Periodic bluescreens and spontaneous restarts

[Zeusface]

Ok that makes sense. Thanks for the info! Just curious tho. My pc now for the most part isn’t bluescreening anymore so much as it is just spontaneously restarting every now and then, mostly from idle. I don’t seem to see any of these restarts as crashes in minidump, but they are logged in the event viewer. Is there a way to get any more info on these restarts? Cuz they’re still happening, but I have nothing to show for them other than the event 41 kernel-power from the event viwer.

[phillpower2]

You will not get any information on a PC turning off or restarting from crash dmps as the issue is hardware as opposed to Windows related, see explanation below;

Software such as Windows can crash and when it does crash you get a BSOD and when enabled a crash dmp is generated.

Hardware failure such as a weak power supply and/or overheating are not software related and when a computer freezes, restarts, suddenly turns off or the screen goes jumbled the behaviour should be described as the “computer shut down unexpectedly” etc and not as having crashed as the latter implies a software issue as opposed to an obvious hardware issue when described properly.

Having the correct info means that helpers will not be looking for a software issue when the problem is clearly hardware related.

Just to reiterate;

You will always get event 41 kernel-power errors when a computer powers down while Windows is still running, this regardless of the cause of the unexpected shut down.

It is Windows own way of letting you know that it had not been shutdown before the power was cut.

[Zeusface]

Ahh good to know but that’s a bummer if it’s a hardware issue. Well I have still been experiencing random restarts, even a restart loop that kept going for like 3 or 4 restarts in a row. I’ve been monitoring my temps and it’s not restarting when anything is particularly hot, especially since it’s restarting sometimes during a cold bootup.

the thing is these restarts have been relatively new. At first I was purely dealing with bluescreening, and now for the past few weeks it seems like after the random restarts have appeared, that’s all I’ve been dealing with

[Zeusface]

also it’s kinda frustrating because the restarts are so inconsistent. sometimes it boots into a restart loop, other times it boots just fine. most of the time once I boot in it’s stable when I’m using it and will restart when I’m away and it’s idling, or restart right when I first start using it again. Most infrequently it will restart while I’m in the middle of usage, oddly while trying to watch a youtube video or just browsing stuff using chrome.

[phillpower2]

That is consistent with a power issue, problem is it could be anything from a loose wire to a weak capacitor.

Do you have a spare USB thumbdrive that you could download a Linux distro to, if you do, it would be a good idea to boot from Linux and see how the computer behaves, if the same it more or less nails it on as being a hardware issue, see Pendrive Linux info here

On a side note, can you post the model name or number of the XFX PSU along with how old it is and whether or not you purchased it out of the box new, general rule of thumb is if a PSU is out of warranty it cannot be relied upon, XFX was a decent brand of PSU as they used Seasonic components so can be deemed as more trustworthy than a lesser quality brand of the same age and warranty period, the hours that the PSU has been in use and the type of use also makes a difference, a PSU from an OCd system for example will not last as long as one from an none OCd system.

[Zeusface]

Ok I’ll try to boot from Linux and see how that looks.

My xfx psu model number is p1-750s-nlb9. I took it from my previous rig. I bought it new a little over 4 years ago. I believe it’s still under warranty as xfx states that it has a 5 year warranty on psus.

On a separate note, I put in another stick of the same 16gb crucial ram, and speccy still reports that my ram is at 1600 mhz

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/0zaOIkEjnmpjwpGK3GTz3yA

[Zeusface]

oh and I never overclocked anything with my previous rig

[phillpower2]

My xfx psu model number is p1-750s-nlb9. I took it from my previous rig. I bought it new a little over 4 years ago. I believe it’s still under warranty as xfx states that it has a 5 year warranty on psus.

That model of PSU was first reviewed more than ten years ago and has been obsolete heaven knows how long for, you can confirm this for yourself here

[Zeusface]

I took a look at the page you sent and I’m sorry but I don’t know what to do with that information. The newest reviews are all from 2015 minus one from 2016. Is this to say that all the other psus are obsolete? I don’t know how to tell. I bought mine new from newegg around 4 years ago

[Zeusface]

Also thanks for your patience, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to use the pendrive link stuff you sent me. I downloaded yumi onto a usb and to create an installer it asked me for iso files. I downloaded linux mint and ubuntu separately and used yumi to make boots of them (?). I could neither run them from windows nor boot from the usb.

Sorry again, but I sincerely do not know what I’m doing haha.

[phillpower2]

See attachment of your XFX PSU info.

Have you changed the boot sequence in the BIOS so that the PC will boot from a USB device first.

[Zeusface]

Yes I did change the boot sequence to boot from the usb and I was prompted with the message to restart or insert a device with bootable drive or something like that.

As for the psu info: yes I did manage to see that, and I understand that it was first reviewed in 2010, but what am I supposed to do with that information? How can I tell that that means that it’s obsolete? Because again almost all of the reviews on that page are from the early 2010s. Does that mean all of the reviewed psus are obsolete? The most recent review was from 2016. Is 4 years too long? I don’t know what the metrics are for determining these things, especially since it was a product that I bought new about 4 years ago.

Also sorry again, but I will be out of town again for about a week or so. I do want to take the time to thank you again for patiently explaining things to me and following up with what’s been going on. I hope you’re having some good holiday time! Happy new year!

[phillpower2]

Two things to make sure of when attempting to boot from a USB device

That secure boot is disabled in the BIOS.

That the USB device is inserted into a black USB 2.0 port and not the blue USB 3.0 type port.

RE the PSU info;

The sole purpose of providing the information was to prove to you that the XFX model of PSU that you have could have been made over ten years ago, also worth mentioning are the following, the newer XPS-750W-3XB (P1-750X-XXB9) was released in 2013 meaning that the (P1-750S-NLB9 / XPS-750W-SEW) that you have was no longer being made and unless you have the warranty ticket or sales invoice from Newegg to support any warranty claim it wouldn`t matter if you purchased the PSU only a week ago.

The most recent review was from 2016.

Do you have a link to this review.

Will leave your thread marked as pending for a week, if we don`t hear back from you by then we will close the thread until you are around to continue.

Happy New Year and have a good week.