Troubleshooting Windows reboots?

dt-cam

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Are we allowed to discuss computer troubleshooting issues in this section? This is for a camera server, but I don't believe the issue is related to the camera server software running on this computer, however, I feel like the people who browse this section may be able to help.

If I get the ok to discuss, I will post the issue, if this is the wrong place, I will delete the thread.

Thanks.

EDIT

Here is my issue

I have an NVR that is running Avigilon. A few weeks ago, the system blue/screened/rebooted/locked up, it was in the middle of the afternoon, I was not on site, I didn't find out until the next morning when I was on site, I saw that the system was in the blue screen stating that it didn't boot up properly.

At that point, I rebooted, windows loaded w/o issues. I launched Avigilon and everything was fine....or so I thought. Live view worked great, but it wasn't until I saw that nothing was being recorded. I opened a ticket with Avigilon and they figured out that the Avigilon software was confused, momentairly, and saw the system/date change to a date/month in the year 2030 and to avoid recording over existing footage (at this point the computer was automatically switched back to the present, correct, date/time) it wasn't going to record anything until it saw the date 2018 change to 2030. The tech cleared up all the db to get rid of all the 2030 recordings, restarted the NVR service, and things were back to normal......for about a week. Then the same exact thing happened, the computer improperly reboots/blue screens/etc, again, I am not there and I find myself in the same scenario.

Now that we know why Avigilon recording fails, the tech states that it is not an Avigilon problem and I agree with him.

I checked Event Viewer when the system failed, but nothing stands out, to me. This problem occurred yesterday and this time I exported the EV.

System Log
Information 3/22/2018 16:15 Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Boot 20 -31 The last shutdown's success status was false. The last boot's success status was true.

Information 3/22/2018 16:15 Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Boot 153 -62 Virtualization-based security (policies: 0) is disabled.

Information 3/22/2018 16:15 Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-General 12 -1 The operating system started at system time ‎2018‎-‎03‎-‎22T21:15:41.499211900Z.

Information 3/22/2018 12:00 EventLog 6013 None The system uptime is 628368 seconds.

The server crashed/rebooted at 3-22-18 at 4:15pm and nothing stating that shows up between 12:00 and 16:15

Application Log
Error 3/22/2018 16:16 Avigilon Control Center 0 None Recording interrupted on camera '14' because the system time has been changed backwards. Recording will resume at 2030-Feb-27 05:35:14.464 PM.

When the system crashes, the time temporarily switches to sometime in 2030. Windows is set to obtain time automatically and the time is always correct when I look at it. I've only seen the 2030 date/time in logs, never in the OS or camera program.

The system is custom built, I can provide parts list if needed. It is also connected to a UPS w/o the UPS software/cable controlling shutdown (that can be ruled out).

I tried setting the windows time option to manual to see if something with the time was causing the computer to act up, but the issue occurred with the time being set to manual (that can be ruled out).

Active hours on the windows computer are 8am to 8pm, it has always rebooted, improperly, sometime between 4:30pm and 6:30pm (rebooting due to windows updates can be ruled out).

I'd like to test memory and possibly the power supply, next. I'd like some input from others who are more experienced in PC troubleshooting.

Thanks.

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UPDATE 5-24-18
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UPDATE, I replaced the power supply, about 25 days ago, and the computer has been up and running ever since. I received a notification for windows updates which I set to remind me later/postpone/whatever the option to do it later was. This is w10, but you still get 1 or 2 changes to push updates to a later time.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure it went more than two weeks w/o a reboot before I posted the resolution.
 
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dt-cam

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a quick google search shows that others seem to have this same issue...
Windows 10 Picking Future Time Year 2030
first thing I would do is a clean install of windows using the media creation tool from MS. - not the oem image from the pc manufactures.
I found that exact thread when I initially had this issue (I should have included that in my initial post with the other details I included). However, I tried the few things suggested in that thread, which didn't help.

I bought my own copy of Windows 10 (Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - OEM) , but it is OEM, which you are suggesting not to use.

If this is a windows issue, why can't MS correct this via windows updates (hypothetical question)?

I don't mind doing a clean install, I can start here, Download Windows 10

However, my computer is custom built and doesn't have the hardware to activate windows. Will it activate with the OEM code I have?

Thanks.
 

fenderman

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I found that exact thread when I initially had this issue (I should have included that in my initial post with the other details I included). However, I tried the few things suggested in that thread, which didn't help.

I bought my own copy of Windows 10 (Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - OEM) , but it is OEM, which you are suggesting not to use.

If this is a windows issue, why can't MS correct this via windows updates (hypothetical question)?

I don't mind doing a clean install, I can start here, Download Windows 10

However, my computer is custom built and doesn't have the hardware to activate windows. Will it activate with the OEM code I have?

Thanks.
Your version is fine, when I said oem i meant dell/hp/etc oem images that have added junk....that said I would start the troubleshooting with a clean install.
Your pc doesnt need any hardware to activate windows 10, ms stores system specific data, it will activate automatically...
 

dt-cam

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Your version is fine, when I said oem i meant dell/hp/etc oem images that have added junk....that said I would start the troubleshooting with a clean install.
Your pc doesnt need any hardware to activate windows 10, ms stores system specific data, it will activate automatically...
Ok, I will create an ISO (from the MS site) and throw it on a USB drive and re-install windows and go from there.
 

dt-cam

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Your version is fine, when I said oem i meant dell/hp/etc oem images that have added junk....that said I would start the troubleshooting with a clean install.
Your pc doesnt need any hardware to activate windows 10, ms stores system specific data, it will activate automatically...
I forgot to add this...

The motherboard is supermicro and it has a built in IP management port to remotely connect to the computer if the OS is locked up. It has a log file, but only saves the last 30 events, I would need to export to a syslog server to have more than 30 events. Anyway, I noticed that the event log in the supermicro management card also received the incorrect date/time of 2030 and its time source was, I believe, localhost, which is the server itself. I made sure to switch that to time.windows.com, when I did that, it updated to the correct time (which it was already set to from the localhost option), but something obviously caused it to temporarily change to 2030 and then quickly change back to the correct date/time.

I can also rule out the CMOS battery since that usually stays set to the incorrect date/time and also rolls back, I've never seen it roll forward when I've seen CMOS issues.

I'm still going to start with a clean install, but I did want to add that.
 

dt-cam

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Randomly rebooted, today, at 5:21pm. I am not on site, but I'll check the logs to see if it references 2030, again.

I was going to reformat this past weekend, but there were some bookmarks that I needed to export and move onto an external drive and that took longer than I thought it would.

edit

The only consistent thing, that I've noticed, is that the computer seems to always crash during this time...somewhere between 4:00pm and 6:00pm.
 

dt-cam

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I ended up re-formatting with a fresh image from MS. It was reformatted on 4-1-18. Once formatted, I did not let it check for updates other than what it was going to do in its own in the background, my main goal was to make the least amount of changes while getting the camera software installed and getting the cameras back online. I did that and everything worked fine. I was going to let it go as long as possible w/o doing updates just to see how long the system was stable before updates.

I wasn't prompted during the first week, to install any updates, and everything seemed to be running as it should. Next Sunday, 4-8-18, I saw a pop up stating that updates were needed. I decided to install the updates seeing as how the system would eventually reboot to install them and I'd rather be on site to see if anything happened during the update process. Everything was fine, the system came back online after a reboot and everything was normal/recording as is.

I am still not 100% clear because I wasn't on site when it failed, but there was a failure this morning or yesterday. Once I am able to remote in, I'll get more information, but being that the computer is not reporting as online, it is either stuck somewhere in the reboot process or something else is preventing the compute from booting up. Usually I'll ask that the local person on site manually power it off and then power it back on and it boots normally.

Regardless, based on what I am seeing, it appears that the fresh install either isn't the issue or something else, other than windows OS, is causing the system to momentarily jump to 2030, revert back to 2018 and then crash.

The event log isn't helpful, but I will see if there is any new information after this last failure, but I'll have to assume that I'll see the same information that I've already posted since it appears to be the same problem.
 

dt-cam

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I might have more information. I have someone on-site who is trying to power up the computer and according to them, they are pressing the power button and nothing is happening. I asked them to unplug from the power supply and when they plug the cord back in, they do see a green light on the motherboard (through the back of the case), which confirms the computer is getting power.

This computer has a supermicro motherboard with an IPMI interface. I logged into the firewall and see the MAC address and IP of the IPMI interface, when I ping it from the diagnostics section of the firewall, it replies. I created a port forward and NAT rule for the IPMI private IP and I tried logging into it from my remote location, but I quickly see a message that tells me that the session ended.

Google took me here....
I do remember seeing that the IPMI system log message also had the 2030 year for some of the log messages. Now I am starting to wonder if the IPMI has its own time settings and/or somehow the cause of the screw up of the time.

I will be on site, in the morning, to see why the computer isn't powering up. Also, I had this remote login problem, in the past, the few times I logged into the IPMI from the windows session on the same box, it doesn't give me an error. I'm not sure why the session acts differently over a WAN connection vs a LAN connection.

EDIT- I had the idea of setting my clock ahead of the 2030 year, I set it to 2032 and told windows not to update the time automatically, it let me log right into the IPMI over the WAN connection. When I check the time on the IPMI interface, it is set to use windows.time.com as primary and 127.0.0.1 as secondary, the time and date that it was displaying is accurate.

What a weird issue.
 
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dt-cam

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I am not sure why, but windows isn't logging anything in Event Viewer when the computer reboots. All I see is an entry after the computer reboots stating that the computer booted after an improper shutdown, or something along those lines.

I wanted to run a memory test and until I can get back there with the appropriate memory tool (memtest) I tried doing this:

  • Click Start, type mdsched.exe in the Search box, and then press Enter.
  • Choose whether to restart the computer and run the tool immediately or schedule the tool to run at the next restart.
Apparently it doesn't work with windows 10, those are instructions for windows 7. I did run that command and I selected for the test to start on the next restart, I restarted and it booted directly into windows.

I guess my only option is to start removing devices and seeing if this issue still occurs.
 

bp2008

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You should be able to mount a memtest iso with ipmi and reboot it remotely into memtest.

It does kind of sound like a Windows update may have caused this, if you indeed had it stable for a couple of weeks after a fresh install. Maybe you should check for firmware updates for your motherboard.
 

dt-cam

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You should be able to mount a memtest iso with ipmi and reboot it remotely into memtest.

It does kind of sound like a Windows update may have caused this, if you indeed had it stable for a couple of weeks after a fresh install. Maybe you should check for firmware updates for your motherboard.
IPMI is problematic with the date/time adjustment I have to make on my local computer. Also, I am using a dedicated video card and the IPMI remote display only works with the on-board video.

I tried to do a BIOS update via the IPMI, but that feature is locked and requires a key to activate it. I bought a key for $19, but it will take 1-2 days to receive it, electronically (had to purchase through a re-seller).

Alternatively, it seems that the power on from IPMI didn't work because that also requires a license. I suppose it is time to read the fine print next time I buy a server board with IPMI.......

With that being said, I wish windows had better event viewer logs and I am very tempted to reformat with windows 7 just to avoid this issue. I wanted to use windows 10, but these forced reboots are very annoying. There is no point in having security software installed on an OS if it forces reboots and doesn't provide important/proper details when it randomly reboots.

The good news is that I can't confirm that the date rolled back to 2030, the previous times this happened, when my computer came back online, the camera recording was all jacked up, meaning, some were recording and others weren't since the system had 'some' footage marked as 2030 and it doesn't want to record over that footage, which means no recording for a handful of cameras. This morning, when I got the computer online, all cameras were recording. This is good and bad because now I'm not seeing the same results, which means I could have a new issue.

Very frustrating, but I am trying to go through all the troubleshooting steps.

The next thing on my list is a BIOS upgrade for the board. I could do it the old fashion way of making a boot USB drive or burn to CD, but I was ok with spending $20 for the license to update via IPMI, I'll have to wait for that to come through.
 

dt-cam

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Update- Just got a call that it rebooted at 5:45pm, again, same as last week. Also, I literally, just received the email from CDW with the supermicro BMC license that I need in order to apply it to the motherboard so I can update BIOS from the IPMI card. Which means, since my last post, I have not been able to update the BIOS on the board.

I really think it is odd that the reboot/crash is at the same time and about 1 week apart.

The only thing I did, last week, was disable the NTP server on the IPMI interface, I set it to manual just to see if that was somehow grabbing an odd time from a time server. I didn't think that was the issue since the time server the IPMI card is using is time.windows.com, but I figured it was worth a shot.
 

dt-cam

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Update- I updated the BIOS on Sunday and I am still having issues, I will rule out the BIOS. I guess it is time to start taking out components, which are not much. Video card and memory are the only items I can remove.
 

Aengus4h

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does your UPS do a periodic self-test at all, and is it weekly? Also what type of UPS?

Not unheard of that the self-test can cause a minor blip in the PSU and be enough to cause an attached PC to restart as if it had a power loss.
 

dt-cam

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does your UPS do a periodic self-test at all, and is it weekly? Also what type of UPS?

Not unheard of that the self-test can cause a minor blip in the PSU and be enough to cause an attached PC to restart as if it had a power loss.
Yes, it does do a periodic test and your suggestion is something to consider/look in to. I have had this UPS for many years and I've swapped out the battery, one time, but other than that, the unit appears to work properly. I've also done manual self-test while on site (via the software interface) and didn't have any issues with the old NVR rebooting. This new NVR has been online long enough for me to know if a previous self-test would make it reboot, but it could be a sign of age on the UPS, not sure. I don't think this is the issue, but I will look into it, ASAP. When I built this new computer, I must not have remembered to plug in the USB cable between the UPS and the PC, I just tried to install the software (remotely) and it can't find the UPS and can't continue the install. I know the cable is on site, but there was a short period of time when I had the old NVR and the new NVR online at the same time and I must have just left the USB cabled plugged into the old NVR and never connected it to the new NVR when I finally removed the old NVR.

The computer dropped offline, yesterday, for about 12 hours. It turned off around 1PM and turned itself back on around midnight. The NVR and other components are plugged into the UPS and those other components (network switch, ISP equipment, router) were online 100% of the time, I monitor the up time of the WAN connection at this location and it didn't drop at all. The more I see these random drops, the more I suspect a bad power supply, I think I might change that out, next.

At first, the computer reboots were almost at the exact same time every week, the last handful of shutdowns/reboots appear to have been random.
 
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