Question PC rebooting randomly - no BSOD ?

Swi1ch

Honorable
Aug 3, 2016
12
1
10,510
Specs:

5900x
3080TI
MSI X570 Tomahawk
32GB Teamgroup 3600mhz
Corsair RM1000x

This machine is just over a year old and until now has had no issues since the day I built it.

Symptoms:

Starting roughly two weeks ago, PC started either resetting itself or freezing completely. I would say 80% of the time it just drops power entirely and reboots, and 20% of the time freezes (Power remains on, fans are spinning, monitors are on - just no response to input at all).

Event log simply has 'Kernel Power 41' as a critical error, and in the warnings I'm getting some 'WHEA' processor errors.

I have set the recovery options to show a BSOD instead of resetting, but I have yet to see a BSOD - just resets or freezes.

These issues happen when idle or under light use.

What I've done so far:

  • Apparently the Windows 10 update a few weeks ago is known to cause BSODs - however the workaround for this has not made any difference. The issues caused by the latest update seem to be around booting too, which is not an issue for me.
  • Full reformat, all fresh drivers etc up to date.
  • Flashed BIOS to most recent version.
  • Ran memtest for 8 full passes / 12 hours with no errors.
  • Turned off XMP - same issues.

Any suggestions for what else I can try?
 
Last edited:
Dec 27, 2022
3
0
10
I literally made an account just to respond to you.

Our situations are completely parallel.
Near identical specs: 3080Ti, 5900X, 32GB GSkill Trident Z 3600, B550 Vision D-P, Seasonic 850W.

I've been going crazy trying to fix this, you're not alone. I've done everything you've done, and it still restarts in Clean Boot. Formatted all my drives, fresh install... still happens.
No issues for a whole year until now.
Something is making me think this is driver related rather than hardware since our specs and issue are so similar. Have you tried rolling back your Nvidia drivers?

What does it say under your Reliability report?
Mine just says "Windows did not shut down properly." I honestly am at a loss here, and playing games is kinda tough with the fear of your system restarting at any moment.
 

Swi1ch

Honorable
Aug 3, 2016
12
1
10,510
I literally made an account just to respond to you.

Our situations are completely parallel.
Near identical specs: 3080Ti, 5900X, 32GB GSkill Trident Z 3600, B550 Vision D-P, Seasonic 850W.

I've been going crazy trying to fix this, you're not alone. I've done everything you've done, and it still restarts in Clean Boot. Formatted all my drives, fresh install... still happens.
No issues for a whole year until now.
Something is making me think this is driver related rather than hardware since our specs and issue are so similar. Have you tried rolling back your Nvidia drivers?

What does it say under your Reliability report?
Mine just says "Windows did not shut down properly." I honestly am at a loss here, and playing games is kinda tough with the fear of your system restarting at any moment.

I tried rolling back Nvidia drivers with no improvement.

I also tried Windows 11 to rule out the recent W10 update with no improvement.

I had someone at the microsoft forums check my dump logs and there are a lot of WHEA errors which imply the motherboard or CPU is at fault. I've got a replacement motherboard on the way so I'll let you know how that pans out.

How long ago did you start having issues?
 
Dec 27, 2022
3
0
10
I tried rolling back Nvidia drivers with no improvement.

I also tried Windows 11 to rule out the recent W10 update with no improvement.

I had someone at the microsoft forums check my dump logs and there are a lot of WHEA errors which imply the motherboard or CPU is at fault. I've got a replacement motherboard on the way so I'll let you know how that pans out.

How long ago did you start having issues?


I also tried Windows 11 to no avail. Currently back on W10. Even with automatic restart turned off, it still does it with no BSOD.

I would say around the same time you started experiencing it. I thought it might be a power delivery issue so I just ordered a 1000W PSU, but seeing as you already have one, I feel like it's really not gonna make a difference.

Originally I was getting similar errors, WHEA and Page Fault in Non Paged Area, then after an extremely painful factory reset process and drive format (because it would BSOD right at the end of every single reset attempt) I only experience random restarts now without any BSOD.

Possibly unrelated, but before it got really bad, I was getting really weird errors on Chrome(now using Vivaldi) while watching YouTube videos. That's why I suspected it was a memory issue, but two full runs of Memtest came back with nothing.
 
Dec 27, 2022
3
0
10
I tried rolling back Nvidia drivers with no improvement.

I also tried Windows 11 to rule out the recent W10 update with no improvement.

I had someone at the microsoft forums check my dump logs and there are a lot of WHEA errors which imply the motherboard or CPU is at fault. I've got a replacement motherboard on the way so I'll let you know how that pans out.

How long ago did you start having issues?

Hey, got a question for you.

Do you see a "Base System Device" in your Device Manager under "Other devices?" I have some PCI device connected with errors, wondering if this is related??
 

Swi1ch

Honorable
Aug 3, 2016
12
1
10,510
CPU failures are quite rare, but do happen. PCs rebooting for no specific reason or power offs would have me looking into either PSU issues or temperature shutdowns due to CPU cooling problems.

Everything I've managed to look into about temps looks perfectly fine, so unless the readings are wrong I don't think it's that.

I'll try another PSU but 20%~ of the time, it's not a power off but instead just a complete freeze.
 

Swi1ch

Honorable
Aug 3, 2016
12
1
10,510
OK, sorry for the late reply. At this point, what parts are common and the same from when the problem started? Also, was the replacement motherboard the same model?

New motherboard, new PSU. Existing CPU. Existing RAM (Although both sticks tested independently). Existing m.2 Drives. Existing GPU.

I've also since independently tested both m.2 drives, and also testing another working GPU.

Unless something very, very strange is happening I can only assume CPU is at fault. The only things I haven't ruled out are case fans, and while I could see a dodgy wire causing poweroffs, I can't see it freezing the machine and causing WHEA logs.

I've initiated RMA with AMD.
 

198four

Prominent
Feb 26, 2021
7
0
510
Same here. Installed the CPU and ran it for 24 hours. No reboots. Previously it would reboot at least a few times every day. Will keep you guys posted
 

198four

Prominent
Feb 26, 2021
7
0
510
Hey guys. My computer hasn't restarted in over a week. No crashes during games. Looks like my issue was bad CPU. Only concern I have is high temps during gaming....I am seeing 75-80C during games but i also have a budget CPU cooler Vetroo v5.
 

Swi1ch

Honorable
Aug 3, 2016
12
1
10,510
Hey guys. My computer hasn't restarted in over a week. No crashes during games. Looks like my issue was bad CPU. Only concern I have is high temps during gaming....I am seeing 75-80C during games but i also have a budget CPU cooler Vetroo v5.

My PC also appears completely fixed.

No temp issues here but I'm not on a budget cooler.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 198four