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I've recently moved from an Asus P8Z77-V LX2 to an MSI Z77IA-E53.
After this move, my PC started restarting randomly. But, unlike anything else I've found so far, it's only when there isn't a game running.

If there isn't a game open anywhere, in the background or foreground, my PC will reboot randomly, no BSOD, no information, just a critical system error, indicating that Windows has started without shutting down properly.

I've tried everything in the book, changing RAM, PSU, GPU, drivers, all the works.

I'm afraid the motherboard might be dead, but the previous owner had no issues with it. Warranty has expired.

Is there something specific I could look into, considering it's only when NOT playing games?

Specs:

OS: Windows 10 Pro (legitimate, activated and updated)
Motherboard: MSI Z77IA-E53
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 Boxed
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00CEU
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 980 GAMING 4G
PSU: Corsair CX750M (brand new, RMA return from Corsair)
Boot drive: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB
Additional drive: Samsung 850 EVO mSATA 500GB

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    This kind of question isnt really great for the SU format as answers need to be teased out over time, but my suspicion is the mobo maybe allowing vdroop to go to low and starving the CPU of power. That way with the silicon lottery your CPU could be a slight bit hungrier and trip it. When gaming the activity will ensure the CPU never clocks down to its lowest state and crashes. Manual voltage config in bios would resolve this.
    – Linef4ult
    Jan 10, 2016 at 21:09
  • @Linef4ult Yeah, I know a forum usually works slightly better, but I know there's some very knowledgable and professional people here, not the people who think they can reply because they've once plugged a GPU into a motherboard ;) . My Motherboard also allows adjusting Vdroop levels, shouldn't I try that before CPU voltage? And any clue what I should set it to? High or low? i.imgur.com/WkiHCme.png
    – René
    Jan 11, 2016 at 13:53
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    Great, excess voltage isn't desired so I'd start at +25 and test, if it crashes at all, increase it one step and keep going.
    – Linef4ult
    Jan 11, 2016 at 15:14
  • @Linef4ult Thank you, I've set my Vdroop offset to +25%, I disabled Turbo boost, set my CPU to a default frequency of my turbo boost (3.9GHz), and set my CPU voltage to the peak voltage I could find when Prime95'ing (1.035v). Though it looks like it simply won't apply my voltage change, the rest seems to be applied (Except for Task Manager indicating 4.41GHz, but other tools 3.9GHz :). Gonna test this out for a few days.
    – René
    Jan 11, 2016 at 20:09
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    @Linef4ult So far, so good. PC's been running for 49 hours straight. Gonna give it a few more days just to be 100% certain. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction! If you post an answer with your suggestion about Vdroop, I'll mark it as the answer. Though I haven't tried ONLY adjusting Vdroop offset, as I've also manually set the clock speed.
    – René
    Jan 13, 2016 at 20:39

1 Answer 1

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[From Comments]

This hints at the CPU/idling too low and core voltage dropping below a workable threshold. When the machine is busy Speedstep won't pull back, but once its left alone it becomes unstable.

Setting vDroop and core voltage should resolve it, and if needed you can manually configure the rest of the CPU config instead of automatic management.

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    From comments in main question, summing up: I set my vDroop offset to +25%, turned off Intel Turbo Boost, set the CPU multiplier to the same frequency as the turbo boost frequency on my CPU (39 => 3.9GHz), and set the voltage of my CPU to the maximum voltage registered while stress testing with Prime95 (1.035v), before changing any of the settings. This has worked so far!
    – René
    Jan 14, 2016 at 7:47
  • It's been about a month now with 0 issues. Thanks Linef4ault, this completely resolved my problems :)
    – René
    Feb 14, 2016 at 23:12
  • @René Great stuff, glad it worked out.
    – Linef4ult
    Feb 15, 2016 at 8:50

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