Unknown critical event

Had something strange happen this morning. Was in the middle of a movie on my M17x R2 when the everything froze and suddenly rebooted. No shutdown message, no warning. It came back to Windows as if nothing happened. The even viewer recorded it as this:

Spoiler

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 3/22/2013 8:07:05 AM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: M17x-R2
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid='{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}' />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-03-22T15:07:05.025606200Z" />
<EventRecordID>17643</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution Processid='4' Threadid='8' />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>M17x-R2</Computer>
<Security Userid='S-1-5-18' />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

That sort of kernel error is only prevalent when the CPU loses enough power momentarily to cause it to crash. My battery is operating fine as is my PSU. I know my GPU has not been working well but I can't see it causing such a power drain as to kill the CPU. Any ideas at to the cause? I'm leaning towards a hardware issue on the motherboard but am not quite sure.

 

Windows Kernel event ID 41 error "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first" in Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
Conflict with fusion power plan, under services disable AlienFusionService. Faulty GPU or corrupt drivers.

 

That's what I'm thinking. Faulty GPU first, then faulty motherboard, or faulty CPU. Can't be the drivers. I've been on Catalyst 12.10 for quite some time with no adverse effect (other than the occasional black screen) which I contribute to the GPU going bad. I know my 5870m is going back so that is why it's on the top of the list. Can't be the Fusion Plan conflict cause I disabled that a long time ago. I'm just surprised on how there was no prompt afterwards for starting up in safe mode or warning message at desktop that my system just recovered from a critical error. Very strange.

But I will try updating to the 13.1 Catalyst Drivers to see if that stems some of my GPU malfunctions.

 

Try the microsoft article and test Ram etc. corrupt drivers/overheating.
Check with event viewer, start prior to 41.

 

Nothing in or around that time in event viewer except for that one error event. The only out of place errors I have for the day are that Windows fails to load the crash dump driver but I've always had those errors. PSA checked out as normal. No problems with the RAM, CPU, or motherboard. SSD doesn't seem to have any errors. CoreTemp would have let me known if there was an overheat issue and the CPU temps never got above 55C. I am at a loss other than it being a preemptive sign that my voltage regulators may be failing.

 

PowerDVD isolated issue? 10?/11/12 CLFLVSplitter bug that can cause wmp crash when playing .flv.

 

Was playing an .avi (XVID), not an flv. But I will look into the possibility of the K-lite codec being the culprit.

 

I don't think a codec can crash a system.

 

Damn thing just did it again. And this time the system was idling. Got up, went to the head, came back and it had restarted. Looked at the event viewer and it showed the same critical error. It was nearly at the same time it shutdown yesterday as well. I'm beginning to think it may be some scheduled task or a Windows update I installed on Thursday or prior.

 

Could be a short on the motherboard, I would try sending it in for repairs to have it fully checked (hardware wise)

 

So update:

It passed all it's PSA tests. Then I benched the SSD and it showed no errors (just to double check). I was fairly certain it had to be something I did to set this off so I started playing with my drivers and such to see if maybe one of the device drivers had gone bad and I made an interesting discovery: I uninstalled all my AMD software and drivers and started fresh with the Dell stock AMD drivers for the 5870m. It didn't help, system kept crashing and rebooting. So I went and updated to the older 12.6 Catalyst. Problem still persisted. I had already tried using 13.1 so I know the latest Catalyst drivers would not help. Thinking maybe third times the charm, I updated up to the Catalyst 12.10 drivers as I had those before and never had any problems with them. And that as they say it that. Two days now and no crashes and reboots. I don't know if its cause my GPU is faulty or my 5870m just doesn't like any of the other Catalyst driver versions, but updating to 12.10 seems to have fixed that crash problem. My GPU will still crash if I stress it enough, but at least the whole system doesn't go down at random. Very weird...