[SOLVED] [Mystery] PC Reboots Randomly. No Post Error Message. Only Kernel Power Event ID 41.

Feb 6, 2019
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I need help getting my brother's PC up and running again.

Here are the specs:
ASUS Maximus VII Gene z97
Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.0 GHz
Corsair H100i v2 Liquid Cooling
EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti SC+ 6GB GDDR5
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB DDR3
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 850W 80+Gold
Mushkin 500GB SSD (x2)

Here are the symptoms:
PC randomly reboots while idle (30C).
PC randomly reboots while gaming (70C).
After each reboot, I get "Critical Error Kernel Power Event ID 41" in Event Viewer.

Here are the steps I've taken:
Installed Corsair H100i PRO Liquid Cooling to eliminate possibility of overheating.
Installed Crucial P1 M.2 NVMe 1TB to eliminate possibility of OS corruption.
Installed Corsair RMx 850W 80+Gold to eliminate possibility of unstable power.

Side Note:
Also, it's interesting to note that each new hardware installation has been done in my room. Afterwards, I typically let the PC run idle the entire night in my room to make sure the new hardware has been installed correctly. The PC will run like a dream the entire night in my room, however, as soon as I hook it back up in my brother's room it continues to randomly reboot. Could the issue be in wiring of his room? If so, how is he able to play on his PS4 and XBOX1 all night without any issues?
 
Solution
For the sake of posterity and/or anyone else pulling their hair out over Event ID 41:

Replacing the motherboard fixed my issue.

It took a while... but I eventually noticed a small brown scratch a few inches away from my CPU socket, just underneath the heatsink. If you look really close, you can clearly see the motherboard circuits exposed. This would explain why the scratch is brown while the motherboard is red/black. Anyways, I did research and a scratched motherboard can either be no big deal, since it has layers before hitting the circuits, or absolutely catastrophic. In my case, the PC would run just fine under load or idle... but any slight electric discharge, probably from electrically charged dust particles...
Feb 6, 2019
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Sorry for the late reply, busy week.

I have tried connecting the PC to all three of the available outlets in my brother's room. The result is the same: random reboots. I also tried connecting the PC to a socket in our living room, and although it appeared to work just fine for a few hours... eventually I got the infamous random reboot along with an error 41. I even bought a new surge protector that has LEDs indicating if the socket is grounded and protected.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

popatim

Titan
Moderator
Perhaps pulling the side-cover off and pointing a fan at the interior might help if its the VRM's overheating.
I know when I'm testing a build that I don't put the side-cover on and a watercooled CPU may adversely affect VRM cooling.
 
Feb 6, 2019
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I tried running the PC with the side panels off and faced against an open window but still no dice.
 
Feb 6, 2019
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I just spent the past 4 hours running Unigine Superposition Benchmark 2017 and Hot CPU Tester Pro in turns and not once did the PC randomly reboot. I monitored the process with CPUID HWMonitor Pro and it all looked fine to me. As soon as I turned off the software and let the PC idle for a bit... I got a random reboot.

Can anyone help me? Here are my readouts: http://
 
Feb 6, 2019
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For the sake of posterity and/or anyone else pulling their hair out over Event ID 41:

Replacing the motherboard fixed my issue.

It took a while... but I eventually noticed a small brown scratch a few inches away from my CPU socket, just underneath the heatsink. If you look really close, you can clearly see the motherboard circuits exposed. This would explain why the scratch is brown while the motherboard is red/black. Anyways, I did research and a scratched motherboard can either be no big deal, since it has layers before hitting the circuits, or absolutely catastrophic. In my case, the PC would run just fine under load or idle... but any slight electric discharge, probably from electrically charged dust particles floating around, near the scratch mark would force the PC to automatically shut down and reboot without following the proper OS procedures.

Moral of the story: Don't be lazy! Carefully disassemble and test your issue on a new motherboard first before going out to buy a million other parts.
 
Solution