Frequent random restarts

Hello, I was looking through all the old threads and hoping you could help me like you've helped others.

Main issue
I use my desktop almost everyday and started to get the occasional unexplained restart probably late last year - less than once a week. In the last couple of months it has increased to the point that I have had 20 in a day.

I cannot I identify any pattern in this behaviour - sometimes it's after 2 hours of playing a game, sometimes 30 seconds after booting without opening any software.

When I started to look at the Event Viewer, I did see lots of DistributedCOM warnings with Event ID 10016. I read a lot about them and it seems that most people say that they are fine. There were a few other odd warnings, like a share mount which doesn't exist any more. Apart from that, it just recorded that the system restarted with a proper shutdown - I could figure this bit out by myself :)

Possible issue (or red herring)
Eventually my machine wouldn't even post. So I opened it up and luckily my motherboard has LEDs to indicate faults with specific components - the CPU one was lit. I unmounted it and saw that the thermal paste was not evenly covering the CPU. (I remembered having issues with the terrible mounting kit which allows the heatsink to move around even after you have attached all screws.) I cleaned it all off, applied new paste and re-attached more carefully. It now boots normally, but I am still getting random restarts.

Background
I have the latest:

• BIOS: 2501
• graphics drivers: Radeon 20.2.2
• chipset drivers
• Windows update: 18363.720

I have never overclocked any of my components.

Attachment 274505

Did you try replace power supply?

Unfortunately I don't have a spare power supply to test with. I'd be surprised if it was that - it's not a cheap model and it's able to deliver much more power than I use. If I can find a spare one somewhere in the current situation I'll try.

I'd be interested if there was anything in the logs which point at something else too.

Press the Win key and the R key at the same time to open the Run dialog.
Type in "perfmon /rel" (without the quotes) and press Enter to open the Reliability Monitor
What does the Reliability Monitor say/blame?

Going to look at the reports in more detail, but that may take me a while...…….

EDIT: while waiting for a reply, please monitor your temps (use a free program such as SpeedFan or HWMonitor).
Let us know what they are

- - - Updated - - -

No memory dumps in the attached reports. Lot's of reasons for this - that's why we have all the reports.

Uninstall Asus Fan Control Service. It's causing a lot of errors (causing app crashes).
Test for overheating without it. If it's needed, download a fresh copy of the latest version from the Asus support website for your system/motherboard.

System event log shows unexpected shutdowns. These can be caused by several different reasons. Have you been shutting down the system by holding the power button down or unplugging the machine?

I'm suspecting a hardware issue - but there's not much to go on
Hardware issues sometimes happen below the level that Windows is able to see/record errors - so that makes it a pain to troubleshoot. Temp readings will help.

I never knew about the Reliability Monitor tool - you learn something new every day.

There are 30+ occurances of Critical event "Windows was not properly shut down" in the last month. None of these were triggered by me and unfortunately no more information is given. My guess is that power is being cut before logs can be written?

There is one instance of "Radeon Software Host Application: Stopped working", but it is timestamped 4 seconds after one of the Critical Events as above. So I think that's a one-off.

There's a couple of warnings, one about Ableton Live and one about Google Updater: "Unsuccessful application reconfiguration". I think these are symptons and not causes of the problem.

I've removed the ASUS Fan Xpert tool and switched to SpeedFan. I'm not sure how the sensors are labeled in SpeedFan, but these are my idle temps (e.g. simple web browsing):

• Temp1: 30C
• Temp2: 25C
• Temp3: -128C (sic)
• HD0: 23C
• HD1: 28C
• GPU: 47C
• Core: 13C

I am starting to wonder if it is a hardware problem, maybe PSU like MrPepka suggested. Thanks for your help so far.

I found the CRITICAL events in the System Event Logs of the reports that you submitted, but didn't find anything there to pin it on. That's why I asked yoi to look at the Reliability Monitor.

If Windows can't see the error, it can't record it.
In most cases that means a hardware problem that occurs below the "event horizon" that Windows can detect. One such example is the possibility of a PSU problem.

So, try this (BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL!!!) It'll help determine if temp sensors are broken:
Open the case and leave it open.
Start the system (if it's not already running)
Let the system restart/crash on it's own.
Unplug the system from the wall (for safety)
VERY CAREFULLY reach inside the case and feel near each component.
DO NOT TOUCH THE COMPONENTS. You can get 2nd or 3rd degree burns doing this (if you touch things) - it's happened to me!!!
If nothing is too hot to come near (the temp of boiling water is 100 degrees C - and anything that hot is too hot), then it's likely not to be a heat problem.

As for testing the hardware, the first thing to do is to remove all non-essential stuff that's connected to the system in ANY WAY. Then test to see if it still crashes.
If it does, then here comes the hard part
Try this procedure (the page is old, but the tests are still good): Hardware Stripdown Troubleshooting

As for testing parts - you can test them on another computer - or use the parts from another computer temporarily to help rule out problems on your system. In the event you can't find/use a part - you can always purchase one from a shop that'll let you return it if it's not needed (most big stores that sell electronics will allow this).

I think it's a hardware problem, but you'll need to narrow it down a bit. Otherwise you'll end up throwing a lot of money around just to figure it out.

Ok I hate to admit this and I almost wish I was wrong, but I think I've solved the problem - by wiggling the 20 pin ATX cable where it attaches to the motherboard.

Can't believe how many hours I've wasted losing things I had open and researching obscure Windows event codes. Anyway, guess it's a cheap fix in the end. It's been 2 days now without an issue, so it might just be a fluke.

Big thanks for your time jdc1 in any case.

I'm glad that you've figured it out.
Loose connections are one of the most difficult things to figure out.
Often they're not even found - but the owner finally gives up and takes the machine apart and puts it back together - only to find it fixed! It's happened to me many times in my career.

Good luck!