I've been experiencing a frustrating issue where my computer randomly shuts down during gaming sessions, particularly with the games Gates of Hell Ostfront and Surviving Mars. This problem started last summer. At first, I thought it was overheating, but after running a stress test with AIDA64 for an hour, everything seemed normal—no crashes or shutdowns. It's curious because I can run more demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Victoria 3 without any problems. I'm looking for advice on how to diagnose this issue. Is there an app or tool that can help identify what's causing these shutdowns? Also, it's worth noting that my PC is a bit dusty, and the last cleaning was about six months ago. Here are my specs: Ryzen 7 5800X, Radeon 6900XT, CoolerMaster XG850 PSU, 32GB G.Skill NEO RAM, Alpenföhn Gletscherwasser 280 AIO Cooling, and CoolerMaster Master Case H500M. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
4 Answers
Have you checked to see if your GPU or CPU is overheating? If you're overclocking or undervolting anything, consider resetting to stock settings to see if that resolves the issue. It might help with those particular games, but if everything is running stock, that might not be necessary.
You should check out the Event Viewer on Windows. It logs errors and should give you a clearer picture of what’s causing the shutdowns. Plus, have you tried lowering the graphics settings in those specific games? Sometimes it can help, even though they're not as demanding.
I did look at Event Viewer. I found one warning but not much else. Lowering the settings didn't help either, but it’s amusing that a less demanding game causes shut downs while I can run heavy hitters all night.
Sounds like a classic PSU issue. A solid recommendation is to get a higher wattage PSU (like 1000W) if you're planning to future-proof your setup. I've seen so many issues with inadequate power supplies—if they fail, they can fry components. Investing in a quality PSU is worth it in the long run!
Good advice! I'm definitely considering an upgrade if this keeps happening.
First off, you definitely want to clean out the dust. It might not seem like a big deal, but dust can lead to overheating in places you don’t expect. As for the PSU, how old is it? The 6900XT can draw quite a bit of power, especially when gaming, so if your PSU is only 850W, it could be struggling under load during those specific games. I had a similar shutdown issue before replacing my PSU, and it solved everything. I recommend keeping an eye on your power consumption and CPU/GPU usage during gameplay; use some software to log those stats and see if you have a peak at shutdown. I don't think it's a software issue, nor a problem with those less demanding titles. It's probably hardware related.
PSU is only 1.5 years old and never had issues before this summer, but only with those two games. It's strange since Surviving Mars isn't that demanding compared to something like Cyberpunk. I'll definitely look into a logging program to check those power levels. Thanks for the tip!
No overclocks here; everything's set to standard. Just trying to figure this out!