Windows 11 keeps rebooting (I am tired)

TraderGary · Mar 27, 2023

To answer your question about backups, I agree with @glasskuter. I too use Macrium Reflect image backups.

My data, especially my family photos, are very important to me and I don't rely on having just one backup method. My backup strategy uses three separate backup methods all being run at the same time.

(1) I'm fortunate to have a fast Internet connection that enables me to take advantage of Microsoft's built-in OneDrive. I have a Microsoft 365 subscription that includes a Terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage. I have a single one terabyte SSD on my computer. I keep all of my data in my OneDrive folder and built-in OneDrive does a constant real-time mirror of all my data on my terabyte of cloud OneDrive. It's vitally important to have one data backup method be off-site.

(2) I do a continuous local data backup using Microsoft's built-in File History on an external 2TB Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD.

(3) I do a daily Macrium Reflect full drive image backup and rotate 5 daily images on a separate external 2TB Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD.

Jabiru · Mar 27, 2023

Wow, lots of good advice here, but I have to agree with the hardware crowd. Constant, seemingly random reboots are usually caused by faulty hardware. This has happend to me on several occasions and in every instance it was hardware related. In one case it was memory, but not the memory modules themselves. They tested (Memtest86) fine in other computers but failed in mine. The problem turned out to be misaligned pins in the motherboard memory slot. I had to use pretty much a microscope to discover the misaligned pins and I took a very small scredriver and bent the faulty pins back so they were straight and it fixed it. The second time it was a video card on a completely different computer, with again misaligned pins on the motherboard. Same fix. The third time someone brought me this problem a very careful examination of the motherboard showed a very small discoloration undemeath a surface mounted chip which was probably the problem since a new motherboard fixed the problem. The last time this happened a power supply replacement fixed the problem. In every case it was hardware. I find the event viewer wasn't any help other than possibly pointing me to the faulty hardware. The worst case scenario is where the event viewer points you somewhere different every time. This is sure sign it's hardware related.

In my experience of troubleshooting problems like this I've learned to start with the hardware (in the case of network troubleshooting always start with layer 1) .

Jabiru

glasskuter · Mar 27, 2023

Jabiru said:
I have to agree with the hardware crowd.

I think it's going to be hardware as well, but on the info we've been given thus far we can't know that. Neither do we know the OP's level of expertice in dealing with such issues. If I was to just speculate as everyone else has I'd lean more toward it being the GPU or its driver, but we can't just start advising one to start changing hardware until things are narrowed down somewhat. Hopefully the logs will provide @zbook or anyone else experienced in analyzing logfiles a better sense of direction.

spapakons · Mar 27, 2023

I didn't said to try hardware to find the culprit. If the computer is still under Warranty, assuming it was bought by a single store, he can return to the store, describe the symptoms and let their Service swap parts to find the culprit. Then they will replace the faulty part free of charge. In some stores you might be required to pay a small amount for their work, part is replaced free unter Warranty. For example some stores charge you nothing the first year of Warranty, while the second year you pay a small amount for their time, not for the parts being replaced under Warranty.

xboxown · Mar 27, 2023

This is concerning post 94 fixed using drop box instead export-collection-all-properties-pcstatus-2023-03-28.csv

This is the time it rebooted back then. I have opened the case yesterday, like I said before, aligned the memory RAM again and changed the PCIeX wire using different output of the PSU. Now one full day it have not rebooted once. It is now almost 8:00 PM and since yesterday it have not rebooted once. Now I am going to see how it behaves with video and me playing game. If it didn't reboot at all, I will wait for tomorrow and see if that still showed stable. If it did, that is second day of seven days count down. If after seventh date completed it still did not reboot, then the issue is resolved. That being said, if it reboots now before I post this, or later in the day I will not point blame on Windows 11. I really love windows 11. I don't know. It is a sexy OS hehe. That being said, if it rebooted again for any reason then I know it is a faulty hardware.

I have setup a setting in Windows 11 that it will not reboot IF WINDOWS 11 crashes or decides to restart...so the fact it is still restarting that means it is a hardware not software. THAT IS A RELIEF. Meaning no need to lose data or reinstall OS or lose your settings...etc. I can deal with hardware. I have no energy anymore to deal with software (OS or not) and do everything again. I am going to buy an external HDD and do an image copy of this entire hard drive...all 1 TB worth of it in a 4 TB hard drive.

Then I will do another type of copy as well of my data, in case the image is not the way to go when it comes to restoring my settings.

xboxown · Mar 28, 2023

That is third day now. Didn't reboot at all. I am so happy!!

Three days in a row!!

spapakons · Mar 28, 2023

Let's hope you won't jinx it... Fingers crossed.

Scannerman · Jun 17, 2023

Wish I had seen this one earlier. Still glad to see that the problem was fixed. I would have tried that PSU on a different system board. Another thing that can cause this issue is a faulty power switch. Had a problem with an old HP once that had this issue. Drove me crazy. Turned out to be a weak switch.

spapakons · Jun 17, 2023

To avoid replacing the whole tower just for the power switch, a common workaround is to disconnect the Reset cable from the motherboard and connect it in place of the power button. So you have no reset (frankly, how often do you need it?) but you can use the reset button as on/off button bypassing the damaged power button. You can also configure BIOS to use a key on the keyboard as on/off button, if there is such option in the BIOS power settings.

Spunk · Jun 17, 2023

If you can still boot into Windows, before attempting the Repair Install, check the Health of the drive. Download Crystal Disk Info, or Disk Genius in my signature. Check the SMART info, this will give you a quick snapshot of the health of your drive. If it is any less then Good, then the drive needs to be replaced, no need to do a Repair Install because it will fail.
If it's Good, proceed and see how it goes.

spapakons · Jun 18, 2023

You can also check the disk with Hard Disk Sentinel. If the disk needs replacement, but its health is over 80%, you can try cloning the entire disk on a new one. This way you will have an exact copy of your system including your data and applications. If the issue persists, you can proceed with the repair install on the clone. For very low disk health there is a high risk of losing data, so I recommend doing a clean installation on the new disk and then try copying only your data from the original disk.

cereberus · Jun 18, 2023

xboxown said:
Thank you all for your work and help. I went out shopping and returned and still have not rebooted yet. Usually, it would have rebooted 450 times by now in less than two-minute spectrum. I am doing hawk observation on this device. Thank you all for guiding me with that error message, especially @Spunk for the link. Much appreciate it. As for not valuing my data, I valued it dearly in my heart actually. My problem is that I don't have money yet to buy external hard drive to back it up. I need to buy it first and once I do I will immediately backup everything. That is a promise to myself.

Backup your most critical data to the cloud.

Scannerman · Jun 19, 2023

cereberus said:
Backup your most critical data to the cloud.

And once you do that, make like the Rolling Stones and get off of that Cloud! It is essential to have your own physical backups of your own personal data. Also be sure to keep them turned off when not in use, or keep them in cold storage. Voice of experience.

spapakons · Jun 28, 2023

Yes, not only cloud backups can be compromised, they take too much time to complete. A physical backup takes a fraction of the time and you have much more free space to take it.

MisterEd · Jun 28, 2023

Scannerman said:
And once you do that, make like the Rolling Stones and get off of that Cloud! It is essential to have your own physical backups of your own personal data. Also be sure to keep them turned off when not in use, or keep them in cold storage. Voice of experience.

Conventional wisdom on the Internet was to only connect your backup drive when you did your backups. After that disconnect the drive and turn it off. However, I found that never worked out because it depended upon me remembering to reconnect the drive and do the backups manually. A few years ago I had a 700GB HDD suddenly fail. I was upset that its backup was so old it was worthless. I decided no more. I then setup several of my computers to do automatic backups. Naturally, this required the backup drives to be connected all the time.

I have the following computers that I find important enough to do automatic backups and their external backup HDDs.

Desktop #1:

External 12TB HDD (backup for desktop #1)
External 6TB HDD

Desktop #2:

External 5TB HDD (backup for desktop #2)

Laptop #1

Backup using WiFi to 6TB HDD on Desktop #1

I have several more external HDDs. I use them for occasional backups for my other not as important computers.

TechnoMage2021 · Jun 28, 2023

Back when I first started doing backups, ~1980, a 30mb Seagate HD cost $799. A little too pricey for a backup drive.
So most people were just using floppy disks.
The first actual Backup program I ever used, in those days, came from "Central Point Software". It did a good job, and was a lot faster than a Microsoft DOS backup.
But, even that long ago, people were running programs in their homes and businesses that created DATA files.
And, since computer crashes were well known, backing up those data files was of prime importance.
So, since doing data backups has been around for so long, I'm appaled that today so many PC users don't understand how or when to back up their data.
It can be as complicated as buying a commercial backup program or just copying the files to a Flash Drive.
Which, by the way, is Actually one of the safest backups you can do.

To back up my own data files, I've simplified the process, by just writing a simple DOS Batch File, that takes the files from my Data folders (five of them) and copies them to a 128 GB Flash Drive. I've set it up with XCOPY, so that the first time I ran it, it copied all the files. That took a while because there are years accumulation of files. But now, each time I run it, only new or changed files are backed up. A backup can take less time than it takes to get my flash drive and plug it into the PC. Mere seconds.

For a second backup, I run a similar batch file, to copy all my data files to a 1TB backup drive, that I have installed inside my Desktop tower. That's the backup to my backup!
I'm either famous or Infamous for saying, "The only bad backup is the one that you decided not to make".

Since the very first day, on the very first forum, we've been talking about doing backups, and still, someone will comment, "what do I do about my data, if I re-install windows?"

I encourage anyone who can't do their own backups, to "find someone who knows how, to do it for you."

Y'all have a great 4th of July! ****

TM

Scannerman · Jun 28, 2023

TechnoMage2021 said:
Back when I first started doing backups, ~1980, a 30mb Seagate HD cost $799. A little too pricey for a backup drive.
So most people were just using floppy disks.
The first actual Backup program I ever used, in those days, came from "Central Point Software". It did a good job, and was a lot faster than a Microsoft DOS backup.
But, even that long ago, people were running programs in their homes and businesses that created DATA files.
And, since computer crashes were well known, backing up those data files was of prime importance.
So, since doing data backups has been around for so long, I'm appaled that today so many PC users don't understand how or when to back up their data.
It can be as complicated as buying a commercial backup program or just copying the files to a Flash Drive.
Which, by the way, is Actually one of the safest backups you can do.

To back up my own data files, I've simplified the process, by just writing a simple DOS Batch File, that takes the files from my Data folders (five of them) and copies them to a 128 GB Flash Drive. I've set it up with XCOPY, so that the first time I ran it, it copied all the files. That took a while because there are years accumulation of files. But now, each time I run it, only new or changed files are backed up. A backup can take less time than it takes to get my flash drive and plug it into the PC. Mere seconds.

For a second backup, I run a similar batch file, to copy all my data files to a 1TB backup drive, that I have installed inside my Desktop tower. That's the backup to my backup!
I'm either famous or Infamous for saying, "The only bad backup is the one that you decided not to make".

Since the very first day, on the very first forum, we've been talking about doing backups, and still, someone will comment, "what do I do about my data, if I re-install windows?"

I encourage anyone who can't do their own backups, to "find someone who knows how, to do it for you."

Y'all have a great 4th of July! ****

TM

Even if you don't have time for all this it's not hard to at least set up an external drive and copy documents, pictures, desktop etc. to the external drive as an archive. Redundancy is everything. Air gapping and cold storage are other valuable considerations. Seagate sells drives that will mirror your data for you so you don't even have to concern yourself with setting up your own RAID. There are so many affordable options available today for backing up your data. It isn't rocket science.

spapakons · Jun 29, 2023

One day the disk seems to work perfectly and suddenly dies losing all your videos and downloads... Been there done that, unfortunately

Scannerman · Jun 29, 2023

spapakons said:
One day the disk seems to work perfectly and suddenly dies losing all your videos and downloads... Been there done that, unfortunately

Try this: You have half a dozen backups on different physical drives. You know you don't stay current unless those drives are running. Since an OS is giving you trouble you turn on the drives and back up. You select your most current and reliable backup drive to recover your data. You get an error that you can't use that backup because there is an issue with Optane. You choose your next best backup and allow Windoze to proceed with recovery. You get a pop up warning from Windows stating that drive C and D will both be written over. You're okay with this. This is exactly what you want. You proceed. After rebooting you discover drives A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T have all been written over and you have no more backups left now other than the one you just used. You have lost many terabytes of data due to a catastrophic system failure because you trusted Windows.

Scannerman · Jun 29, 2023

Ghot said:
Something is overheating. That's why you have to wait, to be able to Start the computer again.
Could be motherboard, or power supply. Could be CPU thermal paste or even the pump for the water cooler.
If the CPU gets too hot, too fast, it will shut the computer down.

Check the motherboard around the CPU socket... see if there are any bulging or leaking capacitors.
If you find any... you need a new motherboard.

The motherboard can still be bad without bulging or leaking capacitors, but when it takes a while to be able to start again, something is probably getting too hot.

The caps in this pic are bulging AND leaking (silver part on top)...

This is exactly what the inside of my daughters X58 platform looks like. Despite this, it still keeps on running and only on occasion it freezes up now and then, requiring a reboot. Yup, they sure don't make 'em like they used to.