Computer keeps restarting, windows 7

[Lamoot]

Hey guys, so my computer is getting up there in age, and I'm planning on building a new one, but not for a few more months at least, my current pc has started restating on me for no reason. Nothings over heating. Any one have any advice on how to troubleshoot what's going on? Thanks in advance

[Lathais]

Specs?

After the reboot, anything in event viewer?

I'm suspecting failing PSU but there are a few trouble shooting steps to determine if that's really the case first. Along with specs, brand/model of PSU will be helpful.

[chase_the_mofo]

Upgrade to windwos 10.

He can be restarting cos of:
Overheating
GPU isn't properly inserted in PCI socket
DDR memory sockets are not in their socket properly
Faulty HDD
Faulty DDR
PSU dying
MOBO dying

Software issues
Reinstall windows
Upgrade to Windows 10

[Lamoot]

It's a custom built pc. Psu is a corsair ax850. The pc is about 7 years old with a asus p9x79 pro mobo, gtx 670, i7 3930k. Ike i said, it's an old pc, but i just wanna keep it running another few months if possible. I haven't had any issues at all til this week

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It'll run for a while before it restarts, so i don't think anything isn't fully in its socket, but i did go through and check all that yesterday

[smooshtheman]

did you replace your bios battery?

[EyelessCrow]

Download bluescreen viewer and run that. Just because you aren't getting a bluescreen doesn't mean it's not technically doing it. It will give you an error code that you can look up and time/dates of errors if you are getting them.

[Lathais]

It's a custom built pc. Psu is a corsair ax850. The pc is about 7 years old with a asus p9x79 pro mobo, gtx 670, i7 3930k. Ike i said, it's an old pc, but i just wanna keep it running another few months if possible. I haven't had any issues at all til this week

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It'll run for a while before it restarts, so i don't think anything isn't fully in its socket, but i did go through and check all that yesterday

Really sounds like PSU to me, especially because of the age, but it could be a variety of things really. Do you have a spare PSU you could test with? Also, did you check event viewer like I asked?

I would keep it running for more than just a few months as well. A new PSU should solve your issue and a new GPU will keep it running well for another few years. No real reason to build a whole new PC when you CPU?Motherboard/RAM are all just fine. You won't see much improvement from upgrading them, though a new GPU would do you wonders.

[Lamoot]

Really sounds like PSU to me, especially because of the age, but it could be a variety of things really. Do you have a spare PSU you could test with? Also, did you check event viewer like I asked?

I would keep it running for more than just a few months as well. A new PSU should solve your issue and a new GPU will keep it running well for another few years. No real reason to build a whole new PC when you CPU?Motherboard/RAM are all just fine. You won't see much improvement from upgrading them, though a new GPU would do you wonders.

I did check event viewer, but to be honest i have no idea what I'm looking for. There were a few errors.

[EyelessCrow]

Bluescreen viewer. not just event viewer. Bluescreen is going to grab the event logs related to your machine shutting down unexpectedly.

[Lathais]

I did check event viewer, but to be honest i have no idea what I'm looking for. There were a few errors.

What do the errors say? A screenshot will suffice.

[Lamoot]

What do the errors say? A screenshot will suffice.

Source: TermDD Event ID: 56 "The Terminal Server security layer detected an error in the protocol stream and has disconnected the client."


Source: Schannel Event ID: 36888 "The following fatal alert was generated: 10. The internal error state is 1203."


Source: EventLog Event ID 6008 "The previous system shutdown at 2:53:24 PM on ‎3/‎6/‎2017 was unexpected."


Source: BugCheck Event ID: 1001 "The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000007e (0xffffffffc0000005, 0x0000000c00000004, 0xfffff880108ec928, 0xfffff880108ec180). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 030617-51948-01."

And then just more errors talking about the previous system shutdown was unexpected.

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Bluescreen viewer. not just event viewer. Bluescreen is going to grab the event logs related to your machine shutting down unexpectedly.

according to this, i had 3 BSOD yesterday, and one on the 3rd.

[Lathais]

Source: TermDD Event ID: 56 "The Terminal Server security layer detected an error in the protocol stream and has disconnected the client."


Source: Schannel Event ID: 36888 "The following fatal alert was generated: 10. The internal error state is 1203."


Source: EventLog Event ID 6008 "The previous system shutdown at 2:53:24 PM on ‎3/‎6/‎2017 was unexpected."


Source: BugCheck Event ID: 1001 "The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000007e (0xffffffffc0000005, 0x0000000c00000004, 0xfffff880108ec928, 0xfffff880108ec180). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 030617-51948-01."

And then just more errors talking about the previous system shutdown was unexpected.

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according to this, i had 3 BSOD yesterday, and one on the 3rd.

Ok, still sounds like PSU to me, though it could be faulty RAM or Motherboard as well those are far less likely. Do you have a spare PSU, or a friend that will let you borrow his for a few hours to test with? That would be ideal really. Otherwise, what is it you are normally doing when these shutdowns occur? Like is it just sitting at idle? Basic web browsing? Only when gaming?

I suspect it is likely only when gaming, or something less that requires a lot of system power. What I think is happening is that you have a PSU that's way overkill for your system. PSUs like to be used, like 80% usage most of the time. Since you are likely only using 50% or so of it, it degraded faster than a properly sized PSU. 7 years is a long time for a PSU as it is, a lower quality one that was not really being used will degrade even faster. So your parts are calling for power, the PSU is unable to supply it, system shuts down because it doesn't have the power to do what it needs. This is just my current theory on your problem though. No way to really tell for sure unless you try a different PSU, have a multi-meter and know how to test it yourself or take it somewhere and pay them to test it. Honestly though, if you don't have one you can borrow to test with, I'd just buy a new PSU and be done with it. Don't get one as big as that though, you'd be more than ok with a 550-600W.

[EyelessCrow]

I'm wondering if your hard drive is failing.
I would back up any immediate important data just in case then do this (also keep in mind this can take a few hours):
hit start, search for cmd, right click and run as administrator.
type chkdsk /r hit enter...it will tell you it's locked and will run at next reboot. wait 10 seconds or so (i found immediately restarting tends to skip over chkdsk)
type shutdown -r -t 1 hit enter, your machine will now reboot.
If you see "bad sector" during the chkdsk your drive is bad. If you leave it long enough to run this and you are not looking go here:
Once it has completed go back to event viewer> windows logs> application>search>find...(right hand side)search for "chkdsk" and scroll to bottom. Look for "0 KB in bad sectors" if you see anything besides 0KB it's time to replace that drive.

It COULD be bad PSU but of all the machines I've worked on I have yet to see one come in that is steadily failing because of faulty power. It generally just won't start. If it does it won't boot, lights are on but nobody is home.

[Lathais]

I'm wondering if your hard drive is failing.
I would back up any immediate important data just in case then do this (also keep in mind this can take a few hours):
hit start, search for cmd, right click and run as administrator.
type chkdsk /r hit enter...it will tell you it's locked and will run at next reboot. wait 10 seconds or so (i found immediately restarting tends to skip over chkdsk)
type shutdown -r -t 1 hit enter, your machine will now reboot.
If you see "bad sector" during the chkdsk your drive is bad. If you leave it long enough to run this and you are not looking go here:
Once it has completed go back to event viewer> windows logs> application>search>find...(right hand side)search for "chkdsk" and scroll to bottom. Look for "0 KB in bad sectors" if you see anything besides 0KB it's time to replace that drive.

Typically, with a failing HDD, you'll have other symptoms first. While they can cause BSODs, they will usually be a little more specific than "unexpectedly shut down." Not saying it's not possible, but this feels a lot more like PSU issues, especially considering the age and under usage of it. It's an 850W PSU in a system that likely draws around 500W at peak usage. That means, at max usage he's only using about 60% of what the PSU can do. That is not using it enough. PSUs need to occasionally be at 80%+ usage or they degrade faster. It's already a pretty old PSU that was not used properly, so it really leads me to think that's the cause. Especially considering the lack of any other symptoms normally associated with HDD, RAM, GPU, Motherboard or CPU failure.

[EyelessCrow]

It very well could be PSU, it also couldn't be. I'm not telling them to go buy a new component, I'm telling them to run a test. So one test is free, the other isn't. I prefer to run through a checklist when trying to narrow down a bad component not throw a dart at a board.

[Lathais]

It very well could be PSU, it also couldn't be. I'm not telling them to go buy a new component, I'm telling them to run a test. So one test is free, the other isn't. I prefer to run through a checklist when trying to narrow down a bad component not throw a dart at a board.

Which is why I recommended testing with another PSU first, if he has one he can borrow, or to test it with a multi-meter or take it somewhere they can test it. However, I've seen this same problem a lot around here lately, and it comes down to PSU more often then not. It's becoming a more serious problem for people lately because several years ago is when for some inexplicable reason people started putting PSUs way more powerful than the system needs into systems, causing faster degradation. They can still supply all the power they say they can, or at least enough for your system to boot, however, they can not sustain those power levels for very long, so as soon as you start stressing the system for more than the few seconds it takes to boot, the PSU fails. It's becoming a problem for more and more people as I've seen it pop up around here and other computer forums a lot more frequently.

I'm not saying 100% this is the case, however, if it was my PC, I would just by a new PSU and test it. Well, I'd actually grab a spare PSU from the garage and try it, or try the PSU in one of my other systems and see if the problem occurred there too. These are not options for the OP though. If it was one of my friends, I'd pull my PSU and take it to them to let them test while putting theirs in my system and testing. If that is not possible, I'd likely take the PC to a shop where they could test the PSU, for the cost of testing it though, could probably just pick up a PSU, so that's what I would do rather than spending hours testing all sorts of different scenarios when the most likely culprit is the PSU.

[moremana]

What anti virus software are you using?

[Lamoot]

Ok, still sounds like PSU to me, though it could be faulty RAM or Motherboard as well those are far less likely. Do you have a spare PSU, or a friend that will let you borrow his for a few hours to test with? That would be ideal really. Otherwise, what is it you are normally doing when these shutdowns occur? Like is it just sitting at idle? Basic web browsing? Only when gaming?

I suspect it is likely only when gaming, or something less that requires a lot of system power. What I think is happening is that you have a PSU that's way overkill for your system. PSUs like to be used, like 80% usage most of the time. Since you are likely only using 50% or so of it, it degraded faster than a properly sized PSU. 7 years is a long time for a PSU as it is, a lower quality one that was not really being used will degrade even faster. So your parts are calling for power, the PSU is unable to supply it, system shuts down because it doesn't have the power to do what it needs. This is just my current theory on your problem though. No way to really tell for sure unless you try a different PSU, have a multi-meter and know how to test it yourself or take it somewhere and pay them to test it. Honestly though, if you don't have one you can borrow to test with, I'd just buy a new PSU and be done with it. Don't get one as big as that though, you'd be more than ok with a 550-600W.

Its been mainly when at idle or Web browsing.

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What anti virus software are you using?

AVG, spybot, Malwarebytes, and MSE

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Also, i'll run the chkdsk and report any findings here. Thanks a lot guys. Oddly enough, it's been running smooth all day today, since i went through and made sure all my drivers were up to date, a few weren't. No issues yet. We'll see.

[Lathais]

Its been mainly when at idle or Web browsing.

That pretty much rules out PSU then. Seems like you got it sorted out with driver updates though. One more reason why you should be on W10. Not only is it's performance superior, but those automatic updates everyone complains about could have prevented the issue entirely. Assuming the issue really is solved and not just an intermittent problem that is not currently occurring.

[moremana]

Uninstall AVG and Spybot.