GRcade

Hexx wrote:My PC has just randomly started to turn off/restart. Doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason - just will restart to black screen then boot up.

No warning/patterns.

Any ideas for tech noobie?

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Unplug the case from the mains and hit the power button a few times to make extra sure there's no charge left in the machine. Make sure the case's power button isn't malfunctioning/getting stuck, and that there aren't any loose cables/components (even the power cable going into the back of the PC). Something could potentially have been knocked loose but still be providing an intermittent connection. Maybe try a different plug socket to eliminate a problem with your mains.

I'm absolutely not an expert in this sort of thing though...

Could be your HDD failing. Open file explorer, go to This PC, right click on your disc, properties > tools > check.

If could also be a suspect substance shorting the power button or the battery randomly. We can start with trying the HDD though.

Sandy wrote:Could be your HDD failing. Open file explorer, go to This PC, right click on your disc, properties > tools > check.

If could also be a suspect substance shorting the power button or the battery randomly. We can start with trying the HDD though.

It found errors on D: (games, programms) not C: (Windows)

I've set it repairing

Ok will it did it in 4/5ths of second.
So if that was it a) Sandy is a jenius and b) that was easy.

It's probably worth having a look in the windows error log as it might be recording something about what was triggering the reboots.

You can also disable automatic restart on system failure from Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Uncheck "Automatically Restart". That way you should get a good old blue screen of death that will give some error information that might help diagnose the problem if it happens again.

Jenuall wrote:It's probably worth having a look in the windows error log as it might be recording something about what was triggering the reboots.

You can also disable automatic restart on system failure from Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Uncheck "Automatically Restart". That way you should get a good old blue screen of death that will give some error information that might help diagnose the problem if it happens again.

Does the blue screen of death still show a massive accompanied by the useful "Something went wrong!" and a handy hexadecimal error code?

Death's Head wrote:

Jenuall wrote:It's probably worth having a look in the windows error log as it might be recording something about what was triggering the reboots.

You can also disable automatic restart on system failure from Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Uncheck "Automatically Restart". That way you should get a good old blue screen of death that will give some error information that might help diagnose the problem if it happens again.

Does the blue screen of death still show a massive accompanied by the useful "Something went wrong!" and a handy hexadecimal error code?

Oh good point, I forgot that they dicked around with the BSOD in newer versions of Windows. I haven't actually had one for a long time so I don't know how helpful the messages are anymore.

The hex codes are probably still worth a google if they are the only thing that comes up.

Jenuall wrote:It's probably worth having a look in the windows error log as it might be recording something about what was triggering the reboots.

You can also disable automatic restart on system failure from Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Uncheck "Automatically Restart". That way you should get a good old blue screen of death that will give some error information that might help diagnose the problem if it happens again.

Cheers but that sounds scary and it’s not happened again (yet)

Jenuall wrote:It's probably worth having a look in the windows error log as it might be recording something about what was triggering the reboots.

You can also disable automatic restart on system failure from Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Uncheck "Automatically Restart". That way you should get a good old blue screen of death that will give some error information that might help diagnose the problem if it happens again.

It happened again

All it has is
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
I've done what you said about bluescreening

have you looked at the log?

<]:^D wrote:have you looked at the log?

Nothing I can see explains it - just says the shutdown at 11.25 was unexpected

c&p pls

<]:^D wrote:c&p pls

Which log

I didn't want to say anything but I didn't think a HD issue would cause a reboot, more likely to error or hang. A reboot is more likely to be caused by a power supply issue (unlikely) or the PC trying to protect itself (maybe the CPU or GPU running too hot). Does this problem happen a while after use and is it idle at the time or doing something intensive (like playing a game)?

You could try rehousing the RAM and GPU.

Um...only when playing a game (WoW) but that's all I really PC for.
It doesn't seem hot - both fans are working (one needed replacing at it's starting to rattle a bit so I think it's unbalanced)

Anecdocatlly it seems to happen about 20-30 minutes after starting and then on restart feels more stable (e.g. about 20 minutes after turning on it did it today, but not again) - but's that's feels not reals

Does it always happen 20-30 mins in? i.e. in your normal use, would it always reboot within the first hour? If so, maybe boot it up and either don't touch it or use it for light use such as just Word and see if it passes the hour mark without rebooting.

I literally only use my PC to game or DnD

Tomorrow is DnD. So I'll try that (Discord and a Website)

Left on upstairs all day with no issues - just sat idle

Hexx wrote:Left on upstairs all day with no issues - just sat idle

So it looks like it is stress related. Are you experienced enough to reseat your RAM and GPU? Just need to take them out, give the connectors a good blow and put them back on firmly.

I’ve done ram before
I’ve done a different graphics card in a different case




I’ll get drunk and give it a go later