Question PC randomly restarts with Event 41

[Myronazz]

The Problem:
I have this computer that randomly restarts. Event Viewer doesn't know much other than Kernel-Power events with ID 41 that really mean Windows has absolutely no idea why Windows is shutting down. It does seem to have some data that I don't really understand, however:

The Computer Specs:
It's always helpful to know the computer you are dealing with, right?

What isn't mentioned in that sheet:
PSU: Corsair CX750
RAM: Two of the G.Skill RipjawsV 16GB DDR4-3200MHz kit. So it's 4x8GB run in dual-channel mode thanks to motherboard trickery.
CPU: i5 9600k (Non-overclocked).
Testing I performed:
Memory test:
I used Memtestx86 to run a memory check (Apologies, but I do not have a picture of this) as well as confirm something: I have noticed that these random restarts happen ONLY within Windows. Weird right? Memtest ran for six hours and completed the test with no errors, no random restarts, no weird behaviour. Everything was fine. After the test was completed, I went back to Windows and BOOM! Random restarts the moment I walked in.

Integrity test: I did the infamous /sfc snannow command, and surprise, it did find errors! At that point, I thought maybe Windows is corrupted and that's why all this restarting happens, but then I thought to myself, "Wouldn't event viewer log the errors? Right now, the kernel has no idea as to why there are reboots). I went ahead and did this, however, and no change. Still random reboots even after fresh install + fresh ISO + and different USB just in case. Here is an interesting detail, though, I did ANOTHER Integrity Check and it found ERRORS AGAIN! Which was screaming SSD failure to me even though the components are relatively new. Either way, at that point, I knew the issue is hardware and not software.

Reseat test: I reseated everything (except CPU) because that has brought me very good luck in the past. This time, not only did it not fix that, it made everything WORSE! The computer won't even last a minute now before it randomly reboots. Which is really strange...

CPU test: I really didn't know what to think, and I know the CPU must be fine because it did just fine in the memory test (which also uses the CPU), but I did this check anyway

Some CPU & GPU stress testing as well to ensure power going into the system is well:

Temps and utilization both look good. No restart when its stressed. It's more or less random, and it can happen even when its idle.

****I was stressing the GPU as well at the time with Furmark.
This tells me that the PSU is good. If there were power issues, it should of have restarted considering the test was running for twenty minutes.
****Also notice how well the system was faring when everything was utilized except the disk which showed sketchy behavior before. This contributes to my theory that something is wrong on the storage area.

However, even if this support the SSD theory, everything looks good in tests anyway...
SMART Values:

A performance test that also tests reading/writing. Seems reasonable for an M.2 SSD.

A little more thorough data verify test from HDDScan that actually checks what it reads. Shows no bad blocks but some spikes on the graph which I think are normal.

And here is another reading test from the same tool. Again, no bad blocks reported with similar results.

At this point, I don't know what to think. The SSD looks bad since I found corrupted system files both times I installed Windows.

Moving on from the SSD, I gathered some voltages. Order is (Current Value/Minimum/Maximum):

Everything looks normal, except for minimum values which, at some point, were out of the 1.1v-1.2v range. Though from current values, they look fine. Not sure whether that's normal.

Some motherboard voltages. I know VINs are motherboard-specific, but just as before, there is a strange minimum value of 0.630v. Current is 1.16v, which is normal, though.

There is no way to check ATX voltage rails from HWMonitor for some reason, so I had to go to BIOS.

For some reason, there is no way to view the 3.3v rail (does it not exist on modern motherboards or sth?) but otherwise, voltages look fine. I really wanted to check the 3.3v rail because I've had a motherboard with similar issues that had 2.2v on its rail.

My thoughts:
I'm more than positive that something is wrong on the storage area. The fact that there were integrity errors scream that, however, tests look fine. I think this could be because:
a) NAND is fine, but the SSD controller is bad. In this case, the SSD is bad.
b) The SSD is fine, but the on-board NVMe controller is problematic. To check this, I swapped the SSD to another M.2 slot, and no change; same behaviour. This again points that something is wrong on the SSD, because, again, there were no abnormal restarts when I was in the BIOS or Memtest (outside the SSD). What I am not sure about is if each M.2 slot has its own NVMe controller, or if its shared.

Your thoughts? Motherboard or SSD?

 

[rgd1101]

full system spec? include make and model of the psu

 

[Myronazz]

full system spec? include make and model of the psu

Ah, apologies. Looks like RAM isn't on the post either

The PSU is a Corsair CX750 (Silver Label). Not the best but good enough and RAM is G.Skill RipjawsV 16GB DDR4-3200MHz (Two of these kits, so 4x8GB). Rest of the specs are in the post (I'll update it as well). Let me know if I'm missing something.

Thanks!

 

[Orbit48]

ive had some issue for ages too.. the kernel 41 is the most common crit error.. its been around for a year or so now.
And its also there after a fresh install on a fresh ssd.
What could be the cause of kernel 41 errors ?? i think i have other issues also..

Recently ive been having a mare, i had 2 ssd's one with os & partioned with some music, the other 1tb almost full of games... the pc then kept failing to recognize drives randomly.. i suddenly lost access to the game drive.. ended up buying a new ssd to copy that game data but decided to just fresh install win on new ssd then go thro the mare of dragging old data to it.. (which i have not got around to yet)
Initial boots seemed fine.. but within days & after attaching 1 of the old ssd (to copy app data off one & keep the other as game data ssd) i got a failed to boot.. no drives at all
ofc, u dive into bios and yep.. no new drive there.. just the old one .. which was the game data with no OS on it. how can boot get swapped or confused without an os on the drive ?
So i have to open case, unplug game data ssd and it just boots up fine..
I can get it to appear after port swapping , but on reset or boot down, on.. its the same issue, main os drive goes & data is only listed in bios. if i plug ssd inoto old usb 2/0 reader, i can see all the data.

I also reneamed the game data ssd & gave it a new drive letter.. went to shops, came back and was on black bios screen with install bootable device...
i had to unplug it to get os to boot again :/ thats when i looked at error logs (1st time since new ssd & fresh install). Saw the old kernel 41 error again
I was just about to try tests but after reading the post above ... thats many hours probably wasted

Uefi, win boot or win security ? also read it can be cpu, mem, psu... cmos battery ?
How do i determine what is the problem/s ?

 

[Myronazz]

We figured out the problem. It was the SSD. As it turned out, the drive had good NAND so it easily passed my tests BUT did end up having a bad controller or something else in its circuitry (like a bad transistor that leaked to ground and caused the reset). This does NOT mean you will have the same problem, so don't rush out buying things.

ive had some issue for ages too.. the kernel 41 is the most common crit error.. its been around for a year or so now.
And its also there after a fresh install on a fresh ssd.
What could be the cause of kernel 41 errors ?? i think i have other issues also..

This was actually me helping out a friend, and he had that issue ever since purchasing the system, but for his own reasons, he couldn't deal with it till now.

Recently ive been having a mare, i had 2 ssd's one with os & partioned with some music, the other 1tb almost full of games... the pc then kept failing to recognize drives randomly.. i suddenly lost access to the game drive.. ended up buying a new ssd to copy that game data but decided to just fresh install win on new ssd then go thro the mare of dragging old data to it.. (which i have not got around to yet)
Initial boots seemed fine.. but within days & after attaching 1 of the old ssd (to copy app data off one & keep the other as game data ssd) i got a failed to boot.. no drives at all
ofc, u dive into bios and yep.. no new drive there.. just the old one .. which was the game data with no OS on it. how can boot get swapped or confused without an os on the drive ?
So i have to open case, unplug game data ssd and it just boots up fine..

It sounds like you are experiencing the same problem as us, especially because your system started misbehaving the moment you plugged the older drives in. I have seen this happen in both mine computer and in this specific case my friend's. Even so, this could still be a bad motherboard, particularly the motherboard's storage controller or some other part of it. Rest assured though, one bad drive can screw up the entire bus which means no drive will be capable of using it, so you will have no drives!

At the same time, the bus itself (SATA, NVMe, whatever it is) can be faulty, and that's why you shouldn't run out buying new drives without properly understanding the issue you have. In our case, the drive's own controller was bad (but NAND was fine and so tests came out fine) though it could of have easily been a bad motherboard. In fact, I was initially thinking that to be the most likely case.

You aren't telling what your specs are. If you have an ADATA drive like my friend, then its more likely to be junk. Get reliable brands to save yourself time.

I also reneamed the game data ssd & gave it a new drive letter.. went to shops, came back and was on black bios screen with install bootable device...
i had to unplug it to get os to boot again :/ thats when i looked at error logs (1st time since new ssd & fresh install). Saw the old kernel 41 error again
I was just about to try tests but after reading the post above ... thats many hours probably wasted

If I were you, I'd unplug every single drive and use a good-known one to see if the problem persists (for example, an old SATA drive I may have lying around that I know it works.) It would certainty be a useful test since it sounds like storage does influence your problem like ours. If you are unplugging a drive, and the problem disappears for a good amount of time, then plug the old one back in and see if you can replicate the problem. Use one drive at a time to see which one screws you over. Do it multiple times to confirm that you can replicate it successfully and it wasn't just a fluke. If you can replicate it flawlessly, then you will know its your drive and not motherboard because it works fine with other drives (really, make sure it does). If the opposite is true, then the problem is elsewhere, because your motherboard is having issues regardless of what drive is in it.

Another thing someone suggested to me is boot up a linux distribution like Arch and monitor dmessages from the kernel to see if anything is going haywire.

You would also benefit by doing the tests above. It really isn't a waste of time because it helps avoid running around barking up the wrong trees. But that's just my advice anyway, take it or leave it.

 

[Orbit48]

We figured out the problem. It was the SSD. As it turned out, the drive had good NAND so it easily passed my tests BUT did end up having a bad controller or something else in its circuitry (like a bad transistor that leaked to ground and caused the reset). This does NOT mean you will have the same problem, so don't rush out buying things.



This was actually me helping out a friend, and he had that issue ever since purchasing the system, but for his own reasons, he couldn't deal with it till now.



It sounds like you are experiencing the same problem as us, especially because your system started misbehaving the moment you plugged the older drives in. I have seen this happen in both mine computer and in this specific case my friend's. Even so, this could still be a bad motherboard, particularly the motherboard's storage controller or some other part of it. Rest assured though, one bad drive can screw up the entire bus which means no drive will be capable of using it, so you will have no drives!

At the same time, the bus itself (SATA, NVMe, whatever it is) can be faulty, and that's why you shouldn't run out buying new drives without properly understanding the issue you have. In our case, the drive's own controller was bad (but NAND was fine and so tests came out fine) though it could of have easily been a bad motherboard. In fact, I was initially thinking that to be the most likely case.

You aren't telling what your specs are. If you have an ADATA drive like my friend, then its more likely to be junk. Get reliable brands to save yourself time.



If I were you, I'd unplug every single drive and use a good-known one to see if the problem persists (for example, an old SATA drive I may have lying around that I know it works.) It would certainty be a useful test since it sounds like storage does influence your problem like ours. If you are unplugging a drive, and the problem disappears for a good amount of time, then plug the old one back in and see if you can replicate the problem. Use one drive at a time to see which one screws you over. Do it multiple times to confirm that you can replicate it successfully and it wasn't just a fluke. If you can replicate it flawlessly, then you will know its your drive and not motherboard because it works fine with other drives (really, make sure it does). If the opposite is true, then the problem is elsewhere, because your motherboard is having issues regardless of what drive is in it.

Another thing someone suggested to me is boot up a linux distribution like Arch and monitor dmessages from the kernel to see if anything is going haywire.

You would also benefit by doing the tests above. It really isn't a waste of time because it helps avoid running around barking up the wrong trees. But that's just my advice anyway, take it or leave it.

i will work at it, thanks for the effort to the detailed reply.
The problem 1st arose when patching a game, it hung and i was forced to reset via case buttons.. that lost the game data drive the 1st time.. and ive had issues when trying to plug in either of those 2 originals to the new fresh one.. but yes. ill work on the tests & reports, then look at posting properly.