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Since a few days ago, my computer has been rebooting out of nothing. It started when I was working behind Microsoft Office Word 2010, doing a project. When it reboots, it's like someone pulls the plug out of the system, it completely shuts down, and afterwards it boots again out of itself. This is not the same as a normal reboot, and the PC doesn't display a BSOD either.

When it reboots, it's unable to boot up Windows 7 again. I've tried start-up repair, but it cannot fix the problems or repair the system. I tried wiping my partition and reformatting. At first, everything seemed okay. I left it in idle for about 24 hours to rule out if this also occurs when in idle, uptime was still counting and nothing out of the ordinary happened. However, when I started configuring the clean OS afterwards, it suddenly out of nothing did it again, and no, I couldn't boot Windows 7 anymore, it shut down and powered up again.

When I configured the PC, I've installed no external software, except default configuration like UAC, Computer Management, Users & Groups, etc. - To exclude the possibility of external corrupted software.

I tried the following, without any kind of success:

  • Scanned the entire system completely
  • Booting with no peripherals
  • Booting with only the necessary needed (motherboard, RAM, processor, etc.)
  • Booting from safe mode
  • Trying startup repair
  • Formatting the PC
  • Wiping the partitions
  • Windows Update
  • Windows Repair (from install DVD)
  • PC also doesn't overheat

Specs:

  • OS: Windows 7 Enterprise x64
  • RAM: 24GB DDR3
  • CPU: Intel i7-980X
  • Mobo: ASUS Rampage III Extreme
  • HDDs: WD 10K Raptor (x3)
  • Graphics: EVGA NVIDIA GTX 690
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    If this happens through multiple installations of Windows the problem likely is because of a hardware problem. Start to replace parts.
    – Ramhound
    Jan 27, 2014 at 20:15

2 Answers 2

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I suggest you to try a clean Windows installation on a new or other hard disk with minimum RAM (2 or 4 Gb Ram).

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  • Why a minimum on the memory? I agree try using a different hdd but that's because of the described behavior
    – Ramhound
    Jan 27, 2014 at 20:34
  • As he cannot access event viewer for error log, he will have to try different scenario.So my suggestion might help in eliminating possibilities.(Hard disk failure, damaged RAM ...)
    – Scorpion99
    Jan 27, 2014 at 20:45
  • I already tried setting up another harddisk (3 times), and installing a clean Windows installation on it - It failed and did the same again.
    – Ricardo
    Jan 28, 2014 at 11:24
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I would recommend checking your BIOS to see if it contains a logging feature to see if events are logged there. There are a lot of possible causes for this type of event but the boot corruption for Windows leads me to believe it is either a drive problem or a controller/motherboard issue. More information could be helpful.

Are you using a RAID configuration with those drives or a JBOD configuration? If it is in a RAID I would recommend trying a single drive to see if it is a problem with either the RAID Controller or a drive in the RAID. Also what types of partitions are you using on the drives? GPT or MBR and is the BIOS set to boot using UEFI or Legacy BIOS mode? When you are able to get into Windows are there any errors in the event log after Windows has been running for a while?

EDIT: Also, just noticed on that motherboard there are overclocking features, make sure all of the overclocking is set to disabled and not "auto" for both Memory and CPU and check the switches on the motherboard to make sure overclocking is not enabled.

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  • The BIOS does not have a logging feature. As mentioned above, another drive did not work. RAID configuration : No JBOD spanning configuration : No Partitions : MBR BIOS boot : Legacy BIOS mode (UEFI is not supported) Overclocking : ALL disabled (Including the switches) When I'm able to get into Windows, no errors are displayed in the event log after Windows has been running for at least 3 hours.
    – Ricardo
    Jan 28, 2014 at 11:28
  • What size power supply do you have running on this setup? Jan 28, 2014 at 13:11

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