Solved My PC is unexpectedly rebooting

Last month I did a hardware upgrade to my PC. I changed from a Ryzen 5800X to an Intel i7 13700KF with a new Gigabyte board. I applied all of the Intel mitigation microcode updates, and all drivers, etc. and the system is running like a top, except for one thing.

I can work on the PC all day without problems, and game too. However, if I leave the PC idle for a while, there is a good chance it will spontaneously reboot. It won't do it if I have an app open on screen, only when it is on the desktop. It does not blue screen, it just reboots.

I know this has to be hardware, but I don't know where to look in any logs to find out the problem. I looked in the event viewer, but I have to admit that I don't understand a lot of it. Event Viewer has never been my strong suit, anyway.

I would appreciate any tips that will help me lock down this problem if someone knows how to figure this out.

have a look at.
settings > system > about
on this menu click 'advanced system settings'

when this window appears
advanced > startup and recovery
at the bottom of this window in system failure
untick 'automatically restart'
(a restart maybe required)

click OK to save settings and see if that improves the situation.
best of luck, Steve ..

I'd recommend taking a look into Reliability Monitor (look under "Critical Events") to see what it says is happening. Much more filtered and easier to follow than Event Viewer. If a file search of the affected PC turns up any "*.dmp" files (especially in the C:\Windows\Minidump folder), you might be able to use Nir Sofer's BlueScreenView to help identify faulting device drivers or power issues that can cause spontaneous reboots.
HTH,
--Ed--

Thank you both for your replies.

I was digging around in BIOS because Secure Boot was apparently not activated and I found a setting for loading the power supply. BIOS says that if you have any weird rebooting when the system is under light load to enable it. So I did.

I am going to see if this changes anything before I try the suggestions that you fellows made. I don't want to try a bunch of things at once as that can lead to more problems. I am going to let it idle for a few hours and see what happens. I will post my results.

Well, I left it for five hours idling and in the first hour it rebooted four times and after that it was stable according to the Reliability Monitor. I am going to try XxXxX's trick first and see if that helps.

Reliability Monitor doesn't really tell me anything other than three programs are crashing, but not during the time it is doing the reboots. It also tells me that Windows did not shut down properly. Very helpful. I don't get it. If I am busy doing something or gaming, all is well, but as soon as I walk away from the computer it reboots within ten minutes. I am also going to try to look at the *.dmp files and see if anything is there.

Ok I fixed it. I got looking on Reddit and found a solution that seems to work.

Apparently, some models of Gigabyte motherboards suffer from this problem. The solution is to go into the C-State settings in BIOS and set them all to enabled, EXCEPT for C8 and C10. You can't just set them to Auto or they won't work. You have to set each one individually to enabled, with C8 and C10 disabled.

I haven't had a reboot in four days now.

@Catnip: Thanks for sharing your fix. Pretty esoteric, but good to know!
=Ed=

I've noticed my gigabyte board seems a little aggressively tuned by default towards performance rather than stability.

Here's a good explanation on c-states A Minimum Complete Tutorial of CPU Power Management, C-states and P-states

Seems one may want to disable all c-states above 7, and maybe even 7.

But the author cautions: "In the datasheet (section 4.2.2 page 64) there is this note: “Long term reliability cannot be assured unless all the Low-Power Idle States are enabled”. So you should really not disable C-states."

However, above 7 is so far up on the list it seems unlikely to cause longevity issues. Other opinions would certainly be welcome.

1) Please run the V2 log collector > post a share link



2) Post share links for event viewer system and application:

Catnip said:

Ok I fixed it. I got looking on Reddit and found a solution that seems to work.

Apparently, some models of Gigabyte motherboards suffer from this problem. The solution is to go into the C-State settings in BIOS and set them all to enabled, EXCEPT for C8 and C10. You can't just set them to Auto or they won't work. You have to set each one individually to enabled, with C8 and C10 disabled.

I haven't had a reboot in four days now.

Click to expand...

Whoever shared this solution must be very good. Generally, no one will go to BIOS settings that deep. If this issue is common in a few Gigabyte motherboards, they should have released a patch to correct the C state settings.

zbook said:

1) Please run the V2 log collector > post a share link

BSOD - Posting Instructions

BSOD - Posting Instructions This will show you how to help provide needed information about your system and dump files. It will not contain any personal or sensitive information about you or your data. To get better help with your Windows BSOD issue, please read these instructions and follow...

www.elevenforum.com

2) Post share links for event viewer system and application:

How to share event logs in case of a computer issue

This article explains how to share Event Logs from the event viewer in case if you have a Windows problem as investigation would help.

www.yourwindowsguide.com

Click to expand...

I don't know how much good that will do. I haven't had a reboot since the 22nd. There wouldn't be any valid data would there?

geoalanch said:

Whoever shared this solution must be very good. Generally, no one will go to BIOS settings that deep. If this issue is common in a few Gigabyte motherboards, they should have released a patch to correct the C state settings.

Click to expand...

I agree. A patch is needed for sure. Thing is, it only happens on some Gigabyte boards, not all. I am just glad I found that information. The guy has a big guide on how to do a whole bunch of stuff to mitigate the problem, but I don't think it's all necessary. I diddled with the C-States and it fixed the problem. No need to go further.

Here is the link where he talks about it: (reddit)


This too. They are linked:

Strangely, my PC spontaneously rebooted twice last night when idle and once when sleeping. I thought that I had this fixed, but I guess not.

I am going to try the suggestion by @zbook regarding the BSOD data collection. It's not giving me a BSOD, though, it just reboots. I am looking hard at my motherboard and power supply. I've got the oscilloscope out and I am monitoring signals. I will see what that gives me along with the data collection.

I will post my findings in a day or two. It should reboot at least once by then.

please try.
settings > system > about

on this page
advance system settings

in this window
advanced .. start-up and recovery
click settings

in this window .. system failure
uncheck/tick automatically restart
then click OK

that should stop the system rebooting on all errors and give you a BSOD with error messages.
best of luck, Steve ..

XxXxX said:

please try.
settings > system > about

on this page
advance system settings

in this window
advanced .. start-up and recovery
click settings

in this window .. system failure
uncheck/tick automatically restart
then click OK

that should stop the system rebooting on all errors and give you a BSOD with error messages.
best of luck, Steve ..

Click to expand...

Did that. It still reboots spontaneously, but only when idling. I'm thinking power supply?

These sorts of issues are in my experience difficult to diagnose. I have an ongoing issue where my desktop PC tries to spontaneously reboot (usually circa every 2 weeks) but hangs during the reboot. I'm not going to tempt fate by saying I've fixed the problem but haven't had a reoccurrence since early November 2024. The only clue was it would typically show up when a video was playing and when the system was using low resources (near idle state).

There were no indications in the Event Viewer, Reliability History or anywhere else what the issue was.

What did I try (roughly in sequence).
1. Wiped out the GPU software/drivers (AMD Radeon) and reinstalled. On its own this didn't help.
2. Updated the bios and reset settings to default in-line with Asus and Intel's recommendations.
3. I'm a trained IT technician, but did send the PC to another IT technician who using AIDA64 severely stress tested the PC for 24 hours and ran other tests. Didn't find any issues.

Despite all this there was no improvement with the same issue every 2-3 weeks.

What mitigated the issue (haven't had a problem for 3 months (touch wood!) was:

1. Made a full system backup of the system drives and partitions using AOMEI Backupper.
2. Updated ALL Asus\Intel motherboard and AMD GPU drivers.
3. Disabled Freesync in the AMD Radeon Control Panel and turned it off inside the TV I use as a monitor.
4. Downloaded the Multi Plane Overlay (MPO) registry fix which disabled MPO. This is a common cause of issues with GPU's. Available from Nvidia. Link can be supplied upon request.
5. Ran Driver Store Explorer and deleted all old drivers.

I do have sympathy for @Catnip as these types of issues are downright frustrating to diagnose let alone fix. I thought at one stage it was something like the PSU causing the problem, but it wasn't.

I found the issue!

There was a BIOS upgrade in January that applies to this issue, so those with Gigabyte boards that have this problem should check their board's web pages for an update.

Working perfectly now.