Solved Random reboots with no BSOD

[Raffee]

Hi,
My laptop is rebooting randomly, without showing a BSOD (even though I disabled auto restart after error). I updated the BIOS (per Cyberpower instructions) with no effect. I installed Ubuntu after formatting, but the reboots continued. I'm back with Windows 8.1 and it still reboots.

On top of this, I get no error messages in the event viewer, nor can I find the mini dump.

I don't know how to proceed with regards to diagnosing the issue. Any help is appreciated.

UPDATE:
After reading this thread http://www.eightforums.com/bsod-crashes-debugging/36686-windows-8-1-crashes-randomly.html I tried to run in safe mode, and so far there were no reboots, however when I tried the "clean boot" steps (in method 2) the reboots happened again.

 

[usasma]

Your UEFI/BIOS dates from 2014. Please check at the manufacturer's website to see if there are any UEFI/BIOS updates available for your system.
I understand that you've done this, but please check again in order to be sure.

Only 95 Windows Updates installed. Most systems have 130 or more. Please visit Windows Update and get ALL available updates (it may take several trips to get them all).

Don't worry about the specific number, it's just important that you have checked and installed any updates that were available (and didn't experience any errors).

There are no memory dumps in the uploaded reports.
As for the error messages in Event Viewer, please provide this report:

Please do the following:
- open Event Viewer (run eventvwr.msc from the "Run" dialog)
- expand the Custom Views category (left click on the > next to the words "Custom Views")
- right click on Administrative Events
- select "Save all Events in Custom View as..."
- save the file as Admin.evtx
- zip up the file (right click on it, select "Send to", select "Compressed (zipped) folder")
- upload it with your next post (if it's too big, then upload it to a free file-hosting service and post a link here).

FYI - If we're looking for Event ID 41 errors (unexplained shutdowns), there's more info on that here: Windows Kernel event ID 41 error "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first" in Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2

While waiting for a reply, please monitor your temps with this free utility: HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

This appears to be a hardware error, so please start with these free hardware diagnsostics: Hardware Diagnostics
Let us know the results and we'll move on from there.

 

[usasma]

Forgot this part of the analysis.....


This device is shown as not working in Device Manager:

High Definition Audio Device HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_8086&DEV_2807&SUBSYS_80860101&REV_1000\4&1BE6923&0&0001 This device cannot start.

Please install the audio drivers for the Intel sound card I can't seem to locate a driver download at Cyberpower - so I'd suggest visiting Intel® Download Center

 

[Raffee]

Hi,
I've attached the event viewer zip.
I'm not able to run the memtest. I created the CD using the ISO tool recommended in your post, but it won't boot - my laptop boots from the hard drive like there's no CD. I ran the windows memory test, and there were no errors.
I downloaded the INTEL driver update tool, and it only detects the GPU driver new version - but the laptop is rebooting before I can finish downloading it. I tried to update drivers using the device manager, but I keep getting a message that my drivers are up to date. Is there a tool that does this?

 

[usasma]

On a Win8 and later system it's difficult to run MemTest. You have to figure out how to disable the Secure Boot and enable the legacy stuff to allow booting from the CD/DVD/USB device. And, it's different with each manufacturer.

Let's start, instead, with running Prime95's Blend Test for at least 4-6 hours: http://www.carrona.org/prime95.html

There's no signs of a Windows problem in the Admin logfile - so it's most likely a hardware problem.
Continue with the hardware diagnostics and let us know the results.

 

[Raffee]

I thought the fact that the problem does not exist in Safe Mode eliminates hardware issues :S

 

[usasma]

It's not likely that a hardware problem exists if it disappears in Safe Mode - but it's still possible.
How long did you remain in Safe Mode? Did you perform any tests while in Safe Mode to see if you could cause a BSOD?
Did you run in Safe Mode with Networking, or just plain Safe Mode? (as there are a lot of network issues in the Admin log file)
If you have not run in Safe Mode with Networking, I'd suggest trying it just to help rule out networking issues.

Did you try the troubleshooting steps with the Clean Boot in order to figure out where the problem was coming from?

There's 3 possibilities for any problem:
- hardware
- software
- Windows (a sub-set of software, but important enough to consider it separately).

With BSOD's we look for these problems:
- 3rd party drivers (approximately 90% of BSOD's are caused by these)
- hardware (approximately 10% of BSOD's are caused by these)
- Windows (less than 1% of BSOD's are caused by this - and this presumes that ALL Windows Updates have been applied)

Since the problem occurs in Ubuntu and in Windows, I'd think that that rules out Windows as a cause.
Since it occurs in both OS's, the only thing that they have in common is hardware.
The fact that there are no error reports (that appear related to the errors) also suggests that the problem is below the point where Windows can detect it. This implies a hardware problem also.

Have you updated Windows?
If so, please do this:

systeminfo:
Please open an elevated (Run as administrator) Command Prompt and type (or copy/paste) "systeminfo.exe >%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\systeminfo.txt" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Then navigate to Desktop to retrieve the syteminfo.txt file. If you have difficulties with making this work, please post back. Then zip up the .txt file and upload/attach the .zip file with your next post.

Have you run the Prime95 test? If so, what were the results?

 

[Raffee]

Apparently it was a faulty RAM stick.
I tried by removing each stick at a time and running the computer, and it's working great without the 1 stick.
So I guess the built-in Windows Memory Test is not any good.
Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it.

 

[usasma]

The Windows Memory Test has it's limitations. I prefer MemTest86+ - but it's not easy to run in Win8/8.1
Prime95 (the Blend test) works inside Windows and it'll error out when it tests bad hardware.
Good luck!

 

[Raffee]

I'm almost tempted to install the bad mem stick back and run the Prime95 test

 

[usasma]

Probably not worth the effort as we'd still ask you to swap the sticks around to be sure.
Diagnostic tests are only software readings of hardware - it's not the definite test that removing the stick provides.