My PC powers off instantly without warning. The motherboard usually shows an orange or yellow debug light, although it has also displayed red, white, and occasionally green lights before shutting down. I have reseated the RAM several times, tested each stick individually in different slots, and reinstalled the graphics card. About a month ago, adjusting the CPU and motherboard power cables seemed to fix the problem temporarily, but doing the same thing now has not helped. The computer may boot normally, yet it still shuts down after roughly 5–10 minutes of use. The power supply is a gold-rated Cooler Master 1000W unit that is probably 6–8 years old. What should I check next?
1 Answer
Start by fully reseating the 24-pin motherboard connector and the 8-pin CPU power connector. If the power supply is modular, unplug and reconnect the cables at the PSU as well, checking for loose, damaged, or discolored pins. Debug LEDs cycling through several colors before an abrupt shutdown can point to unstable power delivery or a short rather than a single RAM or GPU problem. Given that the PSU is around 6–8 years old, testing with a known-good replacement should be high on the list. Also make sure the CPU cooler is firmly mounted and monitor temperatures, since overheating can cause shutdowns after several minutes.
Reseating the cables helped briefly before, but now the system still boots normally and shuts off after about 5–10 minutes, so I’m going to focus on testing the PSU and checking temperatures.