I recently moved and used my phone's hotspot to update my Windows 11 gaming PC overnight before having regular internet access. The next day it showed a blue screen and BitLocker recovery screen, then powered off before it could fully boot. I wiped the main drive and performed a fresh Windows installation, but the random shutdowns continued. I also tested a separate drive running Nobara Linux, and the system still powers off there too, so it doesn't seem specific to Windows or a corrupted installation. I removed a recently installed TP-Link Archer TXE72 Wi-Fi card and replaced the CMOS battery, but neither changed anything. I'm considering a BIOS update, though I'm concerned the computer could shut down during the process. What should I test next? My hardware is a Ryzen 5 5500, ASUS B550 Gaming Plus motherboard, MSI MAG A850GL 850W Gold power supply, XFX RX 9070, and two 1TB M.2 drives from SK hynix and Crucial.
2 Answers
The Windows update and reinstall are probably not the root cause, since the same thing happens when booting Linux. At this point I’d focus on a physical or power-related issue: reseat the RAM, GPU, motherboard power connectors, and CPU power cable, then test with only one RAM stick and the minimum hardware needed to enter the BIOS. If it still powers off while sitting in the BIOS with the drives removed, the likely suspects are the power supply, motherboard, CPU cooling, or another hardware connection rather than the operating system.
Don’t flash the BIOS while the system is randomly losing power. If it shuts down during the update, the motherboard could become unusable. Strip the system down to the bare minimum: disconnect both storage drives, remove unnecessary USB devices and expansion cards, and try leaving it sitting in the BIOS. Also check that every fan is spinning and that the power cables, RAM, graphics card, and motherboard connectors are fully seated. Timing how long it runs before shutting down may help reveal whether it’s heat or power related.
That makes sense. It recently stayed running in Linux for about two hours while idle and updating before shutting off, so I’ll disconnect the drives and leave it in the BIOS to see whether it still happens. I’m going to avoid the BIOS flash for now.
I’ll go through the connections and reseat everything carefully. I was worried that repeatedly turning it on and off while troubleshooting might make things worse, but testing it with the drives removed should at least narrow down whether storage is involved.