Windows 10 -Kernel Power 41 -PC Randomly Freezes -Black Screen -Audio Hearable -Then Restarts

[Ransome]

This happens especially when I browse the web, viewing emails and watching videos:
It may have occurred once during games but I am not sure.

Screen momentarily freezes, audio still going on audibly.
Then screen goes black.
The audio still plays and sounds in the background (forever basically), but the entire system is frozen:
Keyboard locked, mouse not responding as well, Task manager won't come up.
Nothing but hard reset / shutdown /unplug power works.

So for instance:
If I watch a video, you'd see the video (and everything else stops, then after a few seconds the screen goes black), and it would seem I can "listen" to the video forever, but the PC 100% frozen and crashed.

Issue started irrc with Windows 10, and moved to Windows 10 1511 (even though I made a full format and clean install.
Tried updating Nvidia driver a few times, using the latest now, removed and reinstalled with DDU.
No manual OC is active.

 

[Ransome]

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Extra info:
BIOS up to date (last update from 2009, done recently. Its an old bios, but it's the latest).

Checked event manager:
Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
And after that:
The previous system shutdown at 1:14:16 PM on ‎12/‎13/‎2015 was unexpected.

Specs (old PC I know, it's my workstation and secondary PC for light gaming):
Windows 10 Home 64 bit version 1511.
Asus GTX 670 DC2T GPU
Intel Core2 Extreme X9650 CPU
4 GB of DDR2 RAM (G.Skill).
EVGA 780i motherboard
Thermaltake 750w PSU
Corsair RGB K70 Mechnical Keyboard, Logitech G500 mouse.

 

[mdd1963]

Drop to a single 780, testing each individually.....(if both seem to work ok individually, your PSU might be marginal for running a pair of them)

 

[Ransome]

780i is the name of the motherboard.

Ihave a single GPU, Asus gtx 670.

PSU is thermaltake 750w.

Oh, don't know of it's relevant, but I am running windows on Balanced(recommended) in power options. Didn't want mess with it.

 

[Ransome]

Drop to a single 780, testing each individually.....(if both seem to work ok individually, your PSU might be marginal for running a pair of them)

OK so these crashes occurs during gaming as well.
Both CPU and GPU are running very coldly with good fans cooling them. Game runs flawlessly at 60fps for a long time, when all of the sudden the screen goes black, audio still plays - but everything is DEAD AND FROZEN.

My buddy couldn't hear me in steam chat, keyboard was stuck, task manager not coming up - nothing worked. In fact the monitor goes into standby mode, saying no signal or something, as if I turned off the PC. PC itself still runs and makes noises. Have to do a hard-shutdown.

I really can't find a solution to this, didn't change a thing for the past few months, and this issue is about a month old.

 

[stathis30f]

I have the same problem! At first I thought it was only happening during gaming but the screen went black during normal PC use such as browsing the internet or listening to music. The screen goes completely black and cannot be turned on again. Audio is hearable in the backround but mouse or keyboard don't seem to work. It first occured a couple of days ago when I launched a game on Steam and while I was waiting on the typical black screen to load the game I realised that the game had been fully loaded but my screen had been turned off for some reason.

Is it a Windows 10 bug or something? I have the latest drivers installed and checked Power Settings repeatedly.

 

[Ransome]

I am as clueless as you.
Yesterday I was optimistic, was starting to believe I fixed the problem:
I decided to open the case and re-seat and reinforce all the important connectors, clean everything up in the process:
I resat the RAM, resat GPU, hard disk power, mobo power etc.

Also - during this cleanup and insuring everything is plugged in firmly, I saw that one old case fan plugged off, when reconnecting it - it shot some sparks, I looked up and saw my PC frozen again.

I was excited I was on to something: so I left the connectors cut-off, and wrapped both their ends with tape to isolate them.

Then I ran a few stress tests, and viola! Issue fixed, no crash even though I ran 2 games, a video and lots of windows.

That was yesterday....

Today I went to work, everything was working smoothly, then while browsing the web and clicking on some links and menus, my mouse clicks stopped doing anything. Screen momentarily went frozen, then BAM turned black and entered standby. Can't wake it up. After a while and many presses on the keyboard - the pc rebooted.
So I ran the PC again, made some stress testing again and go this stop error + crash this time:

http://imgur.com/Zb8MY8V

Another odd thing that happened, I put my PC to sleep. Went to sleep myself (lol). Woke up and went to wake my pc up. PC woke up successfully and monitor came up to the lock-screen.
I tried clicking on the lock screen but nothing happened! Mouse was moving but un-clickable, keyboard wasn't doing anything either.

AFter about 2 minutes I get the same Blue Screen Stop Error, like this one:
http://imgur.com/Zb8MY8V
The hell is going on? I can't tell if the two issues are connected.

Is this a hardware issue or software?
Will re-installing Windows 10 cleanly or doing RESET WINDOWS + KEEP NOTHING - help at all?
Or will this be a waste of time? Because this is my next step in mind, and I rather avoid it.

 

[Ransome]

Also confirmed, occasionally after waking the PC from sleep, the screen will remain black, in standby, keyboard and mouse will do nothing, PC completely frozen - nothing will wake it up.

Eventually the PC will reboot itself slowly.
Damn windows.
Any solution for this?

 

[stathis30f]

Is this a hardware issue or software?
Will re-installing Windows 10 cleanly or doing RESET WINDOWS + KEEP NOTHING - help at all?
Or will this be a waste of time? Because this is my next step in mind, and I rather avoid it.

I can confirm that resetting windows and wiping the disk clean won't fix the problem. After I resetted my PC ran fine for about 15 minutes straight and I became optimistic that that might have done it. But once again when I launched a game the screen went black.

 

[Ransome]

Is this a hardware issue or software?
Will re-installing Windows 10 cleanly or doing RESET WINDOWS + KEEP NOTHING - help at all?
Or will this be a waste of time? Because this is my next step in mind, and I rather avoid it.

I can confirm that resetting windows and wiping the disk clean won't fix the problem. After I resetted my PC ran fine for about 15 minutes straight and I became optimistic that that might have done it. But once again when I launched a game the screen went black.

My issue doesn't occur when I launch games in particular. It occurs at random times. More often than not it will happen when I click on stuff on the browser. I was going to click on X to close the browser, felt that my mouse does nothing.. a few seconds of dread, and then - another black screen freeze. Monitor goes off and after a few seconds the PC reboots. No error message just black screen of death.
I thought I finally fixed this after having the PC run flawlessly for 3 days... guess I was wrong

Only options I have left are maybe putting the 2 RAM sticks on the two other slots, or resetting windows 10, but you said it might not help (providing we have the same issue)

This is mind boggling.

 

[stathis30f]

At first this only happend when I launched games. Now it has become so common that the PC is literally unusable. Just by clicking on a folder or a website causes the screen to black out. I am thinking of re-installing Windows 7 just for the sake of figuring out whether this is a Windows 10 bug or not ...

 

[Ransome]

At first this only happend when I launched games. Now it has become so common that the PC is literally unusable. Just by clicking on a folder or a website causes the screen to black out. I am thinking of re-installing Windows 7 just for the sake of figuring out whether this is a Windows 10 bug or not ...

Still having this. Still don't know what to do. Random freeze-blackscreen-crash on regular basis. Sometimes I am having days without an issue, sometimes it crashes several times a day.

 

[Ransome]

At first this only happend when I launched games. Now it has become so common that the PC is literally unusable. Just by clicking on a folder or a website causes the screen to black out. I am thinking of re-installing Windows 7 just for the sake of figuring out whether this is a Windows 10 bug or not ...

Still having this. Still don't know what to do. Random freeze-blackscreen-crash on regular basis. Sometimes I am having days without an issue, sometimes it crashes several times a day.

---------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: After having this issue for many months - I've decided to do a clean install of Windows 10 - include a total drive format - on my system.
Unfortunately the issue persists.
Thus leads me to believe its a hardware - electrical failure. Something short circuits or "jump up" the board or parts. Could be wiring in the case or something in the motherboard itself or other parts.


This is what appears in Window's Even Viewer > Windows Log > System:
LEVEL:
Critical
GENERAL:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
SOURCE: Kernal-Power
EVENT ID: 41
Here are some screenshots from the event log:
http://i.imgur.com/2rRPihh.png
http://i.imgur.com/69cQGXc.png

-----
Another error is:
Error: The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000116 (0xffffe00046b52010, 0xfffff8007f2a84b8, 0x0000000000000000, 0x000000000000000d). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 9437db0a-b768-4010-96c8-0720c791ecf5.
Event ID: 1001
---
Solutions I've already attempted:
Format and clean install of Windows 10.
I have tried unplugging and re-setting:
My RAM, my GPU, all my external devices, even sata cable, inboard electrical cables (like LED/fan power/front usb cables), every other power cable.
I've also cleaned my PC from dust - made a very deep, expansive cleaning all around the case, the fans and parts.
I've also isolated loose power cables (plastic ones with many holes) and other smaller ones with tape.
Checked my case isn't grounding - I am not electrocuted at least.
Replaced motherboard battery with a new one. (round 3 V).
Also tried different Power Settings in Windows -like disabling all Sleep related settings, USB suspend, PCI-E link etc.
Tried using MSI AFTERBURNER and change to Kernel Mode.
Tried disabling other Sound Devices.
Tried Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. No issues found.
Tried Windows Scan Disk. No issues detected.
Also made chkdsk c: /f. No issues.
Nothing helps.

 

[wbartek]

I can also confirm that this is a major issue with Windows 10. Been having it myself for 6 months now. Most often while browsing the web or streaming radio. Sound gets laggy/choppy, everything starts to run slow and after a while screen freezing with sound in background.

Im actually happy to read that others suffer from the same thing. A lot of suggestions regarding flawed hardware etc. For me none of this happens when running a Windows 7 setup. I would advice ppl to try Windows 7 before removing/changing hardware or other complicated would be solutions.

I myself have tried disabling Superfetch/Ndu and also disabling audio enchancements with no luck. Still these errors occur at random points. Running Win7 nothing of this happens.