Windows 8.1 Spontaneous Shutdowns - Require Cold Boot
Jun 9, 2014
About once or twice a month, Win 8.1 will spontaneously shut down and require a cold boot. I've never had this happen in 20 years of using other versions of the Win OS. There doesn't appear to be any obvious cause - it's happened during times of no user input or while typing an email or whatever.
I have had Windows 8.1 64 bit in my computer for about two months now and everything was working fine..ive noticed last month that after one of the updates (possibly Skydrive icon update) that my windows start up sound wasn't working when I start my computer from a cold boot. Interestingly the sound does work again once im in the OS and I do a restart. I went into sounds and made sure the check mark to play start up sound was clicked btw.
It was working fine before one of the updates. (Also just to note that I set the option to boot directly to desktop and also I changed my user account where i dont see the login screen and it bypasses the password to boot quicker into the desktop.)
The reason why im wondering this is because I have a dz77ga-70k intel motherboard and when I cold boot im noticing a post code 40 on the motherboard when usually it should be 00...funny part is that just as I mentioned before with audio once I do a restart it goes back to normal with a 00 post code. I think its related to an update and something to do with windows not starting correctly from a cold boot.
I have a strange behavior when I install virtualbox on my windows8 laptop: Cold boot (windows8 restart) will then fail, whereas shutdown (fast boot enabled) or suspend still work fine.
Laptop is an HP G6 with an SSD installed with 64 bit windows 8. Prior to the virtualbox install all three actions (suspend/shutdown/restart) work fine.
If I install virtualbox (simply installing, not creating any VM), then the next restart will trigger an "automatic repair" screen at boot. Will never terminate. Only way to fix is to escape + F11 and restore a previous restore point. If instead I say shutdown (I have fast boot enabled) or suspend, the system will restart fine at next power on or resume.
I have tried with a new harddisk, took out my graphics card, checked my memory, they all seemed fine. My computer always run into a quick BSOD during the first boot and I am unable to see the error message and it restarts back to BIOS followed by a successful boot into windows on the second try. Occasionally, on the second try, it would go into windows repair and say that windows did not start up correctly etc. Normally, once it gets into windows, it would be ok. I did have once that I got a BSOD in windows.
Another interesting point to note is I can circumvent the cold boot crash issue by going to BIOS immediately on boot and exit it. This way, it would normally boot into windows without issues.
I suspect this is due to the on board network card but I cannot be sure. This computer is only 1 week old and I have spent a lot of time troubleshooting it. I have tried uninstalling, cleaning and re-installing the latest network drive.
Note that the cold boot crash issue does not always generate a mini dump file.
I will be using a browser, or just typing an essay, nothing computer intensive and all of a sudden the computer will black screen and power down, and you can hear the power quickly drain from the computer as everything suddenly stops. I will turn it back and it will seem as if nothing has happened. Attached is the files I got from the SevenForums diagnostic tool.
Notes: -According to Asus Live Update, Windows Update, and Intel Graphics Driver Update, I'm up to date. -According to Avast Software Updater, I'm up to date on software (though I know that that only manages some software). -Specs (just in case): Amazon.com: ASUS A55A-AH51-RD 15.6-Inch LED Laptop ( Red ): Computers & Accessories -I do run computer intensive things on this dinky laptop (battlefield 3, saints row the third, arkham city, a minecraft server + mysql server at times, etc) and it does not crash (besides low on memory warnings). -Running Windows 8.1 -Safeboot off (I was going to install linux mint, but decided to wait until the warranty runs out. Didn't feel like going back to turn safeboot back on, so I have to deal with the stupid watermark).
The Last couple weeks after I finshed reinstalling a fresh copy of windows 8.1 after my computer has been shut down for a couple of hours when I turn on I receive most of the time random BSOD ranging from bad memory management, page file in no fault, and so forth. But when I restart after the bsod the computer runs fine. Once in a blue moon it takes maybe 2 restarts to finally boot it correctly. I have rain Driver verifer and I uninstalled ai suite 2 when their drivers kept crashing it.
I had also ran windows mem diag during a cold boot period and it showed no errors. I have also tried returning to stock clocks and still running in to the same issue after a bit of time.
I am currently running:
Windows 8.1pro i7 3770k over clock to 4.6 on an Asus Sabertooth z77 G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) X2 OCZ vertex 4 128 ssd 1tb WD black hd 2tb Seagate barracuda hd Crossfiring 2 Sapphire Toxic r280x PSU is a corsair AX 1200i
Attach below is the zip from the SFdiagnostics tool program from grab all.
Main Symptom : The new PC stops responding after several hours (sometimes a few) of intensive work and then it shuts down.Sometimes it produces a blue screen with the "critical process dies" message and sometimes doesn't.The problem was appearing also after fresh install of 2 versions of windows 7.Now in official Windows 8 it appears also.All these 3 windows versions were working fine on other desktops.
Event viewer : One critical error appears every time : Event ID 41 , task 63 , kernel-power.
Connected Peripherals : 1)Keyboard 2)Stylus pen 3)Printer 4)Wireless usb adapter 5)Stereo speakers 6)usb hub 7) four external hard disc drives
What I personally tried so far and what the technician did :
1. Tried 3 versions of Windows to see if the problem had to do with them.The problem appeared in all versions.
2. Updated all drivers and MB and VGA drivers of course.No result.
3. Ran memtest and hard disc check.No problems.
4. Disabled one of the two audio drivers ( disabled nvidia audio and left enabled the realtek audio).No result.
5. Disabled sleep.No result
6. I personally checked for 3 hours how the PC responds with only mouse and keyboard connected and without heavy use. The PC didn't crash.The technician also did the same with his mouse and his keyboard for 10 hours but without heavy use also.The PC didn't crash. The technician returned my PC and said that he couldn't find any problem in his lab and that the problem must probably have to do with the peripherals.
So when the problem really appears : The problem appears when all the peripherals are connected and after a little bit of intensive use. ( Photoshop many hours - Transfers of thousand of images from one external hard dick to the other - Printer and internet use ).
The same peripherals were used on the old PC with winxp, in the same electricity plug, and there was no problem at all.
I have spent a lot of time to understand if the problem is software or hardware related.My guess goes to a possibly problematic PSU.The PSU is Corsair 650W and new of course but i think it can't handle many peripherals and intensive use.If the problem was driver related then i guess that the crash would appear not only after heavy use but also after normal use.Another guess is that there is a problem with usb controller and that's why the peripherals that are connected via usb are causing problems,
I updated my friend's HP 500-056 computer from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 Update. This is a twin to my HP 500-056 system.
I have the QuickLaunch and Programs toolbars set up on both; the only difference is that she has Classic Shell installed while I don't.
And now to the problem; although I've told the computer not to require a password on wakeup, no matter what I do, her computer won't mind that one instruction.
I would like to put a touch screen out in an open lobby area with an program running on it, but i would like to lock the screen so if anyone touches the screen to make changes to the program they would have to enter a password, the screen will be on 24/7.
I will try to post a dump file the next chance I have in getting into safe mode. I have an Asus CM6870-CA010S with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 card. It has been running like a dream since I got it in April, then I performed the 8.1 update, and innocently updated the drivers. Bad plan. For the past week I've fallen into the labyrinth of uninstalling the card, subsequent iterations of the drivers, clearing registries, performed the "Refresh," all after reading the forums here, on Nvidia's boards, anywhere I can get logical info.
I finally found what I thought was the perfect recipe, uninstalling totally in safe mode, deleting the folders orphaned from uninstalls, cleaning the registry, disabling Window's automatic downloads for drivers and hardware... etc. I had solid uptime for an hour, and I'm not a gamer, and hadn't yet tested my main objectives- Photoshop and Premiere. But HD video was great, and I finally thought I had it licked. Then, black screen. I have no BSODs. The system seems to shut down so fast that it doesn't have time to make dump files, and WhoCrashed.exe keeps pointing to nvlddmkm.sys as the culprit when a dump is made, with either pagefile or IRQL not less or equal errors. I'm so done.
After trying virtually every solid recommendation I can find, I'm about to throw in the towel and either get a whole other brand of graphics card, or take it to the super expensive judgmental hipster repair shop. This post is my last hope, and I'll try to get a dump file the next chance it gives me enough uptime to collect one- and getting into Safe Mode with F8 is seemingly very random.
I just got a refurbished ASUS K75DE laptop, and it came with Windows 8 on it. I am wanting to run a dual boot with Win7, so I disabled fast-boot just fine, and went into the UEFI BIOS and disabled the secure boot.
While I was there, I did like I have always done and set a BIOS boot-up password. I then proceed to boot to my Win7 installer USB Flash drive, but I was running low on battery power so I aborted the install and shut the computer down to try again later.
Now however when I get into BIOS to select boot priority, all options are grayed out except for system time and a few other non-essentials. At the bottom of the first BIOS screen it says "User Level : User" and I can't seem to find a way to reverse this issue. So now I'm stuck, can't boot to anything but the HDD because it is first by default.
After creating a UEFI bootable USB thumb drive with Rufus (using Windows 8.1 Enterprise ISO x64), for a Dell Optiplex 3010 (configured as UEFI only, no CSM, latest firmware version, Windows 8 installed), I didn't see a USB boot option, so I tried to add one manually. Unfortunately I erased the existing boot option (boot manager) by mistake. Although there were two boot options for PXE booting, the machine will not start anymore, even when there is an active WDS server on the network.
I also see Led's 2 and 3 lighting up, meaning according to the manual 'hardware ok but bios possibly damaged/corrupt'.
I understand I cannot start the machine from a bios boot disk because of GPT partitioning, and the UEFI USB boot disk I made might be corrupt (as it didn't show up as a boot option), however I don't understand why it won't boot from the PXE network card, as these boot options are still there.
After re-boot a message shows Prepairing Auto Repair Diagnosing PC
PC Did Not Start correctly either with 2 options - Restart and trying any of the Advanced Options
Restart option did nothing but restart this cycle of BSOD, etc. Advanced options to troubleshoot (Refresh, Reset, System Repair, Command Prompt are not available due to the following message:" You need to sign in as an administrator to continue, but there aren't any administrator accounts on this PC"
No system recovery disks or Windows 8 Installation media available.
Windows 8.1 failing to boot when any usb storage drive is plugged in during boot. My only solution is to unplug everything each boot unless I use my KVM switch which does not support usb 3.0.
My Dell Inspiron 660 is 2 months old. It came with Windows 8 preinstalled. My problem: I am trying to change the boot order so I can boot from CD ROM as a first option. I have tried using the "F" keys on boot, but it just ignores me and goes on to boot up. I have also tried the "Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings" in "Change PC Settings" and got the same results. I spent some time on the phone with a Dell tech. After trying all the things I had already tried, he and his supervisor decided I must have a bad Motherboard. Does this sound right? Is there any way to repair this problem?
.I have an HP Pavilion Slimline PC desktop. It does not allow me to boot from CD/DVD drive or USB connection. Windows 8.1. I wish to be able to use the boot options cd/dvd and all the USB options. I can't use any of the options. I list bios setup options and suggestions given to me from articles but I'm not sure I'm afraid of error. I don't have that much experience in bios setup.
Articles have said in BIOS setup Security is to be disabled. I suppose Legacy remains disabled(?). It is suggested that I shutdown and reboot.
BIOS Setup > Storage > Boot Order has this list: UEFI Boot Sources Windows Boot Manager USB Floppy/CD[code]....
At bottom of this Boot Order Window are the options: F5=disable Enter=drag F10=accept ESC=cancel
Windows Boot Manager at the the top stops all other options.beneath it. How does that 'drag' work. Don'tr I have to move 'Windows Boot Manager' to the bottom?
And move ATAPI CD/DVD drive to the top? of this UEFI boot sources list?
Is it true that if there is an error in the BIOS Boot Setup and Windows 8.1 does not boot, the BIOS Setup will come up instead so one can do a fix?
I had an issue with my Windows 8 where I was forced to reinstall it. I have completely wiped my SSD and reinstalled Windows 8 on it. However, now it will not let me pick my boot order. It is forcing me to use Windows Boot Manager as my Boot Option 1. If I use anything else, I just get a black screen with a blinking line cursor.
It didn't use to do this before I had to reinstall. I'm not sure how to fix this. It also will not let me choose F11 boot options, it always is forcing me to use Windows Boot Manager.
How do I make it so I can boot from whichever boot order I want, instead of using Boot Manager?
I have Kubuntu 13.10 and Windows 8.1 installed on separate drives on my computer. Dual-booting through the Linux bootloader works fine, as in I can boot either Windows 8.1 or Linux without incident. However, whenever I boot Windows, it resets itself to the highest boot priority, and always re-adds a boot entry if I remove it. My question is, how can I get it to stop doing this? I can temporarily fix it through Linux, but I'd really like to stop it permanently, as it's starting to become a pain.
EDIT: It turns out my problem was related to a duplicate entry for Ubuntu. If you're having this problem and have tried to install Linux a couple of times, check to make sure that you only have one entry for it.
I have a Dell Inspiron 17, 5000 Series (1.7 GHz Intel Pentium 3558U, 4 GB Ram, 500 GB HDD). It came preloaded with Windows 8.1. I needed Windows 7 so I partitioned the main drive and installed Windows 7 in 100 GB of partitioned space. After swapping between the Windows 7 and 8 Boot manager. Ended up choosing the Windows 8 manager.
My problem comes in when I boot into Windows 7, then when I shut down and try and boot into Windows 8 it will hang prior to the boot manager (of Windows 8). I have to press and hold the power button to hard shut down. Once I do that and reboot, Windows 8 Boot manager and Windows 8 boot ok.
So Windows 8 will boot fine if I was last in Windows 8. However if I was last booted in Windows 7 then go to Windows 8 (or try and boot into 7 again, but using the 8 boot manager) it will hang at boot. I've used all the command checks with Windows 7 and 8. Found no errors. I can't reinstall Windows 8 as I don't have recovery disks, plus the computer came from Aarons Rent to Own (they had no issues me doing what I wish with it).
When I switch and use the Windows 7 boot manager I can boot back into Windows 7 even if Windows 7 was my last boot. But like when using the Windows 8 boot manager, I am unable to boot into Windows 8 if Windows 7 was booted last. But Can boot to Windows 8 if Windows 8 was booted last.
First, some context: I have a Dell Inspiron 15R SE that came with Windows 8.
I've managed to get a working dual-boot system with Ubuntu 12.10. I can't remember exactly how I done that, but I remember that I had to disable secure boot. I think that the boot configuration those days was:
Secure boot: DisabledLoad legacy option rom: EnabledBoot list option: Legacy
This "configuration" worked perfectly for 6-7 months.
Then, one day (last week, can't remember the exact day), when I was using Windows 8 the computer crashed. I hard-rebooted and got this screen:
After executed boot-repair from a Ubuntu LiveCD dozens of times I've decided to eliminate Ubuntu temporarily and focus to get a system with Windows 8 working nice.
Then I used my recovery DVDs to recover the system. Yup, Windows has booted. But when I restarted first time I got the same error. Then I, digging a solution, pressed F12 after a reboot and got here:
The highlighted option allows me to boot into Windows 8. So I went to boot options (F2) and changed the following configuration:
Load legacy option rom: DisabledBoot list option: UEFI
Now I can boot directly to Windows without need to press F12.
But my objective isn't complete. I want to erase all Ubuntu entries from the seconds image and restore the legacy boot from the first imagem (because they worked before).
I did two things:
I erased all partitions related to Ubuntu (root partition and home partition).I created a Windows recovery disk (not a system recovery disk).
I used the recovery disk to run the automatic recovery procedure (I forgot the exactly name). I've runned it at least 10 times with no success. Then I went to command prompt to try the famous triad: bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /rebuildbcd. Still, no solution.
Can I (correctly) convert my current 8.1 (retail) into VHDX and boot from it using the same 8.1 boot loader or not?
I honestly don't know if I would be running two instances. Would it work if I deleted the C:/ partition and booted the VHD from another disk or partition? Would that be OK? Seems to me it would be two instances but I don't know.
I'm not interested in VMware or VirtualBox - just Hyper-V or some similar bare metal solution. Hyper-V server I could not make work really - it is not what it is designed for - I want wifi, bluetooth etc. Windows server would work but I can not afford it.
I have installed Blue 8.1 on a separate drive in my system along side 8.0. When I restart the 8.0 boots unless I manually select the 8.1 drive in bios. How can I alter the Boot menu to add the option to boot from either OS?
Late last Fall I bought a new Desktop, an HP H81414, with Windows 8 installed with the intention of installing Windows 7 on an SSD. I migrated Window 8 to an SSD, removed that from the system, installed new SSD and put Windows 7 on it. Both worked fine. I wound up with 2 SSD's. capable of running on the EFI BIOS machine with Secure Boot turned off. I later bought a new laptop with Windows 8. I found the Win 8 with Classic Shell to be very acceptable.
What I would like to do now ,if possible, is to mount both SSD's in the HP case and switch to either one of them at boot.
Earlier, about an hour ago, I left to go job searching, and left my computer in hibernate mode so I could bring it back up as soon as I got back. When I tapped keys on the keyboard, the computer powered up as usual, but it brought up the BSoD, stating it was missing files.
Prior to receiving this error, everything was working fine. I even set it to hibernate mode during the night, and it powered on this morning without any problems. I dunno if it's the multimedia keyboard I'm using or what that caused it.
I don't have an installation disc (since I bought it from Fry's Electronics about a year ago with 8 pre-installed), and neither do I have a recovery disc (since I didn't know how to make one.
Computer info: Windows 8 x64 Manufacturer: ASUS
how to fix the missing boot files, and how to do it without causing any data loss from either of my hard drives.
I had windows 7 running on my computer. When windows 8 came out I used a second harddrive as the windows 8 installation drive. Windows 8 automatically setup a dual boot system where every time I started the computer it took me a windows screen where I could select either windows 7 or windows 8. This has been going on since Windows 8 was released.
I decided it was getting old so I decided it was time to remove the old windows 7 harddrive. I tried doing it inside the windows 8 dual boot screen but could not find an option. So I decided to reformat the windows 7 harddrive. I did this in command prompt mode. After doing so when my computer restarted it said it could not find any harddrive to boot. Windows 8 is installed on the other harddrive, the one that was not reformatted. So how do I get it to start using that harddrive as the boot drive? I checked my bios and even physically disconnected the old HD that had windows 7 on it, but none of that seemed to work even though the Windows 8 HD is definitely in the boot order in the bios.
My PC takes its sweet time to boot given the specs it has. (around 1.75 mins) Especially the "black" part seems to take so long. I've fastboot enabled and I use UEFI. how to make the PC boot faster ?