Random restarts

[SuperheroRobot]

Hi,

My setup is randomly restarting. It usually happens within the first 10 minutes of starting up. It will shutdown and restart with no warning. And it will do this several times in quick succession. Sometimes it will happen at the login screen, sometimes it will happen after I log in.

Sometimes it will randomly restart within the first couple of hours of starting up. With no warning it will just restart. Sometimes I’ll go an entire day with no restarts. Today was a bad one. It did the randomly restart thing when I first started it, about three times. Then a couple of hours later it randomly restarted 3 times with about 5 minute gaps between each restart. Then about an hour later, while writing this post, it restarted again about three times.

The odd thing is, that the longer the machine runs, the less likely the restarts will occur, this is very consistent, I can’t think of a single time the machine restarted after running for 4 hours. Although if it goes to sleep, it will sometimes restart no matter how long the machine has been running.

I’ve seen this message only twice (see attached image) usually it just restarts and doesn’t display this message.

I’ve been having random restarts for over a year, but they use to only occur when the machine went to sleep.

This never happens when I’m running Windows (from a different drive). It only happens when I’m in Mac High Sierra.

Any tips? Thanks.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hi,

My setup is randomly restarting. It usually happens within the first 10 minutes of starting up. It will shutdown and restart with no warning. And it will do this several times in quick succession. Sometimes it will happen at the login screen, sometimes it will happen after I log in.

Sometimes it will randomly restart within the first couple of hours of starting up. With no warning it will just restart. Sometimes I’ll go an entire day with no restarts. Today was a bad one. It did the randomly restart thing when I first started it, about three times. Then a couple of hours later it randomly restarted 3 times with about 5 minute gaps between each restart. Then about an hour later, while writing this post, it restarted again about three times.

The odd thing is, that the longer the machine runs, the less likely the restarts will occur, this is very consistent, I can’t think of a single time the machine restarted after running for 4 hours. Although if it goes to sleep, it will sometimes restart no matter how long the machine has been running.

I’ve seen this message only twice (see attached image) usually it just restarts and doesn’t display this message.

I’ve been having random restarts for over a year, but they use to only occur when the machine went to sleep.

This never happens when I’m running Windows (from a different drive). It only happens when I’m in Mac High Sierra.

Any tips? Thanks.

Hello.

I don't think this is a High Sierra problem. This is a GPU problem.

The error you are getting is showing that your power supply is not providing enough power to the GPU. This might be because of a faulty connection or a weakness in the power rail itself. To troubleshoot this can you try a different cable to a different socket on the PSU? Obviously only if it is modular.

This could be happening at different times due to a few possible factors, most likely being the stress the GPU has been under or maybe the PSU failing in some minor way at a particular point.

 

[SuperheroRobot]

Thank you for your reply. If it is hardware related then why doesn't it happen when booted up in Windows? I never experience restarts in Windows and I often play games. I have probably experienced a hundred restarts in Mac, and have only seen this message twice, FYI. But I will order another cable, I don't think I have extras, and try to rule that out.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Thank you for your reply. If it is hardware related then why doesn't it happen when booted up in Windows? I never experience restarts in Windows and I often play games. I have probably experienced a hundred restarts in Mac, and have only seen this message twice, FYI. But I will order another cable, I don't think I have extras, and try to rule that out.

Okay, fair enough. I was going on the screengrab you posted. I'm surprised you get that particular error in Mac but not Windows. It looks like a BIOS error not a software one. Check the system logs.

Going on what you say, there seems no need to buy another cable.

 

[SuperheroRobot]

BIOS error, that sounds promising. It's probably also due for an update. I'll check my logs next time it happens. Thanks for the advice!