Random shutdowns : Windows 7 : Kernel Power error?

[Draeger]

I made the jump a few weeks ago from Vista x86 Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

I'm now getting random shutdowns for no apparent reason. There's no pattern to it. I can for instance, one minute be sat playing CoD : Black Ops and it will shutdown and restart or I can be simply browsing online and it will do the same. No warning, no BSOD, just the PC cutting out and restarting.

I have had a look in the event viewer and it shows this :-

- Provider

[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}

EventID 41

Version 2

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000002

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2010-11-14T18:16:13.708810900Z

EventRecordID 8515

Correlation

- Execution

[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer Logic-PC

- Security

[ UserID] S-1-5-18


- EventData

BugcheckCode 0
BugcheckParameter1 0x0
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress false
PowerButtonTimestamp 0

So I Googled this "Kernel Power" issue and it appears to be Windows 7 operating systems that it affects but I don't really know what to do next to try and address the issue?. Any ideas or advice would be appreciated folks, many thanks.

 

[Draeger]

Thanks for the link. My CPU temp is sat at about 27 deg C idle and immediately after quiting CoD Black Ops, its reading 35 deg C so think that is ok.

However, what I have just done is installed RivaTuner and ramped up the fan speed on my 9800GTX+. It was reading 50 ish deg C at idle sat at the desktop and after a CoD session, about 65 deg C. After ramping the fan speed up with RivaTuner I've just sat and played through 2 entire levels of the game without any crashes/shutdowns. I'm thinking therefore that it could be an overheating GPU. Just about to open the case up and have a look to see if there is a film of dust/gunk on the fan/heatsink and clean it out as required.

 

[Draeger]

Let us know if that sorts it.

Unfortunately no.

I've just had the damn thing restart again for no reason at all. Temps for both CPU and GPU are well below anything "dangerous". I haven't a clue what to look at next. My PSU is a Coolermaster Real Power 520w Modular and is approx 2 years old. Is there a program I can use to check the rails etc on it to monitor whether they are falling over a wee bit and perhaps causing the problem?.

 

[Draeger]

I'm not so sure it is the PSU. This afternoon I found some more info on the issue being caused by an audio device conflict. I had nothing extra in that respect in my device manager but upon Right Clicking the Realtek icon on the taskbar there was my Realtek Audio in there, 5:1 stuff and also a "Digital Device". I disabled the Digital Device and so far ( touch wood ) have had no crashes even during a long session of CoD : B Ops this afternoon. Might be too soon to say for sure but it could have done the trick, I'll maybe find out I'm wrong in a bit though!!.