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My computer is restarting randomly. I have no idea what's causing it.

Discussion in 'Windows - General discussion' started by GoWings19, Nov 23, 2012.

  1. GoWings19

    GoWings19 Member

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    Hello, everyone.

    I'm having an odd issue. My computer will randomly restart at ANY time. When it comes back up, it will show the screen that says "Windows did not shut down properly (blah blah blah)."

    It seems to happen most frequently, when I'm streaming an online video. I want to say that it's mostly youtube, but that's probably because those are the videos that stream the most. It will also happen a lot, almost every time, while playing Magic the Gathering Online. These are not the only times that it happens, though. I have no problem playing more demanding games such as Diablo III, World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, Guild Wars 2, etc. In fact, it almost never happens while I'm playing these games, but it has happened. I also have no problem watching a video stored on my computer. Again, almost never restarts this way, but it has happened.

    TLDR: Restarts any time. Restarts most frequently during online video streaming & MTGO. Restarts rarely while playing more demanding games.

    I've checked the temperature of both the CPU & GPU using a program called RealTemp. That seems to be just fine. I've opened up the case & cleaned all the components & that also had no effect.

    I'm really at a loss for what could be causing this. Any help you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated.
     
  2. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    how long has this been going on?
     
  3. GoWings19

    GoWings19 Member

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    About 4 months.
     
  4. DXR88

    DXR88 Regular member

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    what are your system specs?

    if you don't know

    get Speccy: http://download.piriform.com/spsetup118.exe

    save it
    install it
    run it

    then report back
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2012
  5. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    have you tried system restore to before the problem started?
     
  6. JST1946

    JST1946 Regular member

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    I had a computer of mine do that a long time ago.I had un-install all my programs and re-install them until I finally found which one was causing the problem.It was Nero that was causing the problem.After I updated Nero then the problem went away.
     
  7. DXR88

    DXR88 Regular member

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    ive had this issue as well my solution was to only allow flash player access to Core 0. the 940BE had issues with any web based interaction but oddly enough Games and local media suffered no restarts or the occasional lockups. I'm now using 965BE and suffer no such issues.
     
  8. GoWings19

    GoWings19 Member

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    Intel C2Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz, 2x4MB)
    Sapphire Radeon HD 5870
    4GB DDR2 SDRAM,800MHZ- 4X1GB,DIM,M
    Corsair TX650W
    LIAN LI PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower
    Windows 7
     
  9. GoWings19

    GoWings19 Member

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    I have not tried that, but I'm trying to avoid it. That will be the next step if nothing else works. :/

    This sounds interesting. I'm going to google how to do this & I'll let everyone know how it goes.
     
  10. DXR88

    DXR88 Regular member

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    right click on desktop-click new document.

    open text document and paste start /affinity 1 *Program name*.exe

    save document as .bat and run your browser through the batch file. all browsing related plugins including flash will only run on core 0.

    *Program name* is your browser as that's responsible for launching flash.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2012
  11. n8tedog33

    n8tedog33 Member

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    Sounds like the power supply is going bad.
     
  12. ChappyTTV

    ChappyTTV Member

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    That's always a possibility, but that Corsair PSU is a very reliable unit.

    Random restarts can have a couple of causes, but usually it's caused by a service/module crash so lets see if we can find the culprit's name.
    Lets stop the auto restart behaviour and get a BSOD instead, which lists the Stop Error Code(s) and possibly the faulting module name. At least we'll have something to start with for research.
    Open Control Panel/System applet/Advanced System settings - In the System Properties popup, click the Advanced tab, then in the Startup & Recovery box, click the Settings button.
    In that popup box, uncheck the Automatic Restart option and make sure the "Write an event to System Log" is checked. Debug info, select "Kernel memory dump" and make sure "Overwrite existing file" is selected, the default dump location should be %System Root%\Memory.dmp.

    What you'll get instead of a restart is a BSOD with info that can be used to help find the cause. If it has a faulting module (or service) listed, write that down as well as any Stop Error Code.
    One thing to watch, don't just let this happen once, get a number of BSODs if possible. You may see a repeat in the fault or it could show random services or modules, this is also important.
    Post back with your results please.

    Dave
     
  13. scorpNZ

    scorpNZ Active member

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    No need to wait for multiple bsod's it could be more than one cause,instead go grab bluesecreenview it'll show what you need to know it's free & no install,checking event viewer is another place to look for error messages
     
  14. GoWings19

    GoWings19 Member

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    First, I attempted to re-install flash, which seemed to work for awhile, but was probably just me trying to pay more attention to it. So, the problem has still been ongoing.

    ScorpNZ, I looked into BlueScreenView & that seems like something that would really help me. Do I need to take the steps listed by Dave in order for that to do me any good, or can I just use BlueScreenView?

    Nevermind. I went ahead & made it BSOD instead. So, I will get BlueScreenView & come back with updates. Thanks guys! :)

    EDIT: I went into the event viewer, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for exactly, or what I could provide to help out. Thanks again!
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2012
  15. GoWings19

    GoWings19 Member

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    Okay. I got something from the event viewer. I don't know what to make of it, though.

    Source: Kernel - Power
    Event ID: 41

    - System

    - Provider

    [ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
    [ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

    EventID 41

    Version 2

    Level 1

    Task 63

    Opcode 0

    Keywords 0x8000000000000002

    - TimeCreated

    [ SystemTime] 2012-12-16T15:46:49.852025200Z

    EventRecordID 49967

    Correlation

    - Execution

    [ ProcessID] 4
    [ ThreadID] 8

    Channel System

    Computer Thom-PC

    - Security

    [ UserID] S-1-5-18


    - EventData

    BugcheckCode 0
    BugcheckParameter1 0x0
    BugcheckParameter2 0x0
    BugcheckParameter3 0x0
    BugcheckParameter4 0x0
    SleepInProgress false
    PowerButtonTimestamp 0
     
  16. ChappyTTV

    ChappyTTV Member

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    Hi

    Event Viewer can be awfully cluttered with useless info, sprinkled with a few nuggets of good info so it can be hard for many users to decipher it properly. The Kernel-Power error you posted is a critical event but it's only really telling you that your system did not shut down in a tidy fashion.
    Do the steps I listed and get Bluescreenview as scorpNZ posted, but I have one change I want you to make to mine, do not overwrite existing files, unselect that one please so we can have a number of dump files to compare.
    Post what you get from the BSV program and we'll see what you have there.

    Dave
     
  17. GoWings19

    GoWings19 Member

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    I opened BlueScreenView, but nothing is coming up. I did a search for "MEMORY.DMP" on my computer, but there's nothing that came up & it has happened since I made the changes to my system setting & installed BlueScreenView.
     
  18. GoWings19

    GoWings19 Member

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    Looking at BlueScreenView further, it looks like it's looking for MiniDumps. My system failure setting are not making minidumps. I'm assuming that's the issue, but I'm not sure. Should I change it?

    I read up some more, & I needed to change some setting. Sorry for all the double posts.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2012
  19. scorpNZ

    scorpNZ Active member

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    you need a pagefile on drive C of a minimum 150mb for xp or 400mb win vista & 7

    xp
    right clik my comp then properties your looking for virtual memory its under advanced tab then look for performance
    do the same for vista or 7 but when window appears look to the left for advanced settings & clik it then advanced tab performance
     
  20. erjl

    erjl Member

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    I had a similar problem. Whenever I did video intensive things like rendering a video in premier elements and playing a game at the same time. Drove me nuts. finally I replaced my video card with an equivalent card of a different brand. Problem ceased. I think it had to do with my video card memory and my computer memory not playing together well. (trying to utilize same resources at same time)
     

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