Computer crashes/restarts when left unattended

[PenguinWithHair]

Hey everyone, can anyone give me any ideas for fixing this weird problem. I use my computer generally, browing the internet and what not and it's fine. If however I leave my computer unattended for perhaps ten minutes or more I'll come back to it and it will have either restarted itself, so it's at the lock screen and all programs I previous had open have dissappeared, or it'll have a blue screen, or it'll be frozen on the screen I left it at with an audio stuttering sound. I've posted this in hardware but I'm hoping it's a software issue. I've set power settings so the screen and computer stay on for a few hours rather than turn off after ten minutes.

I'm running (a fresh install and fully updated) windows 10, AM1 Athlon processer with the onboard graphics. I'm also running it through an AV receiver.

Any ideas for any diagnosis checks I can run? I have a USB wireless keyboard and mouse plugged into, USB wireless adapter, and xbox controller receiver.

A key thing could be when I leave my computer unattended it's usually downloading, if that could have any influence.

Any ideas appreciated. As I usually return to a restarted computer I'm not sure how to ask windows about why it's previously crashed.

Cheers guys.

 

[JBR]

Is it a laptop? Is it usually running on battery or plugged in?

 

[PenguinWithHair]

Ah apologies it's a desktop.

 

[motorbiking]

have you done a hardware diagnostic check via the bios? It could be memory, or weak connection on the mother board. If you know your way around it might be worth reseating everything. Alternatively, download mint on a usb or cd and boot from that and see if the same problems happens. This will tell you if its more likely hardware of software

 

[Nozzle]

Check the setting to go to sleep / hibernate and turn the setting off to see if that makes the difference. It could also be some other power saving feature like turning off the monitor, but causing a software failure. Which would be odd, as modern OSes are very resilient.. even windows!

Or do you have a dodgy screensaver installed?

Nozzle

 

[PenguinWithHair]

Hey everyone, all power settings are set to not switch anything off and whatnot, and it's a fresh windows 10 install so no screen savers or adjusted display settings.

I think it's some kind of hardware problem but I'm obviously not sure what, I put the components together myself so I know it's all plugged in properly and fully connected.

What's the best way of running hardware diagnostic tools?

 

[motorbiking]

press the appropriate diags f-key on boot and go in to the bios menu.

 

[L95]

I would personally check out the Windows Event Viewer. Leave it "unattended" by staring and not touching anything until it resets and note the time. Then when you reboot, open the Event Viewer (easily found with a quick Google if unsure) and then report back.

Only thing I can think of hardware wise might be overheating if the fans are clogged but I think that is pulling at straws.

 

[PenguinWithHair]

Hey everyone, I run a windows memory diagnosis and it did state a hardware failure with the memory (weird as it is a very functional computer for the most part!) and the website I bought the parts from has adviced I return the RAM for their testing.

Thanks for the comments I'll update as I know more