My PC shuts down completely whenever I play games or otherwise put the system under heavy CPU and GPU load. It works normally for browsing and other light tasks, and the temperatures look safe before the shutdown. After rebooting, Event Viewer reports Kernel-Power, Event ID 41. The system uses an Intel Core i5-12400F, Radeon RX 7600 XT, 16 GB of DDR5 memory, a Biostar H610M-D5 motherboard, and a 1 TB NVMe SSD. Because the shutdown happens consistently when power demand increases, could the power supply be failing to handle transient or peak loads, or should I investigate something else first?
2 Answers
A weak or failing PSU is a strong possibility because the system only turns off when the CPU and GPU draw more power. Check that the GPU power cable is firmly connected and that the PSU is an adequate, reputable model for the RX 7600 XT. If possible, test with a known-good PSU. A multimeter or PSU tester can help, but monitoring voltage right at the instant of a crash may miss a brief transient, so swapping the PSU is generally a better diagnostic. You can also run separate CPU and GPU stress tests to see whether one component triggers the shutdown by itself.
Kernel-Power 41 usually only records that Windows did not shut down cleanly; it does not identify the original cause. Check the WHEA-Logger events around the same time for a hardware error, and also review Service Control Manager entries. The WHEA event details may point toward the CPU, PCIe bus, graphics card, memory, or motherboard.
The related logs showed a timeout for the Intel Platform License Manager service and a separate unrecoverable hardware error. The full WHEA event data would be more useful than the Kernel-Power entry alone, so that should be captured before drawing a conclusion.