Kernel-Power Event 41 Category (63) - Desktop Freezes Frequently Until Hard Reboot

Joey

"The only way I can continue and by pressing and holding the power button and doing a hard boot. " This is a common cause of Event ID: 41 errors. You need to resolve the cause of the "freezes"!

Have you checked to see if you have the latest firmware for your solid state drive. Check the integrity of your hard drives with chkdsk. Do have any of the drives have existing bad sectors?  Check cabling and connections between drive and motherboard. Any drive related errors / warnings in Event Viewer?

Is the computer a desktop or laptop?

What are your anti-virus / security arrangements? Is there any potential for conflicting software? Are you using any registry cleaner or system optimiser?

Please provide a copy of your System Information file. Type System Information in the Search Box above the start Button and press the ENTER key. Select File, Export and give the file a name noting where it is located. The system creates a new System Information file each time system information is accessed. You need to allow a minute or two for the file to be fully populated before exporting a copy. Please upload to your Sky Drive, share with everyone and post a link here. Please say if the report has been obtained in safe mode.

Please upload and share with everyone copies of your System and Application logs from your Event Viewer to your Sky Drive and post a link here.

To access the System log select Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer, from the list in the left side of the window select Windows Logs and System. Place the cursor on System, select Action from the Menu and Save All Events as (the default evtx file type) and give the file a name. Do the same for the Applications log. Do not provide filtered files.

For help with Sky Drive see paragraph 9.3:

http://www.gerryscomputertips.co.uk/MicrosoftCommunity1.htm

http://www.gerryscomputertips.co.uk/syserrors5.htm

General notes on Freezes:

http://www.gerryscomputertips.co.uk/freezes1a.htm

Yes, Vijay linked me there. Unfortunately it didn't help. I have however pulled the Kernel-Power critical event's details if they can help solve this problem.

Hi Joey,

Did you try the troubleshooting steps provided in this article?

Get back with the information so that we can assist you better.

1. Overclocking - I haven't done any over clocking so that can't be it.

2. Check the memory - Checked the memory using my Windows install disc, everything checks out.

3. Power supply - This could very likely be it. I'm running with 4 drives (3 HDD, 1 SSD), GTX 670 graphics card, and AverMedia capture card, 8GB RAM, 4 monitors (do more monitors require more power?) and a handful of USB peripherals. I have an 850W PSU and from the calculator tools I found online I should only need 750W. Is there a better way to check how much power I'm actually using? And why would sometimes my computer crash when doing nothing, but sometimes crash while playing games at seemingly random times? Bottomline is what's the most efficient way I can check if this is the problem?

4. Overheat - I'm running speccy now, everything seems to be at a good temperatures but I'll keep watching it in case something fishy pops up.

5. Defauls - When you say system defaults what do you mean, defaults for what? I'm running my BIOS defaults, and running in "clean boot" mode on Windows 7. I am running the Balanced power plan from the Windows settings. (I do have it set so that my monitor stats on indefinitely, but just for now so that when my computer freezes I can read my system monitors left up).

I have disabled the Automatically restart function as per your instructions. Although when the computer freezes it doesn't reboot or anything. It will stay frozen on whatever was up with until I manually reboot the computer.

Thanks for your help!

Update 8/3/2013 10:47PM EST:

My computer froze again since I made this post. It has crashed twice since then. The first time it crashed I came home to this screen. http://imgur.com/NQw9U27 I rebooted my computer just fine about half an hour passed and it froze again while watching a YouTube video. Rather than completely freezing the audio became extremely slow and "robotic" sounding. But was still definitely coming from the video. In hindsight I should have waited it out to see what would happen over time, but I decided to reboot the computer instead.

Hi Joey,

This scenario usually indicates a problem with the hardware. Or, the driver can cause this problem. To help isolate the problem, check the following items: 

1. Overclocking: Disable overclocking to see whether the issue occurs when the system is run at the correct speed.

2. Check the memory: Verify the memory by using a memory checker. Verify that each memory chip is the same speed and that it is configured correctly in the system.

3. Power supply: Make sure that the power supply has enough wattage to appropriately handle the installed devices. If you added memory, installed a newer processor, installed additional drives, or added external devices, such devices can require more energy than the current power supply can provide consistently.

4. Overheating: Check whether the system is overheating by examining the internal temperature of the hardware.

5. Defaults: Use system defaults, and run the system. 

If you see that the computer generates a Stop error that contains a BugcheckCode value that is not reported in an event ID 41, change the restart behavior for the computer. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Right-click Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click Advanced system settings.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. In the Startup and Recoverysection, click Settings.
5. Click to clear the Automatically restartcheck box.

For more information, please refer to this.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504#method3

Do get back and let us know the status of the issue, I will be glad to help you further. We, at Microsoft strive towards excellence.