Windows 10 randomly shuts down

[n25an]

You guys might find this one interesting...
I dealt with a customer today that had a windows 10 computer that kept shutting down...
Tried the following
turning off sleep...
turning off fast boot...
turning off windows update...
removing unneeded windows updates...
downgrading the graphics card...
changing ram...
changing psu...
nothing worked...
then I took a closer look after finding out that windows will shut down if cpu or gpu overheats...
looked at the cpu fan and it was moving slowly...
went to bios and turned off the throttling fan speeded up enormously... did the same thing in the gpu software...
shutdown issue went away...

I get the feeling that microsoft tried to pull what apple did to force sales with the iphone...
program in a handicap into the software... in apples case it was to program the iphone to run slower to increase sales via updates
and in this case it was to program in fan speed slow down this could be via updates or could be timed...

that could just be me putting on my tinfoil hat again... and seeing conspiracies everywhere...

in any case, does anyone have a rational answer as to why this problem occurred???

thanks again...

[rthonpm]

There's a major flaw in your argument: Microsoft doesn't control the BIOS settings of any PC. Now Dell or HP may have a plan to sell more hardware but it's not some grand plan from Redmond.

The biggest issues I see in terms of hardware are poorly written or out of date drivers, bloated and unnecessary software interfaces, incorrect configuration, and lowest common denominator BIOS settings. Some hardware will even state in its documentation that some BIOS settings need to be changed for the hardware to work. Even more have a terrible bloated software component built into their drivers that offer no true benefit.

In this particular instance, it sounds like a power saving setting in the BIOS that would have been fine with onboard graphics, but once you add on a video card, power needs increase quite a bit. The only updates that can affect a BIOS setting are BIOS updates, which generally have one of the better documented change histories of any update. Read through the change history for the BIOS and also see if the card manufacturer has any steps for removing throttling settings.

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[n25an]

good argument... the following lines up with your ideas...

I was talking to a senior tech on the job today and he said I should have blown out the dust
but considering all that I did and I got it running its the graphics card...
he said the reason why everything seemed ok when I got the fans whirring was simple...
it made it a bit harder for the cpu and graphics card to hit the right level of temperature and calculation for the graphics card to fail

he explained to me that I did everything but give the gpu a real test...
off the job many things you could do he said chief of which is a graphics intense game or run a lot of youtube videos at same time but on the job you need a graphics card stress tester...

He gave me a link to get one...
graphics card stress tester

I tried out what he said since the customer was on my path and the computer was in a corner in the office and sure enough... pop... went the weasel... pc died... so I put in a spare card that I brought with me ( graphics card senior tech already tested) and all was well in the world again...

There's a major flaw in your argument: Microsoft doesn't control the BIOS settings of any PC. Now Dell or HP may have a plan to sell more hardware but it's not some grand plan from Redmond.

The biggest issues I see in terms of hardware are poorly written or out of date drivers, bloated and unnecessary software interfaces, incorrect configuration, and lowest common denominator BIOS settings. Some hardware will even state in its documentation that some BIOS settings need to be changed for the hardware to work. Even more have a terrible bloated software component built into their drivers that offer no true benefit.

In this particular instance, it sounds like a power saving setting in the BIOS that would have been fine with onboard graphics, but once you add on a video card, power needs increase quite a bit. The only updates that can affect a BIOS setting are BIOS updates, which generally have one of the better documented change histories of any update. Read through the change history for the BIOS and also see if the card manufacturer has any steps for removing throttling settings.

Sent from my BlackBerry using Tapatalk

[Dominickbenoit]

Could you repair your Windows? If not, do it first. You can use "sfc /scannow" command in the command prompt. Details are here.

[Gift]

Thermal grease might've been hardened out - usually you should notice massive performance losses before it ends up with shutdowns. CPU/GPU can usually reduce their clock speeds automatically once it's sensors says it's too hot.

[OverKnight]

A stress test of the system is one way to start, but if you can, get a Preinstallation Environment (PE) to boot into and leave it on. If it reboots or shuts down on it's own in the PE, then it's most likely a hardware issue. Overheating is always the first guess, but you could be seeing something that power supply is starting to exhibit. The PE will be using minimal drivers, so if nothing goes wrong here, then your actual operating system could be a driver, driver(s) conflict or ?.

Google Hiren's BootCD PE. With this you can make a CD or USB. It's a great tool for booting in a live environment and testing all of these pesky things. Current version is Windows 10 PE x64, however you can download older version for older systems.

Good Luck!

[slimslob]

A stress test of the system is one way to start, but if you can, get a Preinstallation Environment (PE) to boot into and leave it on. If it reboots or shuts down on it's own in the PE, then it's most likely a hardware issue. Overheating is always the first guess, but you could be seeing something that power supply is starting to exhibit. The PE will be using minimal drivers, so if nothing goes wrong here, then your actual operating system could be a driver, driver(s) conflict or ?.

Google Hiren's BootCD PE. With this you can make a CD or USB. It's a great tool for booting in a live environment and testing all of these pesky things. Current version is Windows 10 PE x64, however you can download older version for older systems.

Good Luck!

Many years ago I had used BartPE. His PE Builder created a CD or USB but did require you to have your licensed OS CD to create the PE disk. All system files came off your OS CD. Nice to know there is something newer. Bart was for XP and Server 2003.

[slimslob]

I don't even know such words. Although I had Windows shutdowns as well as black death screens and blue screens at least two-three times a year. So what do you think it was in your case? In my situation the problem was called by a virus that got through spyware to my PC. And I also had to learn what does ssid mean and other things to protect myself for the future.

If you want to post useless links, buy advertising.

[slimslob]

Support for Windows 8.1 ends January 10, 2023

[rthonpm]

Support for Windows 8.1 ends January 10, 2023

As will support for Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2.

I'm planning on retiring my last 2012 R2 server early next year. Most of my clients are already upgraded to Server 2019 so they're good until the close of the decade.

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