Restart issue

[lucasbuck]

The past couple days either when I get home from work, or overnight, my computer has shut down. Nothing's changed, and it's not sleeping because when I power back up it says it didn't shut down properly.
Can someone point me in the right direction to track it down? I'm not sure if it's making a dump log, or how I'd even read it. Thanks for any help!

[newfiend]

Have you tried checking event viewer to see why its shutting off? Ran the memory diagnostic recently? I would start by checking event viewer and look for errors related to your mystery shut down. It should get you started in the right direction anyway.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

[newfiend]

My uneducated guess would be check the memory or psu. But see what event viewer has to say first.

Sent from my SGH-i937 using Board Express

[Crash2009]

Recently I had a similar problem. You could try this bluescreen viewer to check for BSOD

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

If bluescreenviewer doesn't find any, you might not have dump files turned on. Here is the link on how to do that

http://blog.nirsoft.net/2010/07/27/how- ... s-on-bsod/

[Mike88]

What about if you did not get BSOD?

About a month ago I had a black screen with a message to select a boot device & reboot. Problem was there were no options to select any device. I had to power down the PC. I looked at the event logs several times & the only thing that showed was an unexpected shut down, but no explanation what caused it.

[Crash2009]

There is also Reliability Monitor.

[Mike88]

Thanks, I'll check it out on the HTPC.

I just tried to access the Reliability Monitor on my desktop PC and cannot find it in the Action Center. However doing a search brings it up.

How do you get to it through the Action Center?

[lucasbuck]

I checked event viewer, and it's a big stream of 41 errors (not powered down properly). Couldn't exactly see what the root cause is. I'm going to update windows. I did notice it was set to sleep, which I normally disable, so set that back to never.
I'm going to let it run and will update with whatever happens. It only does it when I'm away, not while viewing.

[Crash2009]

Thanks, I'll check it out on the HTPC.

I just tried to access the Reliability Monitor on my desktop PC and cannot find it in the Action Center. However doing a search brings it up.

How do you get to it through the Action Center?

I only know one way. Click the start button, Type Reliability, then click on Reliability monitor.

[lithium630]

I had this problem for the longest time. The only down side to building your own PC is you can't just return it for a new one. After changing the RAM, PSU, and motherboard, I finally figured out that it was the power switch in the case. To top it off the PC would constantly hang on the reboots. The nic turned out to be the issue for that. New case and problem solved. Made for a very unhappy wife for a few months. You might also want to monitor the cpu temp.

[Crash2009]

If you got the time, it took me a week, I ran into a pretty thourough set of troubleshooting steps. Learned a lot in the process.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/22 ... s-7-a.html

My experiences with the troubleshooting http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debu ... 012-a.html

For me, it ended up to be bad ram. Should have tested that first. Oh well, education don't come cheap.

[newfiend]

^ Agreed.. I would run the Memory Diagnostic in Windows 7 or even Memtest here: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
I had a similar issue that turned out to be the PSU for me. But I would run the memory tests above and see what happens.
also if it has been awhile since you cleaned around the CPU heatsink now might be a good time to check it
as mentioned above if the cpu heatsink is clogged with debris this can cause premature shutdowns as the cpu overheats they will now shut down the PC to avoid frying the CPU. Remove the side cover and use an electronics air duster commonly found at most electronics stores to blow out any debris around the CPU heatsink as well as your case air intake and exhaust fans.
newfiend~

[Mike88]

Thanks, I'll check it out on the HTPC.

I just tried to access the Reliability Monitor on my desktop PC and cannot find it in the Action Center. However doing a search brings it up.

How do you get to it through the Action Center?

I only know one way. Click the start button, Type Reliability, then click on Reliability monitor.

I checked the HTPC using the Reliability Monitor & came up with the same information found in the Event Logs - unexpected shutdown. I had to power off the PC in order to get it out of the black screen with the message, which was the unexpected shutdown. But I could never find anything why it rebooted in the first place, let alone come up with the black screen.

The CHKDSK did find some empty sectors that were marked as being used & corrected that. I'm grasping at straws but maybe that fixed things. Only time will tell.

Thanks again for letting me know about the Reliability Monitor.

[Crash2009]

check out troubleshooting steps. 3 responces up. Lots more good stuff in there.