Computer Restarts Every 2 Minutes After Fresh Install of Windows 10

The computer is a custom built gaming computer. It has not been overclocked. No additional upgrades since it was built. It came with Windows 10, so we don't have a key or anything for Windows 7.

If you look at the second system restore picture, you can see that nothing was downloaded. We did nothing but restore and connect to the internet. And yet there are the two C++ files.

I can tell you that he runs a game on Friday nights. I don't think this happened when he was running the game, but the problem first appeared while he was playing a game. But at that point, the computer would restart twice and then load Safe Mode. It would not start normally. We managed to get a Windows 10 ISO and created a bootable flashdrive, cleaned the drive and installed Windows. Everything works fine for hours - until we connect to the internet. Shortly after connecting, the computer does the restarting. That second restore picture shows nothing but C++ has been installed.

I'll check out those other resources. Thanks.

So to get that blue screen, we'd have to uncheck automatically restart? Because he doesn't get the blue screen now when the computer restarts.

He is sure that his problem is related to his video display driver, which I suppose could be the problem. But again, we can't get one when we can't connect to the internet without getting the C++ installs, which seems to cause the restarting - nothing else is downloaded and as long as we're connected to the internet, those are installed and the computer restarts.

He says the computer isn't even recognizing his video display, but I don't see that in the first picture. He did open up his tower and found that his video card is a Ghost XFX R. A friend of his found drivers for that. Could that be the problem?

Of course, he can't install them from the internet. He'd have to download them to a flash drive from a computer on campus and then install the driver from a flash drive. Is that even possible?

This is the craziest thing I've ever seen with a computer, and I've been using computers since the days when they took up a full room.

To get the BSOD which would have more troubleshooting information on it, you have to turn off the automatic restart option.

Does the computer have a built-in video GPU in addition to the Ghost XFX R card? If so he can remove the card temporarily and run it with just the built-in video GPU and see what happens?

You can download the video card driver to a flash drive and install it from the flash drive.

Unfortunately, that didn't work. We disabled auto restart, but the blue screen didn't come up. This is the craziest thing ever.

We also - without connecting to the internet - attempted to install the driver for the graphics card, but as it was installing the computer restarted. We go to restore from an earlier point, we find that the driver was intalling C++ files. I attached the picture of the screen.

I'm no computer expert, but it sure looks to me like it's the C++ files.

I also have no idea if there is a built in GPU. How would we know? That one picture I posted before said the computer is using MS Basic Display adapter. Would that be it?

But the message we got is that the computer doesn't have the most current driver for it. I'll just repost that picture.

If the computer isn't recognizing the graphics card, could that be the problem? Is there a way to search for new hardware in windows 10?
To remove a graphics card to test for this issue we're having, do we have to physically remove it or just unplug it from the motherboard?
Could the card have suddenly gone bad causing this problem?
We're getting nowhere with the C++ business. The kid was on the phone with MS, got a troubleshooting guide, but nothing worked. We think the MS helper misunderstood the problem.

The Microsoft Basic Display driver gets installed when Windows does not have driver provided by Microsoft for the display adapter. That could be perfectly normal behavior and the user would have to manually install the driver for their specific video card.

You can tell if there is a built-in graphics GPU by looking at the connection on the back. Are there video connections in the section where the other motherboard connections are (such as USB ports, ethernet network connection, ETC)? Unused video port connections there would indicate the motherboard has built-in GPU capability. Installing an additional video card in a PCIe slot many times will automatically disable on board graphics.

So, if there is unused video ports on the back of the computer, you would plug the monitor in there and physically remove the graphics card from the computer.

The fact that you are not getting BSODs with automatic restart disabled is pointing more to a hardware failure in the computer rather than a Windows error. A Power Supply Unit (PSU) going bad could cause the restarting. Believe it or not, so can a bad mouse or keyboard.

One way to check if it is a Windows issue or a hardware issue would be to run Linux on the computer. Most of the modern major Linux distributions now are very much Windows-like and more user friendly. Most Linux distributions can be run directly from a USB flash drive or DVD without having to install them on the hard drive - or they can be installed on the hard drive as well. If the computer restarts with Linux, you know it's hardware. There are also plenty of free MS Office like suites available for Linux. Just thinking about getting the computer going for the kid ASAP to be able to do school work.

If the computer restarts under Linux, I would look at keyboard and mouse first, since they are the least expensive. Then I would look at the PSU. I'm sure a computer repair shop probably has equipment to test the PSU under load.

Oh. That's a good idea. Try Linux. So we can install Linux to a USB drive. But if we do that, the computer wouldn't restart regardless, would it? I mean since it's running from the USB?

If we install it on the hard drive, do we need a separate partition? Does it wipe Windows 10 from the computer?

Neither of us has any experience with Linux. I suppose there are instructions on the Web somewhere?

I think the kid is starting to look other options for doing school work. Four days working on a computer instead of school work isn't too good during midterms.

If there is a hardware problem, the computer will restart itself regardless of if running from a USB with Linux or from the hard drive (unless the hard drive itself is the hardware failure). There should be stability testing programs available both for Linux and Windows which run the computer under heavy load to try to force a restart - those are used mostly for testing overclocking settings for people who overclock their computers.

You can usually install the Linux to the hard drive in it's own partition(s) and most Linux installers now will even set up dual booting with Windows. I will warn you, though, for the novice (and I am a Linux novice) it seems to be very difficult to remove the Linux boot files once installed on the hard drive. More experienced Linux people will know how to do it. Of course a complete wipe of the hard drive and re-install of Windows should always do it.

There are plenty of instructions on the web. I think Ubuntu is a pretty universal, full featured and highly recommended version of Linux:
Ubuntu PC operating system | Ubuntu

Well, the poor kid has decided to quit trying to repair the computer and find other ways to get midterm work done. Spending all your days going to work, class, and attemps to repair a computer doesn't leave much time for school work (or sleep). So the option left is to use the computer lab at school that has a few of the computers with the programs he needs. Most of them don't have the programs. But that's better than not getting work done at all.

Next week is spring break, so we'll resume repair efforts then.

Is there a way to determine if the graphics card is bad? Could that cause the problems? Windows doesn't recognize the video card and we can't install the driver for it. You could see from the picture I posted earlier that the installation also installs the C++ files, and then the computer restarts. If we knew it was the graphics card, we could just go buy a new one. Hate to buy one, though, if we don't know it's part of the problem.