Laptop crashes/reboots randomly

[JonMon]

Over the past few months I've been having an issue where my laptop will blackscreen crash then immediately starts back up. It doesn't seem to be a power issue as it happens whether the battery is plugged in or removed. I've run a few memory tests and every test has reported no errors. I did have an overheating issue before this started happening but have long since fixed that issue by cleaning the fans/heat sink as well as replacing my thermal compound (currently use Arctic Silver 5). Even when it was an issue it never caused my computer to shut down, only causing a severe drop in frame-rate. I've taken a look at some of the components and haven't noticed any damage. The shut down currently happens more often when playing games but has been known to happen while in sleep mode, booting up, while screen saver is up, or even just sitting there (though not nearly as often as the others). Any thoughts??

 

[The Owl]

I hope you didn't go over the top with the Artic Silver? tiny blob is all you need if it has "Squeezed" out the sides it can cause problems exactly as described

 

[JonMon]

I hope you didn't go over the top with the Artic Silver? tiny blob is all you need if it has "Squeezed" out the sides it can cause problems exactly as described

I'm positive and I double checked just to be sure.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Laptop 'blackouts'... maybe more information would help - do you monitor temps and voltages? - I use HWInfo, but there are many others. Need something which reports min and max as well as current value.

Run the monitor, put in smaller window, run something intensive in larger window - looking for dips in voltage and spikes in temperature.

If nothing shows, then I wonder if all your ribbon cable connections are good and if you have good contact heatsink to GPU. These are a misery to get at... and they can get screwed up pretty easily when taken apart. Only use metal for slightly magnetized small Philips screwdriver - try to do all else with plastic spudgers (I shape mine from old sick pens) or cut up credit cards.

 

[JonMon]

By blackouts I mean that my laptop will turn off completely without properly shutting down. It goes straight to black screen and after exactly 2 seconds boots back up as if it were never on in the first place. I ran HWInfo and ran both fall out 4 and WoW on max settings (at the same time) as a stress test with no spikes or dips. Even when it crashed (ran the test twice) it showed no signs of either. I visually checked the ribbon cables and didn't see anything abnormal though I'm not sure how to test whether the cable is good or not. The heatsink contact to the GPU seems to be fine.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Sounds like Autorestart. Turn that off and the screen may give more information rather than 'black'.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/51683-system-failure-automatic-restart-enable-disable.html

Did you get the ranges (min/max) for temps and voltages?

 

[JonMon]

Temp wise it sits idle at 35 and gets up to 70. I checked my startup and recovery settings and my auto restart is unchecked. I noticed under the Debugging Information mine is set to "Kernel memory dump" as opposed to Automatic like it shows in the link above. Should I change that or keep it?? Also, my "Time to display list of operating systems" is set for 30 seconds. Not sure if they're relevant but they're the only differences from the link you posted.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Just having auto-restart off is enough for right now. You can try 'automatic' just to see what gets generated (I am not an expert in this stuff - 90% of my troubles are hardware ones)

70C is too much for some CPUs. Mine maxes out at 50C. Some BIOS have temp shutdown set lower than that. You could check that and tell us - or give us details about your system / model for laptop / CPU / etc so we can look it up.

 

[JonMon]

Microsoft Windows 10 Home vers. 10.0.10240 Build 1024
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2195 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M vers. 70.24.32.0.7

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Microsoft Windows 10 Home vers. 10.0.10240 Build 1024
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2195 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M vers. 70.24.32.0.7

Temps are good. CPU can handle up to 100C and it looks like GPU can handle 80C. Did you get a temp on the HD?

 

[JonMon]

Temps are good. CPU can handle up to 100C and it looks like GPU can handle 80C. Did you get a temp on the HD?

Currently sitting at 37 with an average temp of 36.... it's a WDC WD7500BPKX-60HPJT0

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Based on your report, the temps are fine. You would have reported on voltages if exceptional (ie, 11.4v or less on 12v and 4.77v or less on 5v). Auto-restart is off, so the machine won't restart if there is an error and will put error messages on screen if there is one (except it does restart and it has been doing this for months and there are no error messages to work on). No beep codes to decode for errors.

While there is the possibility of some type of static buildup causing the blackout, I do not know how to trace that from here.

So, end of hardware possibilites....

Scan for malware: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/malicious-software-removal-tool-details.aspx and any 3 others you like
(If you find anything, consider running the Anti-malware gauntlet from Broni - https://www.techspot.com/community/forums/virus-and-malware-removal.28/ - exactly as he instructs).

Scan for broken system files: sfc /scannow https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833

If you have made all your backups and written down or have all your software keys so you can reinstall, then you might try

http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/

as I doubt you have a clean restore point from before the issue started.