Spontaneous restarts, perhaps seemingly caused by power switch? Help!

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  1. Posts : 281
    Win7 Professional 64
       #1

    Spontaneous restarts, perhaps seemingly caused by power switch? Help!


    Very frustrating situation here. Sorry, please read all my situation because there are some twists and turns.

    Start with Computer does random restarts after putting in a 350 watt PSU which describes a startup/spontaneous restart problem I had in the winter, about six months ago.

    This was solved by putting in a new (and less powerful) PSU, but then we also discovered that the power cord I'd been using for my PCs going back several years was a problem. Replaced the power cord and the problem was completely solved.

    Well, for five months or so anyway.

    Here is a log of what has happened since 6/20:
    6/20: Computer spontaneously restarts upon insertion of USB card reader in one of the front panel slots. This happens twice, both logged by event log.

    6/24: Pressing the power button to wake computer from sleep "wakes" computer for under five seconds and it then shuts down. Process repeats. Start computer from back panel switch after shutting off and I see message I've never seen before, counting from 0-100% fast about checking or updating BIOS, and then computer restarts, gets to Windows screen and says "resuming Windows" with no acknowledgment of the weirdness. Computer resumes exactly where it was like nothing was wrong. Event(s) not logged.

    6/24: Due to a brief power failure in house, computer shuts down and then restarts with power resumption. Event is logged.

    6/25: Computer is awoken normally first thing in the morning, but after about two minutes spontaneously restarts. Event is logged.

    6/25: Call my favored computer repair place, which advises to check drivers and BIOS. All drivers and BIOS are up to date (I think). Drivers yes, BIOS version is from 9/10/2010, and GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1156 - GA-H55M-S2V (rev. 1.3) says that's the current version.

    7/1: After six days of flawless working, computer spontaneously restarted about two minutes after logging in. This was after being in sleep mode for several hours, so CPU or case temperature could/should not have been a factor. Event is logged.

    7/1: Woke from sleep and it spontaneously restarted after two minutes. Event is logged.
    Here is how this all shakes out:

    For about five months there were no problems, and the pattern, 90% of the time, was restart computer at bedtime, wake from sleep and login in the morning, go to work, wake from sleep upon return from work, restart at bedtime, repeat. A few times the computer would never sleep for a few days, but that was the general pattern.

    Then on 6/20, inserting a USB card reader into the front panel, twice in 10 minutes, restarted the computer the moment contact was made between reader and port (the same USB port reads and works with thumb drives and other devices without a problem; I have replaced the card reader).

    Since then, except for the power failure in our house (yes, I should probably get a UPS...), all of the computer odd behavior (the first 6/24 event above) and spontaneous restarts (everything else) has followed, by about two minutes, my using the power button to wake the computer from sleep.

    There have been 14 times since then where I've used the power button, and four of them, including the last two, have caused the computer to spontaneously restart about two minutes after it wakes from sleep.

    Meanwhile, especially on weekends, the computer runs for 15 straight hours, usually in use, and never spontaneously restarts. Actually, from late afternoon on 6/28, for about 60 hours, the computer never slept, was user-restarted twice, and ran fine with no spontaneous restarts.

    What is going on?

    I really doubt it's the power supply or cord. The computer runs too long and too well without a problem.

    I really doubt it's memory for the same reason.

    I really doubt it's malware. I am very safe in my computing practices, and have never introduced malware to a computer I've used, and the computer is swept nightly.

    I really doubt it's a temperature issue. The computer goes and goes, 60 hours over the weekend for example, then sleeps and spontaneously restarts in two minutes and is fine after that?

    The only things, other than a power failure, that have caused odd behavior, stem from the defective card reader in the USB port once, and the pressing of the power button the other times.

    I've changed my computer sleep time to 14 hours, which should basically mean it never sleeps, and I'll see what happens as a result.

    Any comments/thoughts on this?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 26,863
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    A lot of the 1155 sockets have had issues with sleep, but it sounds like you may have other issues as well. What case do you have. What you're saying is almost every time you touch the FP connections you have a restart. That could be caused by a short on the front panel of the case. Some cases have had long running issues with that.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 281
    Win7 Professional 64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    essenbe said:
    A lot of the 1155 sockets have had issues with sleep, but it sounds like you may have other issues as well. What case do you have. What you're saying is almost every time you touch the FP connections you have a restart. That could be caused by a short on the front panel of the case. Some cases have had long running issues with that.

    My case: GIGABYTE GZ-KF03B Black SGCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 26,863
    Windows 11 Pro
       #4

    I'm not blaming the case entirely, but read a few of the reviews on the case. Several have complained about the motherboard standoffs (which will short a motherboard) and some have complained about the FP switches. From reading the reviews, I would unplug the reset switch and see if it makes any difference. If you hold down the power button, it will shut off. I never have used a reset switch.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 281
    Win7 Professional 64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    essenbe said:
    I'm not blaming the case entirely, but read a few of the reviews on the case. Several have complained about the motherboard standoffs (which will short a motherboard) and some have complained about the FP switches. From reading the reviews, I would unplug the reset switch and see if it makes any difference. If you hold down the power button, it will shut off. I never have used a reset switch.
    I did catch the negative reviews. Interesting.

    I'm probably going to have a repair shop do a broader assessment, just so "the beast is killed."

    BTW, no sleep for computer last night, and perfect behavior both overnight and this morning!
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 281
    Win7 Professional 64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    I have an update. I have gone a week now with the computer never going to sleep because I configured it not to. A week of no going to sleep means a week of no touching the power button, and the computer has been fine in that time, 168 hours of straight uptime.

    Still, I took it to the shop today because something had been wrong.

    They inserted all kinds of devices into the front-panel USB ports with no ill effects.

    Set sleeptime to five minutes, kept waking it up, no problems.

    I finally told the tech to see if the power button sticks. He unplugged the computer and kept pressing the button and maybe once out of 10 times, it would stick - he even sent a photo to me. Basically one side of the button remains pressed in and the other comes out like you'd expect.

    I told them to keep observing it overnight.

    Could a sticking power button cause the behavior I witnessed, which was the computer being woken from sleep by the power button, then spontaneously restarting in about two minutes? If so why the two-minute lag between wake and restart?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 25,847
    Windows 10 Pro. 64/ version 1709 Windows 7 Pro/64
       #7

    Yes it could.
    When it sticks it could cause a partial power shout to ground.
    That is what a proper working power button does when it is pressed.
    When you press the button it completes the circuit and tell the motherboard to wake up and get things going. A partially stuck button could at times do the same thing on its own.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 281
    Win7 Professional 64
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Argh, so frustrating...

    I picked the computer up from the shop five days ago, and not surprisingly, it performed flawlessly. And they switched the bios to allow wakeup from double mouseclick, so I never have to touch that darned power button again.

    So for five days, the computer works great.

    Then this morning, I woke it, logged in, and four minutes later, spontaneous restart.

    These restarts have all happened upon being woken in the morning, and all within 2-4 minutes of being woken. My antivirus (avast free edition) is scanning, but I've woken the computer hundreds of mornings, with the virus scan kicking off on login, and it never happened until the past month.

    I have not touched the power button since the computer came back. Even when I first turned it on, I turned it on from the switch on the PSU. So the button isn't the issue.

    I'd think that maybe a sketchy electrical feed at home could be the problem, since I have had other electrical-related problems with my computers at that location (computer is plugged into a surge suppressor that is plugged into another surge suppressor plugged into the wall).

    Except why then can I have the computer running up for 16 hours on a weekend day and no restarts? Why are the only restarts within a few minutes of waking from sleep?

    I'd be happy to get an inexpensive UPS, but the computer has only been doing this for the past month, and as I said, the restarts only happen shortly after waking.

    Ideas?
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 281
    Win7 Professional 64
    Thread Starter
       #9

    The computer spontaneously restarted again this morning, four minutes after logging in upon wake from sleep.

    It appears that, over the past three weeks, the only time the computer has spontaneously restarted has been:

    • In the morning
    • 2-4 minutes after logging in
    • Which has happened immediately upon wake

    Remove any of the above legs from the stool and all is fine.


    When I effectively disabled sleep, the computer would go fine, being restarted every night and logged into in the morning.


    When I return from work the computer has been sleeping longer than it has when I wake it in the morning, but there's a logged-in session in progress. And the computer works fine.


    I would think if I had any hardware issues (most likely being failing PSU, failing motherboard, or erratic electricity source), the spontaneous restarts would be happen much more frequently and randomly than they are. But the only time it happens is once and once only following a morning login upon wake from sleep.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 281
    Win7 Professional 64
    Thread Starter
       #10

    Another update.

    Tonight after work, I woke the computer, which was already in a session, and six minutes later it spontaneously restarted.

    So now I've ruled out "morning" and "logging in" as causes, and it appears to be connected to waking.

    I ran malwarebytes on my computer and in both quick and full scans, it found nothing.

    Oh, also, I checked my system advanced properties and system failure > automatically restart is not checked; write an event to the system log is checked.

    So we're not talking BSOD-type problems here, since they'd not restart the computer. And the only logged events are that the system shutdown improperly.

    Can someone make sense of this?
      My Computer


 
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