts of PC before they die themselves.

i lost 3 hdd in 6 months about 15 years ago, before i knew that having a good brand name PSU can save you money as thjey don't tend to kill parts from power spikes. For a long time I blamed the hdd but now I think it was probably the no name PSU that i had in my cheap case. Those days long over, I spend too much on Case now and yet last two didn't even come with a PSU.
Event 41 just means PC was restarted and windows doesn't know why. windows runs a report on every start up and if it finds it was shutdown unexpectedly the previous time, it creates a event 41. Normally found nearby is an event 63

Are you getting bsod or PC just restarts?

what are specs of PC? when was last time you updated drivers?
 


No bsod, but this screen,
Your-PC-Ran-Into-A-Problem-And-Needs-To-Restart.jpg


Then it restarts and goes to this screen
W10install-01.jpg


Specs are:
CPU: AMD FX-6300
GPU: Radeon r9 270x
PSU: Lepa B650
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Not sure what else is relevant.

Not too versed in drivers. Checking for driver updates in device manager tells me my CPU and GPU are both running latest drivers at least, and I run windows update which should take care of that, right?

Also, my event log only shows event 41 under critical. Would event 63 also be under critical or elsewhere?



 
that restart behavior is different, I don't even know how you getting that without running the installer... curious whats going on with your hard drive. Can you show me a picture of your drive in disk management?

Do you know if your motherboard is revision 1.1 or 1.2? Difference is what drivers you can use. You might have to look at motherboard as it should have it stamped on it near its name.

have you run a defrag on hdd? that could cause slow down. Can you run data life guard for windows on the drive as well - run short and extended tests: http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en

Don't worry about event viewer for now.
Upgrading with problems from 8 to 10 just brings them along for ride.
 
not sure how much of the problem is your PSU. What brand did you order to replace it? Lepa aren't a good brand so it could be causing the endless shutdowns you are getting

The behaviour of windows is making me think a fresh install of win 10 might be needed but I wouldn't bother doing that until PSU is replaced. Don't need it shutting down half way through an install.

glad its 1.2 as the driver choices for 1.1 were zero for win 10. You have some win 8 drivers to use as well.
 


I was able to do that and is reported no valid crash dumps have been found. I am going to attempt a fresh install of windows 10 tonight before the psu arrives, because otherwise I can send it back and save some money. I will let you know how it goes
 


Replaced psu tonight, ran fine for a few hours and crashed. Fresh installed windows from usb, deleted old partitions so there was nothing left. Windows installed and booted, going to leave it on tonight and see if it has crashed in the morning. Let me ask you, I completely wiped the hard drive when I deleted all the partitions and fresh installed windows right?
The computer is Avatar "brand" from Newegg, and when I start it up it displays an Avatar logo splash screen before post/bios screen. Where is that image coming from if I completely wiped the HDD?
 
Well it crashed through the night after fresh windows install. Event log has Kernel-Power 41 and TaskScheduler 404. Not really sure where to go from here?
 
So I just realized that my system recovery disc was still in my optical drive from some time ago, which explains why it was going to the windows installer after crashing. I took it out, and now when it crashes it restarts and says disc boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. I'm not sure if that makes any more sense for you?
 


Well, that explains one mystery :)

now when it crashes it restarts and says disc boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. I'm not sure if that makes any more sense for you?

Not sure if that is because you had the rescue disc in drive all the time..

Boot from win 10 install USB
on screen after language choices, choose repair this pc, not install
Follow this until they start talking about rescue discs: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows

that might fix it.
 
This Avatar logo splash is the logo that most mobo bios's have. Disable it in the BIOS

So you can see what it's doing. If that didnt appear before and if you didnt reset the bios settings, the bios maybe corrupt. Or the battery maybe dead

Why / if the logo is coming up now
 


Well I did that and followed the link, everything executed successfully so I restarted and left it on for about 10 minutes and it has crashed already 🙁 Should I be prepared to be replacing motherboard?
 
did you run the western digital data life guard software on the hdd and see if its okay?

download http://www.memtest86.com/ , make a bootable USB and test ram

The image you asked about, is it a new thing or always there? If new, it could be you just need a new CMOS battery and they can be bought from electronics shops, they come off motherboard in most cases and can be replaced. You can also flash BIOS with new software if its corrupt, as Paul suggests
I prefer to test everything else in PC before jumping to conclusion its the motherboard as they one of two hardest things to test, other being PSU and you have a new one of those now.
 


running wd data life guard now, will do memtest after. image i was just curious why it was still showing up, it has always shown up
 
Running WD Life Guard and scan stopped pretty early on and said "Too many bad sectors detected ...", followed by my computer crashing. Time to replace my HDD then?
 
Yes

its possible your previous PSU did that damage, bad PSU can wreck other parts of PC before they die themselves.

i lost 3 hdd in 6 months about 15 years ago, before i knew that having a good brand name PSU can save you money as thjey don't tend to kill parts from power spikes. For a long time I blamed the hdd but now I think it was probably the no name PSU that i had in my cheap case. Those days long over, I spend too much on Case now and yet last two didn't even come with a PSU.
 
Solution


After losing it in the mail for several days, my new HDD finally arrived yesterday and I installed it and put windows 10 on it. Left it on overnight and no crash this morning. I believe this has fixed my issue, but will give it about a week and let you know the results. Thanks so much for your time and helping me resolve this!

 
No crashes after leaving my pc on for about a week, I'd say it was definitely a faulty hdd. Whether or not the psu caused it or not I can't say, but it was probably a good thing to get a decent brand psu in there at any rate. Thanks for all the help Colif.
 

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