How to log a shutdown caused from overheating or overheated components?

Question

On a Windows 7 SP1 machine, I would like to know how I could reliably log a shutdown that was caused exclusively from overheated components of the machine.

Since the component that overheats must send some sort of command to the computer in order to shut it down, I would like to be able to view and log every time this command is issued upon turning the machine on again.

If possible, it would be great to see in the log what component of the machine sent the shutdown command, so that further action can be taken. Already having a confirmation that the shutdown procedure was initiated from an overheated component would be a start.

Is this particular kind of event (overheated component -> shut down machine) logged at all, or is there only an event with approximate description that unfortunately does not give a clear indication of the reason for the shutdown?

I have found a similar question here:
https://serverfault.com/questions/415931/how-to-determine-if-the-last-shutdown-was-due-to-power-failure-in-windows

EventID 41 Kernel-Power: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

Though EventID 41 Kernel-Power does not mention overheating and I am not looking for an unexpected loss of power.

I am also not looking for methods or procedures that could lead to an elimination of overheating. I am also not looking to discuss causes for overheated components. I am really looking for some kind of log that clearly tells me that the shut down procedure was initiated from an overheated component.

If such kind of event log or other kind of log cannot be given, I am interested to hear what other events could approximately indicate that the shut down procedure was most possibly initiated from an overheated component.

If there is software that can log such kind of events (overheated component -> shut down) on a Windows machine besides the Event Log (if Event Log can do this at all), I would like to read about it. I am not interested in temperature monitoring software like RealTemp unless there is a clear log produced that clearly indicates, for example, "component xyz has reached critical temperature and has initiated the system shut down command".

Before posting this, I have read the following similar questions:

• Is it possible to make the motherboard log instant random shutdowns?
• How does Windows 7 determine that a system was not shut down correctly (Kernel-Power Event ID 41)
• Why are there so many unexpected shutdowns in the event log?

I have also made sure to check other sites and sources for a solution to this question and found nothing that clearly indicates a shut down was initiated from an overheated component.

Solution

You can log sensor values to a file with HWiNFO and check the temperatures after booting up. It might also be worth taking into account that a GPU overheating does not induce a restart, so it's most likely your CPU.

Comments

[Moab]

You cannot, shutdowns due to heat are immediate and there is no time for Windows to log anything. The only thing windows knows is it did not shut down cleanly (unexpected shutdown) and this is logged on the next startup.

[Xen2050]

I take it only BIOS itself shuts down the computer in that case. Maybe logging temperatures every few seconds or minute or so could spot a trend...

[cybernard]

you would have to log approx 1/sec. Then you could review the logs and see the temperature spike. Then if it lost power within 1 minute or so of the temp spike its heat.

[lowtechsun]

With sevenforums.com/tutorials/… I am logging unexpected shutdown and would like to thank the commenters for the approach with logging temperature over time. Would be great if there is a tool that can log temperature of each and every component on a machine. Is there? Most tools log CPU, GPU and RAM temps, are there more components that actually produce heat in a machine that could cause an unexpected shutdown?

[lowtechsun]

Thank you. I will try this software on the machine in question and hope it performs as expected. Also good to let me know that the GPU does not induce a shutdown or restart.