Uncommanded Windows 11 PC reboots… anyone else seeing blue screens?

Technology Forum
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I’m dealing with a weird issue on my Windows 11 desktop. It keeps rebooting randomly and goes straight into the UEFI BIOS. I can restart and boot back into Windows, but sometimes this whole cycle repeats a few times before it stabilizes. Often, there’s a blue screen just before this happens.

It mainly happens a few minutes after I start the PC for the day, then seems to run fine afterward, even under high load. I’ve tried everything I can think of:

  • Checked CPU, GPU, memory, and temps; all look fine.
  • Ran memtest86 (no issues after four cycles).
  • Reseated RAM and checked all motherboard connections.
  • Made sure drivers and OS updates are current.
  • Boot order is correct with C:\ (Samsung 970 Evo) first.
  • Case is clean and well-ventilated.

I’m out of ideas. I’m considering a full OS reinstall, but I’d rather avoid it if possible. Anyone have any ideas? Could it be something random like the motherboard battery? I’m pretty stumped here.

Here’s a link to the minidump files

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Make sure to grab your dump files; they’re important for figuring out BSODs. You can find them in C:\Windows\Minidump. If they’re there, copy the folder to your desktop, zip it, and upload to a file-sharing site like catbox.moe or mediafire.com.

If you only have one dump file or none, change the dump setting to Small Memory Dump so Windows logs more data. That way we’ll have more to go on.

This is an automated post. Please contact the moderators if you need help.

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Heads-up: making BIOS or disk setup changes can mess with your data. Always back up before doing anything drastic.

For more info, check out this forum’s FAQ thread on Windows 11 issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/q2rns5/windows_11_faq_read_this_first/

Automated post. Contact the mods if you need help.

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When it crashes and goes to UEFI, does the UEFI show your OS drive?

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Caiden said:
When it crashes and goes to UEFI, does the UEFI show your OS drive?

I’ll have to wait until it happens again to check. I think I’ve only seen the drive list in the boot manager, but I might be missing something. Could partitions be the cause here? Anything I can check while the OS is running, like disk management?

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@CodeCruncherCathy
If the OS is up and running, there’s no problem with the disk right then. The idea here is to check if the UEFI isn’t seeing your boot drive at all when it happens.

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Caiden said:
@CodeCruncherCathy
If the OS is up and running, there’s no problem with the disk right then. The idea here is to check if the UEFI isn’t seeing your boot drive at all when it happens.

Got it. I’ll post an update when it happens again, maybe tomorrow, since it only does this on the first startup of the day. Thanks for the suggestion.

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@CodeCruncherCathy
Just want to be clear—I’m not saying this is the cause, but it’s something worth checking.

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Caiden said:
@CodeCruncherCathy
Just want to be clear—I’m not saying this is the cause, but it’s something worth checking.

Makes sense, and I appreciate you mentioning it. I think the drive will be there though, because usually, it boots up fine initially and crashes a few minutes later while idle (I’ll have Firefox, Discord, or Outlook open).