Strange OS problem

[Alan Tubbs]

I image I know the answer but I thought I’d ask here first.  I haven’t been doing much music and I started up my Cakewalk Sonar rig up and it cycled thru and shut itself off.  Then it would start up again and rinse and repeat for shorter or longer times.  At two points I got a screen (greenish) that offered to continue to win 11 or several other choices.  The first time it turned itself off before I could read the options.  The next time I got to the greenish options, I choose to continue to win 11 instead of repair.  I haven’t seen the repair option since then.

the weirdest thing is when it dies and starts, it stays logged in.  I got all the way to enabling my Neumann interface and to cakewalk sonar before it crashed.  The Neumann disconnected when the computer died.

am I screwed or does anyone have any ideas other than replace the computer?  And along those lines does anybody here build bespoke computer systems?  I’ve usually used HP but I’m open to suggestions.  The old computer is only about 4 or 5 years old but my previous Win 10 computer was still going.

thanks for time and ideas.

@

Alan Tubbs

[504 lover lover]

we had irregular similar (GSOD) turned out to be a dodgy hdmi cable, have you tried reconnecting everything?

26 minutes ago, Alan Tubbs said:

I got a screen (greenish)

 

[Alan Tubbs]

Will try.  Thanks for idea.

[Amberwolf]

If the systme is actually powering off, the most common two culprits are overheating (fans that are not moving enough air, not working, clogged up, heatsinks or intakes blocked, etc), and power supply problems (bad capacitors, insufficient power to run the system, non-clean-AC-input-power (RF noise, brownouts, poor connections, etc). 

 

With laptops, a problem with the battery can cause the system to turn off even if you are not using the battery, if the BMS in the battery thinks it's serious enough and has some form of override control of the system (or the system asks it if such problmes exist and shutdown if they do). 

Edited Monday at 10:27 PM by Amberwolf

[Alan Tubbs]

Thanks,

@

[mettelus]

I am a little confused by the OP, is the system not booting into a stable condition at all during startup (i.e., no apps launched by you at all)? It seems this is the case, but not sure when you mention the audio interface or Cakewalk.

The UEFI/BIOS will cycle through hardware to try and detect missing/damaged/replaced items (can reboot repeatedly trying to sort things out). If you can launch into the UEFI/BIOS you can look to see if what it says is available coincides with what you expect. Failing RAM modules can tend to cause it to cycle without apparent rhyme or reason. You would need to check the specific model of our machine, since error codes on total startup failure are often flashes on the motherboard. For a laptop, opening them up is not often an easy chore.

If the system does boot into a stable condition (i.e., just logging in an looking at the desktop), there are much more diagnostic options available, but I wanted to verify that it is not booting to that point first.

[Alan Tubbs]

it does boot up, but then turns off after various periods of time.  It might work for 10 minutes (or not even  finish the boot).  I turned on my interface and had to re log into Bandlab and then got 85% thru the download of the latest cakewalk sonar before crashing.  I think it finished downloading but I couldn’t tell if it updated.

you can’t trust it to stay on long enough to finish any work.

 

[OutrageProductions]

14 minutes ago, Alan Tubbs said:

it does boot up, but then turns off after various periods of time.  It might work for 10 minutes (or not even  finish the boot).

 

I doubt this is the proper forum, as is seems highly unlikely to be related to audio I/O and software. You likely have a failing hardware issue on the MOBO. Ram is a good place to start by reseating and R/W tests from a shell.

[504 lover lover]

anything in event viewer?

[Amberwolf]

2 hours ago, Alan Tubbs said:

it does boot up, but then turns off after various periods of time.  It might work for 10 minutes (or not even  finish the boot).  I turned on my interface and had to re log into Bandlab and then got 85% thru the download of the latest cakewalk sonar before crashing.  I think it finished downloading but I couldn’t tell if it updated.

you can’t trust it to stay on long enough to finish any work.

 

You mention crashing, and staying on, and turning off. 

These are different things and usually caused by different issues.   

Is the problem *just* a crash, where the OS stays working and programs crash?

or is it an actual OS crash, with an error screen?

Or does the computer actually just turn itself off without warning?

Or some combination of the above?

If there are multiple different symptoms, is there a pattern to which symptom occurs with what operation you're trying to perform with the computer at that moment? Or which program you're trying to use?  Etc?

[mettelus]

2 hours ago, OutrageProductions said:

Ram is a good place to start by reseating and R/W tests from a shell.

This is my initial hunch as well, since RAM issues will not be consistent in behavior.

If it is loading the OS on boot, you can run SFC/DISM to verify the OS build is accurate (if it will run the entire cycle for you). MemTest is an application you can run booting the machine from a USB to test the RAM on the system. While reseating RAM can sometimes fix things, a module going wonky can be one of the most frustrating things to troubleshoot (but replacing them is not terrifying). 

Again, please look up your specific model to check hardware. We were going to upgrade memory in a thin HP laptop at work years ago, and not only were those modules proprietary (most others were too big to fit), but the one in it was soldered in... never seen such a thing before, but that was that.

[Alan Tubbs]

Thanks for all the suggestions.  The problem is inconsistency.   To keep the computer from turning on I have  to unplug the computer.  Otherwise the computer will continue to turn itself on, go to the pin page and I can start to log on.  Sometimes the computer will full boot, such as when I tried to download the latest cakewalk sonar version.  The computer then shut down after 85% loaded.  It seemed to finish downloading the file since I saw no more about the file.  Neither did I get any info whether it finished downloading or installing.  It makes it really difficult to figure what is going on.

to summarize, the unit starts and starts to load the os.  It usually gets thru the pin sign.  After that all bets re off.  Most tries it turns itself off and then starts to load again.  As I said above, it is usually is signed in after it turns itself off and on again.  But I can’t get much done since it only stays on a minute or two.  It might keep cycling thru several times before it sticks on and I have a couple of minutes to try to figure out what is going on.

ill try reseating everything but it hard because I got one of those small cases and report back.  I’m kinda slammed now but will report back.

 

thanks for the help.  Ever little bit helps.

 

[JonD]

18 minutes ago, Alan Tubbs said:

....  To keep the computer from turning on I have  to unplug the computer.  Otherwise the computer will continue to turn itself on, go to the pin page and I can start to log on....

 

 

Just to be clear, are you saying the PC powers on all by itself?  

If that's the case, then that's a HW-power issue (likely the power supply).  Nothing to do with software (Well, 99.9% likelihood it's not software. There is such a thing as malware that can power on a PC, but it's extremely rare).

[Kurre]

^^^^ Yes, it sounds a lot like a failing powersupply.

Maybe start with replacing it, if that is easier than errorchecking memory.

[Xoo]

I'd start by reseating everything, including power and any disk cables and cleaning out any dust from inside the case.  I've been bitten on two occasions over the years by very unreliable machines: once it was a dodgy SCSI cable (I'm showing my age!) and the most recent was RAM that just needed to be removed, dust blown off and reseated.

The advantage of doing this first is it's free and easy!

[John Vere]

A few years ago I had an office computer that I had built myself. It was in a guest room and company would say that it would all of a sudden turn on which would wake them up due to the light from the screen. 
It was a mystery because I always totally shut it down. I had to turn off the power supply. 
Anyhow it was a faulty power button. It was sort of sticking in the case hole. 
So I would definitely do as advised and go over the hardware. Blow it out and check every single connection! 

Edited Tuesday at 05:06 PM by John Vere

[504 lover lover]

42 minutes ago, John Vere said:

case hole

heheh heheh heh

[Alan Tubbs]

Lots of good ideas here, esp the power source .

 

thanks all.

@

[Alan Tubbs]

I checked the on button already.  I had a case that wouldn’t always aline perfectly.

[Alan Tubbs]

I got to the 1st green screen with the repair options.  Couldn’t repair from the internet.  Not sure why my password did not work with my internet connection, maybe Ms wanted a different kind of number.  I’ll look for my original save disk but I’ll probably just take it in to see about the power or bad disk. Hopefully I can save some of the info fromthe os drive, I save all my project audio on a 2nd drive.

 

and I’m getting Jim to build me a new StudioCat computer with a separate back up drive.  That should solve that!

thanks all.  If they can do anything I’ll update the post, hopefully with solved.