Win8.1 restaring by itself

[giantbucket]

ok, i have Win8.1 which i like and have been using fine for a long time. i only have a few programs on it since i use this machine for a specific task.

i haven't used it for a month, and during that time i moved all the components to another chassis. power up, things go fine.

update java? ok, installs newest java and BAM!!! i see a "Restarting" with the swirly dots

weird.

Malwarebytes scan? update goes fine, scans all, select to delete questionable items, and BAM!!! i see another "Restarting" with the swirly dots...

wtf? i didn't press any button. maybe i should unplug the reset button from the mobo? is there some recent glitch in windows that caused this? i'm scanning now with Win Defender.

i only have one drive - a 128G SSD that is my boot/OS drive. the system is quite naked.

ideas?

 

[basroil]

Neither of those two seem odd, both generally require system restarts to complete their duties.

Could also just be a coincidence with system updates too.

 

[giantbucket]

yeah but doesn't Win usually tell me that it needs to restart and gives me the option to click "restart now" or "restart later"? it seemed like it was triggered by something and i had no say in the matter

 

[basroil]

Sure you didn't accidentally have the space bar pressed? I've done that a few times.

If you want to make sure it's not some strange crash or other software being crazy, use "shutdown.exe -r -t 7200" (or similarly large number) and then do something that used to cause the automatic restart. The shutdown timer should over-ride the software's shutdown commands.