Random reboots; do they suggest problem with PSU?

Could be any number of different things, including a failing PSU, failing RAM, hard drive, overheating, etc. Look in Windows Event Viewer to see if there are any errors listed around the time of a crash. BTW: What version of Windows?

Carefully reseat RAM modules and PCI cards in their slots. Replace the motherboard battery (CR2032 3-volt battery).  See if that helps...

If not, reboot and immediately press F12. Look for the option to run the diagnostics including RAM and extended hard drive tests (these may take a while so be patient). Copy and post error messages, if any, here.

Windows 10 Home 64bit (upgraded from Windows 7)

Errors near to time of crashes, three today.

"The Appx operation 'RegisterPackageAsync' on 'Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.14393.206_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy' failed for user 'Gordon' - . (Error: Install failed. Please contact your software vendor

xxxxx

The Appx operation 'RegisterPackageAsync' on 'Microsoft.AccountsControl_10.0.14393.206_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy' failed for user 'Gordon' - . (Error: Install failed. Please contact your software vendor.)

xxxxx

Faulting application name: backgroundTaskHost.exe, version: 10.0.14393.0, time stamp: 0x57899bb2

Faulting module name: CSGSuggestLib.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x57dac996

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x0000000000036bc7

Faulting process id: 0x17cc

Faulting application start time: 0x01d21ca7422bfbc4

Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\backgroundTaskHost.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\CSGSuggestLib.dll

Report Id: 46166992-c462-4853-9e6f-c0038f35fde1

Faulting package full name: Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.7.0.14393_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy

Faulting package-relative application ID: CortanaUI

xxxxx

The Connected Devices Platform Service service terminated with the following error:

Unspecified error

xxxxx

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID

{8D8F4F83-3594-4F07-8369-FC3C3CAE4919}

and APPID

{F72671A9-012C-4725-9D2F-2A4D32D65169}

to the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be

xxxxx

"

Kaspersky lab Antivirus Windows kernel update is incompatible with the combination of KIS 2016 and Crypto Pro tool

1) Update Crypto Pro or KIS or both

2) Uninstall Crypto Pro or KIS

If you don't have Kaspersky Antivirus then you have kernel level Virus/Malware.

Incompatible print drivers and applications also have this error.

@ Posted by SpeedStep on 2 Oct 2016 22:15

Sorry, but your reply leaves me scratching my head. Kapersky has never been on my computer, nor have I ever come across Crypto Pro and KIS, so have no clue about them either.

You say I must have kernel level virus or malware, but I check with my antivirus, currently ESET, and there have been others while the problem has been extant; I also have Malwarebytes Premium, which is always on. How likely is it that I do have kernel level malware; more imporantly how do I sort it out and destroy it.

Incompatible print drivers: my all in one is a recent Canon MG6850 with the supplied drivers, and stated to  be compatible with Windows 10. My problems as far as I recall began before its purchase

You probably shouldn't run ESET and Malwarebytes on the same system. They may (or not) conflict so disable Malwarebytes, at least temporarily, and see if things improve.

Run the diagnostics, especially the hard drive tests to see if your HDD is ailing...

If HDD has no errors, you could try a Win 10 Refresh (not Reset!)  You shouldn't lose your files or installed software, but always back up your files on external media FIRST, eg on an USB HDD.

P.s. I did a refresh quite recently; that's why M'bytes has just been reinstated. Again the reboot problem has existed before anf after the refresh.

Malware bytes has only recently been reinstalled, but the problems still existed whilst it was not on my computer. Before all this started it didn't seem to cause problems in conjunction with other AVs I have used from time to time. I shall disable it nonetheless.

Diagnostics all passed. Will other suggested tests later and advise outcomes. Please bear with me. :)

Could this have something to do with what's causing the reboots?

I found that  my recovery partition has lost its letter, presumably when I upgraded from 7 to 10. Is the partition still valid and needed? If it should still be there, how do I go about assigning its letter, which I think was "I" or "J"? Right click on the partition just brings up irrelevant help for a server. If the partition is no longer needed, how, please, do I remove it?

Normally, the recovery partitions don't have a drive letter because users aren't supposed to access them directly.

I wouldn't worry about those other e drive partitions until you sort out your random booting problems. Lets not make things worse...

Thanks for advice. I just thought  a what-if. Will pocede as planned.

Have done a further clean with compressed air, getting more gunge out. Everything seems well seated, but from the outset there has been a plug (bottom right corner of image, that doesn't  seem to have socket to mate with, and am not sure if in deed if it does belong somewhere, or is redunant.

But in less than 15 minutes after booting from cold (2 days unpowered) the random boot occured once more. The plug mentioned above, goes it go anywhere?

Hard to tell what that connector is from the photo. Where do the wires go? It might be a spare Molex connector that the power supply may have and which gives you the opportunity to add another drive to the system. But since the system works, aside from the random shut-downs, I don't think it's relevant to your problem.

Did you reseat RAM modules and PCI cards in their slots? Did you run the RAM and extended HDD tests?

Did you install a fresh motherboard battery?

You may need to consider a heating problem which could require you to remove the heat sink from the CPU, clean both surfaces, apply fresh thermal paste and reinstall the CPU. (Do NOT remove the CPU from its socket.)

If all this is going beyond your capabilities, it may be time to take the PC to a reliable PC shop and let them troubleshoot it for you...

BTW: When was last time you scanned thoroughly for malware?

I am starting to realise that I probably need a "man" to solve this.

As  a by the way, looking for something unrelated to this, I found a .wer file close to the crash time.

Version=1
EventType=MoAppCrash
EventTime=131204014623235306
ReportType=2
Consent=1
UploadTime=131204014623860293
ReportIdentifier=6a5295e4-8d4e-11e6-92cf-00256485166c
IntegratorReportIdentifier=e8ffc83b-0abf-424e-99ce-3943ba85cd17
NsAppName=praid:CortanaUI
AppSessionGuid=00001758-0001-002e-40ff-97dc5a21d201
TargetAppId=U:Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.7.0.14393_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI
TargetAppVer=1.7.0.14393_neutral_neutral!2016//07//16:02:28:02!e03a!backgroundTaskHost.exe
BootId=4294967295
Response.BucketId=1fc6570c85fe1544d5351f672b8b4333
Response.BucketTable=5
Response.LegacyBucketId=133392967668
Response.type=4
Sig[0].Name=Package Full Name
Sig[0].Value=Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.7.0.14393_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Sig[1].Name=Application Name
Sig[1].Value=praid:CortanaUI
Sig[2].Name=Application Version
Sig[2].Value=10.0.14393.0
Sig[3].Name=Application Timestamp
Sig[3].Value=57899bb2
Sig[4].Name=Fault Module Name
Sig[4].Value=CSGSuggestLib.dll
Sig[5].Name=Fault Module Version
Sig[5].Value=0.0.0.0
Sig:emotion-14:.Name=Fault Module Timestamp
Sig:emotion-14:.Value=57dac996
Sig[7].Name=Exception Code
Sig[7].Value=c0000005
Sig:emotion-29:.Name=Exception Offset
Sig:emotion-29:.Value=0000000000036bc7
DynamicSig[1].Name=OS Version
DynamicSig[1].Value=10.0.14393.2.0.0.768.101
DynamicSig[2].Name=Locale ID
DynamicSig[2].Value=2057
DynamicSig[22].Name=Additional Information 1
DynamicSig[22].Value=9e19
DynamicSig[23].Name=Additional Information 2
DynamicSig[23].Value=9e198e584e7d8385ad6bf8404374d9c1
DynamicSig[24].Name=Additional Information 3
DynamicSig[24].Value=7567
DynamicSig[25].Name=Additional Information 4
DynamicSig[25].Value=7567ad80c55f315cf6b8efdfc2270ebd
UI[2]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\backgroundTaskHost.exe
LoadedModule[0]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\backgroundTaskHost.exe
LoadedModule[1]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
LoadedModule[2]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNEL32.DLL
LoadedModule[3]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
LoadedModule[4]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\apphelp.dll
LoadedModule[5]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcrt.dll
LoadedModule:emotion-14:=C:\WINDOWS\System32\combase.dll
LoadedModule[7]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll
LoadedModule:emotion-29:=C:\WINDOWS\System32\RPCRT4.dll
LoadedModule[9]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\bcryptPrimitives.dll
LoadedModule[10]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\kernel.appcore.dll
LoadedModule[11]=C:\Windows\System32\twinapi.appcore.dll
LoadedModule[12]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\sechost.dll
LoadedModule[13]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\bcrypt.dll
LoadedModule[14]=C:\Windows\System32\WinTypes.dll
LoadedModule[15]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\shcore.dll
LoadedModule[16]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\user32.dll
LoadedModule[17]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\win32u.dll
LoadedModule[18]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\GDI32.dll
LoadedModule[19]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\gdi32full.dll
LoadedModule[20]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\IMM32.DLL
LoadedModule[21]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\mrmcorer.dll
LoadedModule[22]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\profapi.dll
LoadedModule[23]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.dll
LoadedModule[24]=C:\Windows\System32\ActXPrxy.dll
LoadedModule[25]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\Bcp47Langs.dll
LoadedModule[26]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\uxtheme.dll
LoadedModule[27]=C:\Windows\System32\biwinrt.dll
LoadedModule[28]=C:\Windows\System32\OneCoreUAPCommonProxyStub.dll
LoadedModule[29]=C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\Cortana.BackgroundTask.dll
LoadedModule[30]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\advapi32.dll
LoadedModule[31]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcp110_win.dll
LoadedModule[32]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\wincorlib.DLL
LoadedModule[33]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\XmlLite.dll
LoadedModule[34]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\cdp.dll
LoadedModule[35]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\OLEAUT32.dll
LoadedModule[36]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcp_win.dll
LoadedModule[37]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\capauthz.dll
LoadedModule[38]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\CRYPT32.dll
LoadedModule[39]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\MSASN1.dll
LoadedModule[40]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\WS2_32.dll
LoadedModule[41]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\VEEventDispatcher.dll
LoadedModule[42]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\ncrypt.dll
LoadedModule[43]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\SspiCli.dll
LoadedModule[44]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\IPHLPAPI.DLL
LoadedModule[45]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINHTTP.dll
LoadedModule[46]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\NTASN1.dll
LoadedModule[47]=C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\Cortana.Core.dll
LoadedModule[48]=C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\BingConfigurationClient.dll
LoadedModule[49]=C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\ActionMgr.dll
LoadedModule[50]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\clipc.dll
LoadedModule[51]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.dll
LoadedModule[52]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\windows.cortana.pal.desktop.dll
LoadedModule[53]=C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\CortanaApi.dll
LoadedModule[54]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\windows.storage.dll
LoadedModule[55]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\powrprof.dll
LoadedModule[56]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\shlwapi.dll
LoadedModule[57]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\Cabinet.dll
LoadedModule[58]=C:\Windows\System32\threadpoolwinrt.dll
LoadedModule[59]=C:\Windows\System32\AppContracts.dll
LoadedModule[60]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.StateRepository.dll
LoadedModule[61]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\StateRepository.Core.dll
LoadedModule[62]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Web.dll
LoadedModule[63]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\iertutil.dll
LoadedModule[64]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Media.Speech.dll
LoadedModule[65]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\RemoteNaturalLanguage.dll
LoadedModule[66]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\urlmon.dll
LoadedModule[67]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\PROPSYS.dll
LoadedModule[68]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntmarta.dll
LoadedModule[69]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\Speech_OneCore\Common\sapi_onecore.dll
LoadedModule[70]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\MMDevAPI.DLL
LoadedModule[71]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\cryptsp.dll
LoadedModule[72]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\winmmbase.dll
LoadedModule[73]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\cfgmgr32.dll
LoadedModule[74]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\DEVOBJ.dll
LoadedModule[75]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\rsaenh.dll
LoadedModule[76]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\CRYPTBASE.dll
LoadedModule[77]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.ApplicationModel.dll
LoadedModule[78]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Globalization.dll
LoadedModule[79]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.ApplicationModel.Background.TimeBroker.dll
LoadedModule[80]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.ApplicationModel.Background.SystemEventsBroker.dll
LoadedModule[81]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\SystemEventsBrokerClient.dll
LoadedModule[82]=C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\Cortana.Dss.BackgroundTask.dll
LoadedModule[83]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\logoncli.dll
LoadedModule[84]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Web.Http.dll
LoadedModule[85]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Cortana.ProxyStub.dll
LoadedModule[86]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.UI.Immersive.dll
LoadedModule[87]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\WININET.dll
LoadedModule[88]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Security.Authentication.OnlineId.dll
LoadedModule[89]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\tokenbinding.dll
LoadedModule[90]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ondemandconnroutehelper.dll
LoadedModule[91]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\mswsock.dll
LoadedModule[92]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\NSI.dll
LoadedModule[93]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\DNSAPI.dll
LoadedModule[94]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\userenv.dll
LoadedModule[95]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\profext.dll
LoadedModule[96]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINNSI.DLL
LoadedModule[97]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\policymanager.dll
LoadedModule[98]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\firewallapi.dll
LoadedModule[99]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\fwbase.dll
LoadedModule[100]=C:\Windows\System32\ShellCommonCommonProxyStub.dll
LoadedModule[101]=C:\Windows\System32\rasadhlp.dll
LoadedModule[102]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\fwpuclnt.dll
LoadedModule[103]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\schannel.DLL
LoadedModule[104]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\mskeyprotect.dll
LoadedModule[105]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\ncryptsslp.dll
LoadedModule[106]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\DPAPI.DLL
LoadedModule[107]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\WINTRUST.dll
LoadedModule[108]=C:\Windows\System32\cryptnet.dll
LoadedModule[109]=C:\Windows\System32\certenroll.dll
LoadedModule[110]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\certca.dll
LoadedModule[111]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\WLDAP32.dll
LoadedModule[112]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\mlang.dll
LoadedModule[113]=C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\CSGSuggestLib.dll
LoadedModule[114]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\ole32.dll
LoadedModule[115]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\MSWB7.dll
State[0].Key=Transport.DoneStage1
State[0].Value=1
FriendlyEventName=Stopped working
ConsentKey=MoAppCrash
AppName=Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI
AppPath=C:\WINDOWS\system32\backgroundTaskHost.exe
NsPartner=windows
NsGroup=windows8
ApplicationIdentity=C49C2DF167051DAC6B5D3B73D8EEF84C
MetadataHash=-818480461

Might the info give a clue to what went on?

FWIW the cables from the plug go  as crow lies north-easterly to what is attached to the chassis in the pic.