My computer restarts every time I leave it - usually about 30 minutes

Question

My computer restarts every time I leave it - usually about 30 minutes

William Houston 0

I noticed my computer restarting when I was working on it every time I take a break for about 15 minutes or so. I tried stopping this by setting my active hours when

i knew I wouldn't use it but just 10 minutes ago, it restarted during my active time. Please help as I am tired of having to deal with this.

[Moved from: System Center Service Manager]

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4 answers

Answer 1

Hello William Houston,

Thanks for reaching out to the Q&A forum.

From what you described, I understand you're facing an issue where your computer automatically restarts when you leave it idle (~30 minutes). Even when you set active hours, it still restarts during your active time.

Here are some suggestions for you:

Change “Power Supply Idle Control” in BIOS (optional - to AMD systems)

Restart, tap F2 at Dell logo to enter BIOS Setup. Navigate to Advanced or Power Management tab (exact location varies by BIOS version). Find Power Supply Idle Control, change from Auto/Low to Typical Current Idle, press F10 to save/exit.

Some older or lower‑quality power supplies can’t handle the extremely low power draw that modern CPUs reach when idle. When the power drops too low, the PSU thinks the system is off and cuts power, causing an unexpected reboot.

Setting this option forces a slightly higher idle load, preventing shutdowns.

Other common causes you should check:

Windows Update forcing a restart
Automatic restart on system issue enabled
Power or sleep settings incorrectly configured
Scheduled reboot tasks
Driver or hardware issues

To narrow down the cause, please give more details:

Does Windows Update show any message that a restart was required before it rebooted or reboot instantly with no message?
Had you recently installed updates, drivers, or changed system settings (MSConfig, services, registry)?
Is your device connected to a work/school account or managed by an organization?

I look forward to your response so we can work it further together.

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Norah-L 6,685 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-12-25T07:45:45.1166667+00:00

Good day William Houston!

Have you had a moment to review my last message? Any updates would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Hello, my name is Mario, and I would be happy to assist you with your issue.

I’m sorry for what happened!

I noticed that you’ve already received some guidance regarding this issue. Therefore, I recommend checking your computer’s power supply, as it might be causing the problems. Also, check if a blue screen with some error codes appears when you restart your computer. If it does, we can extract some information from a minidump file. Here’s the procedure to obtain that file:

Open Windows explorer;
Go into the "C:\Windows\Minidump" folder;
Move the entire contents to a new folder on your desktop;
Compress the entire contents of the folder and upload it to any free file cloud service.

Paste the link in this thread so I can check and analyze it for you, ok?

Best regards,

Mario B.

Answer 4

It sounds like your computer is restarting due to Windows Update settings, even during your specified active hours. Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot and potentially resolve this issue:

Check Active Hours Configuration: Ensure that your active hours are set correctly. Active hours should be configured to reflect the times you typically use your computer. You can set these through Group Policy or MDM settings.
Group Policy Settings: If you are using Group Policy, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update and ensure that the policy Turn off auto-restart for updates during active hours is enabled. This will prevent automatic restarts during the times you have set as active hours.
Registry Settings: If you are comfortable with it, you can check the Windows Registry settings to ensure they align with your active hours. Look for the keys under HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate and verify that SetActiveHours is enabled and that ActiveHoursStart and ActiveHoursEnd are set correctly.
Updates and Restarts: Be aware that some updates may require a restart regardless of active hours, especially critical updates. Ensure that you are not inadvertently triggering a restart by having other settings enabled, such as Always automatically restart at scheduled time.
Check for Conflicting Policies: If you have multiple policies configured, some may conflict with your active hours settings. Review any other update-related policies that might affect restart behavior.

If the issue persists after checking these settings, consider reaching out to your IT department or Microsoft support for further assistance.

References:

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My computer restarts every time I leave it - usually about 30 minutes

4 answers