Sudden, uncalled-for restart

I'm new to Windows 10 (pro 64 bit), and I was just reading the newspaper on Google Chrome, with no other user apps running, when suddenly the whole screen went sky blue with white streaks in it, then went black with lots of disk activity, and eventually went into a long reboot, finally bringing me back to Google Chrome on the same page I was reading. I've been using XP for more than 10 years, and I've never seen anything like that. I wondered if it was an automatic Windows Update, so I looked at Update History and didn't find anything with today's date. If, instead of just reading the paper, I had been working on something that needed saving, would I have lost my work? Can anyone tell me what happened?

jfniss said:

I'm new to Windows 10 (pro 64 bit), and I was just reading the newspaper on Google Chrome, with no other user apps running, when suddenly the whole screen went sky blue with white streaks in it, then went black with lots of disk activity, and eventually went into a long reboot, finally bringing me back to Google Chrome on the same page I was reading. I've been using XP for more than 10 years, and I've never seen anything like that. I wondered if it was an automatic Windows Update, so I looked at Update History and didn't find anything with today's date. If, instead of just reading the paper, I had been working on something that needed saving, would I have lost my work? Can anyone tell me what happened?

If it were an automatic restart due to an update, it would have been an update from TWO DAYS AGO. That's how long you have to restart the computer before it restarts on its own.

Sure enough, but what does it mean? Must I expect this to happen often now that I'm running Windows 10? Here are the Event details:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 3/31/2016 12:53:17 PM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (70368744177664),(2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Win10eBay3
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>3</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000400000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-03-31T16:53:17.934598700Z" />
<EventRecordID>2759</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Win10eBay3</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">239</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0xffffe000657f1840</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">0</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
<Data Name="BootAppStatus">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

f14tomcat said:

Look at the Events Log. Type in "event" (without quotes) in Cortana search, it will be at the top. You may have had a power spike/surge/blip. Look at the errors log for something pertaining to Kernel.

f14tomcat said:

Power spikes and surges are unpredictable and should not be construed as inherent to the operating system. The long boot time and the fact it returned you to the Chrome page you were on indicates it did what it should, it recovered. Was your laptop plugged into AC when this happened or were you running on battery? Without any other evidence, I would not assume it to be the OS at fault. That would be highly unusual. I would not do anything to try to fix a problem that really cannot be diagnosed.

As always, a good backup plan should be in place. Never assume nothing will ever happen. Has this happened since your post, or is it a one time event.

Wish there were more I could tell you. Post back if you have any more sudden restarts like that. Although you state it has never happened before, there is always the chance of a hardware problem. Nothing call be ruled in or out at this point.

Thanks. I was running a laptop on AC with a battery as backup. It hasn't happened again (yet). It's happened only once, but on the fifth day of my migrating to Windows 10, so that could be once every five days (oof!). It's the same laptop I've used for many years with XP, with only rare problems--blue screens (without automatic recovery) maybe once every three or four years. Should I mark this thread Solved?