Random restarts

[WMA]

Hi all,

I seem to have an intermittent issue whereby my PC will randomly restart itself. There is no pattern to this and it appears to make no difference how I am using my PC.

For example, earlier today I turned it on as normal, before I'd even started doing anything, it restarted whilst just being sat on the desktop screen. Once it came back on, it did this again. Once it came back on for the third time, it then worked normally until I was done. On other days, I can have no random restarts at all and can use the PC for gaming, streaming or web browsing for hours with no issue.

I've tried carrying out a full W10 reset. I haven't amended anything in the BIOS. It doesn't appear to be temperature related, as like I mentioned, this can happen on the first boot whilst just sitting on the desktop. Other than the normal Windows startup items, I only have iCUE and SteelSeries GG set to load, however, I have also tested with those uninstalled and I still have the problem. I've attached an Event Viewer log (in the zip file) of the last 24 hours, but the data in this, is beyond my knowledge of PC's, so I'm not really sure what it means other than seeing some critical errors.

PC spec is as below:

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY C BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
256GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V2 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (AMD)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

 

[ubuysa]

I can see the restarts happening in your system log but there's nothing in there to indicate why they might be happening.

If the file C:\Windows\Memory.dmp exists with a timestamp related to these issues please upload it to the cloud with a link to it here.
If there are any minidumps in the folder C:\Windows\Minidumps with timestamps related to these issues upload all of those too.

Also, enter the command sysdm.cpl into the Run command box. In the dialog that opens click the Advanced tab. Click the bottom Settings button (in Startup and Recovery) and in the window that opens uncheck the 'Automatically restart' checkbox. That way you'll be able to see any error messages that are generated.

 

[WMA]

Yesterday, there were no random restarts at all, even though I had it on for 12+ hours. However, today, it has been on around 30 minutes, I was browsing the internet via Chrome, and it restarted.

Even though I had unchecked the box you mentioned, it still restarted itself automatically. There are also no dump files in the locations mentioned in your post.

Would this suggest it's a hardware issue causing the restart? I'm only guessing due to the fact that Windows doesn't appear to be controlling or logging these random shutdown/restarts.

 

[ubuysa]

Yesterday, there were no random restarts at all, even though I had it on for 12+ hours. However, today, it has been on around 30 minutes, I was browsing the internet via Chrome, and it restarted.

Even though I had unchecked the box you mentioned, it still restarted itself automatically. There are also no dump files in the locations mentioned in your post.

Would this suggest it's a hardware issue causing the restart? I'm only guessing due to the fact that Windows doesn't appear to be controlling or logging these random shutdown/restarts.

Well it's not a BSOD but something else. We should first check the temps, I know you think it's not that but we need some hard data. Use something like HWMonitor and keep it running all the time, keep a close eye on the temps.

Download Memtest, extract the tool from the downloaded archive and use that to make a bootable USB stick containing Memtest. Boot that stick and allow Memtest to complete all four iterations of the 13 different RAM tests.

Check that your drivers are up to date - especially the Nvidia driver.

Run a couple of anti-malware scans with different tools (Defender and Malwarebytes for example).

Is there nothing in C:\Windows\Minidumps?

 

[WMA]

Thanks for the suggestions

I've went through Device Manager and all drivers were already up-to-date.
I've ran scans with Defender and MBAM, neither of which found anything.
The Minidumps folder doesn't even exist at all in C:\Windows, I even checked to show hidden items just incase, but it's not there. I checked in the advanced settings that you mentioned and it does say that dumps will be in %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP, but that doesn't exist either.

I've installed HWMonitor and will keep an eye the temps and will also try Memtest and report back.

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks for the suggestions

I've went through Device Manager and all drivers were already up-to-date.
I've ran scans with Defender and MBAM, neither of which found anything.
The Minidumps folder doesn't even exist at all in C:\Windows, I even checked to show hidden items just incase, but it's not there. I checked in the advanced settings that you mentioned and it does say that dumps will be in %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP, but that doesn't exist either.

I've installed HWMonitor and will keep an eye the temps and will also try Memtest and report back.

That's perfectly normal. The Minidumps folder and the Memory.dmp file don't exist until you get dumps written.

Lets see how Memtest goes.

Can you upload your Application log please?