Computer randomly shuts off and restarts with Reason Code: 0x500ff

Question

My buddy's computer keeps randomly restarting. Usually when he's playing a game. It has randomly restarted just when he's on YouTube.  Event Viewer says:

The process C:\Windows\system32\winlogon.exe (SPENCER-DESKTOP) has initiated the power off of computer SPENCER-DESKTOP on behalf of user NT_AUTHORITY\SYSTEM for the following reason: No title for this reason could be found
Reason Code: 0x500ff
Shutdown Type: power off
Comment:

param1  C:\Windows\system32\winlogon.exe (SPENCER-DESKTOP)
param2  SPENCER-DESKTOP
param3  No title for this reason could be found
param4  0x500ff
param5  power off
param6
param7  NT_AUTHORITY\SYSTEM

Here is a screenshot of Event Viewer.  I think this event was it.  He has a prebuilt cyberpower gaming PC.  Any suggestions are good.

Solution 1

The KB article for this says that this may be a secondary Event Viewer entry while the real reason should be logged somewhere next to it (within seconds), with the same Event ID 1074: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2001061/on-a-computer-running-windows-vista-windows-7-windows-server-2008-and

The second entry, if you can find it, should have the real reason listed. For me, the second entry would be "The process Explorer.EXE has initiated the power off of computer..." to indicate that I used the desktop or start menu to ask for a shut down.

In your friend's case this may also be a short on the power button, or even a misbehaving program. In an extreme case, CPU overheating might be the issue, etc.

My custom-built system used to restart reliably on its own when I overclocked it a bit too much, for example. Windows 10 Pro here.

Good luck!

Solution 2

In my case, after sorting the events by 'Date and Time' I noticed an Info level event from Kernel-Power about 10 seconds earlier.

Normally I would filter for just Error and Warning, but the Info event provided a clue: Critical Battery Trigger Met.

This seemed odd since the laptop was plugged in, but examining the Power Options > Advanced Settings gave an explanation.

The Critical battery action was set to Hibernate for both On Battery and Plugged in. My laptop had been unplugged over the weekend and the battery drained below 5%. Once it recharged back up to 5%, I believe the action triggered and it attempted to hibernate. I've switched my High Performance and Balanced profiles from Hibernate to Do nothing while Plugged in.

Comments

[spike_66]

Take a look at this MS Community page

[acjay]

I have lots of shutdowns in my log that are 0x500ff, but with no accompanying event that I'm able to find.