Computer rebooting randomly, possibly bad PSU?

DBReed

Hi all,

I've been having a really frustrating problem lately that I hope you can help with. My two month old computer has been having a problem with random reboots. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to why they're happening. I can play games like Crysis or Deus EX: HR for a few hours and everything's fine, but things like The Sims 3 or Cities in Motion will have a random reboot after 10-20 minutes. Here are my specs:

MB: ASUS P8P67 PRO REV 3.1
CPU: Core i5 2500k (3.3 GHz) w/ CoolerMaster H212+
GPU: MSI GTX 560 Ti-Hawk
RAM: 2 X 4GB GSkill DDR3-1600
HD: Samsung Spinpoint 1TB
PSU: Corsair HX850W
Case: Corsair 600T (white)
OS: Windows 7 64 bit

I initially thought that it was my graphics card or CPU overheating, but I checked my temps and they're fine. At load, the GPU maxes out at 66-67°C, and the CPU never gets over 54-55°C. I've run Memtest overnight and it returned zero errors. I live in a cool climate too, so I don't think it's the temperatures.

This has all led me to think it's the PSU causing my problems. I initially thought that it was overheating, since the case is sitting on carpet and I figured it wasn't getting enough air. So I put the case on a couple of pieces of wood to give it more clearance. That was a couple of days ago, and I thought it did the trick. I had been having the reboot problem while I was playing New Vegas, and after I elevated the computer it stopped. I was able to play last night for a few hours with no problem. Today, however, I played New Vegas for about 20 minutes and the computer rebooted on me.

Does anyone else have any ideas, or should I just RMA the PSU? This is getting to be very frustrating.

naporeon

It might be the capacitors. If you can, take a look at your motherboard and see if the capacitors seem to be bulging slightly, perhaps looking a little more barrel-shaped than roughly cylindrical.

DBReed

None of the capacitors are bulging. A couple are sitting a little crooked, though.

Draygo

crooked is ok, as long as they are still attached.

It 'could' be the PSU but its more likely that you are bluescreening and your computer is automatically rebooting. Other things that can cause it include your graphics drivers (is this only happening while playing games?), faulty graphics card, motherboard issue of any kind (how are your northbridge, southbridge temps?). Disable automatic restart on blue screen if you havent already.

I did talk to a guy once that had a similar issue, after he put a heatsink on his northbridge on the motherboard the problem went away. This may or may not be relevent to your situation however, your motherboard already has a heatsink on the NB, and should be fine.

Try swapping the slot your graphics card is in as well, to further test memory issues try removing memory one stick at a time until the issue goes away (or doesnt).

Raern

Edit: Totally ninja'd.

First thing to do with random reboots is go to 'Advanced System Settings', Advanced tab, Start Up and Recovery then turn off automatic restart on system failure. If the reboot is being caused by something in software or drivers crashing windows you should end up with a clear error or bluescreen code to help you narrow things down.

The PSU is a good guess if you've eliminated heat issues and software, but it seems odd that you could run some high end games without rebooting while others have issues.

Crooked capacitors aren't an issue, don't bend them either, not worth the risk of damaging the connections.

DBReed

I turned off Automatic Restart back when this first started happening, and I haven't had any blue screens. It just shuts down and then comes back on after a few seconds. I have checked the logs, and whenever this happens all it says is "Error 41 Kernel Power".

This is only happening when I'm playing games. Everything else I haven't had an issue with.

@draygo I haven't checked the Northbridge or Southbridge temps yet. I've been using HWMonitor, can I use that? I'll try your suggestions about the RAM and the graphics card as well.

Bendery It Like Beckham

DBReed wrote:

I turned off Automatic Restart back when this first started happening, and I haven't had any blue screens. It just shuts down and then comes back on after a few seconds. I have checked the logs, and whenever this happens all it says is "Error 41 Kernel Power".

This is only happening when I'm playing games. Everything else I haven't had an issue with.

@draygo I haven't checked the Northbridge or Southbridge temps yet. I've been using HWMonitor, can I use that? I'll try your suggestions about the RAM and the graphics card as well.

Any time your computer shuts off without being shutdown you'll get that error 41 kernel power message, the fact that you can play higher intensity games with no problems but have issues running stuff like sims 3 is weird, could be a compatibility issue with those games specifically, I don't know if your HDD uses AFT, but i do know it causes lots of wonky problems. Try disabling your Paging File, you have enough ram and shouldn't need it, see if that fixes it. 10-20 minutes and a shutdown could be a crappy paging file swap, some games are designed to not need them, while older games were designed with a paging file in mind.

l3lasphemer69

http://aumha.org/a/stop.php

When the computer BSoD's and gets stuck there, note the Stop error at the bottom, the 0xXXXX error message and check it out on the website above, it will give you a good idea on what could be causing the problem. Also in the Event Viewer in Computer Management under System it will usually have the error message there that caused the restart.