How do I tell why Windows 10 restarted?

ZodaEX

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 17, 2004
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I suspect that my Win10 PC might currently have a instability that causes it to restart it's self occasionally. I'm trying to narrow down what the problem is, but in the process of doing that I have actually seen Windows 10 force-restart my PC to install updates. (without my explicit permission)
When I come back to my PC to find that it's been re-started, is there a way to tell if it had been restarted to install an update, or restarted due to a crash?
 
Just open up Event Viewer (can do a quick taskbar search for it and it will come right up). Expand the "Custom Views" section and click on Administrative Events (which basically only shows you the important stuff).

For example, these are from the other day when I pushed my RAM overclock too far. The first picture clearly shows that the reboot was unexpected. The second picture gives more detail about the problem. The "0x000000D1" error corresponds with a "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" BSOD.

eventviewer1.png


eventviewer2.png
 
If it does a bsod/memory dump, check the windows/system32 folder for .dmp files and crack them open with WinDbg. Those can also tell you what went wrong if the restart was sudden.
 
I suspect that my Win10 PC might currently have a instability that causes it to restart it's self occasionally. I'm trying to narrow down what the problem is, but in the process of doing that I have actually seen Windows 10 force-restart my PC to install updates. (without my explicit permission)
When I come back to my PC to find that it's been re-started, is there a way to tell if it had been restarted to install an update, or restarted due to a crash?
It's got an instability problem called Windows 10. Microsoft will restart your computer whether you like it or not.
 
It's got an instability problem called Windows 10. Microsoft will restart your computer whether you like it or not.

You can thank people who get their machines botnetted because they haven't installed a security update in 3 years
 
You can thank people who get their machines botnetted because they haven't installed a security update in 3 years
As well as you can thank Microsoft for using their customers as beta testers so they don't trust the updates anymore. It's a real problem when one company has too much market dominance so they know they can do whatever they want and people will buy their product anyway. Especially when they have no choice in the shop.
 
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