My PC has recently started shutting down without showing a blue screen. I replaced the power supply, but the problem still occurs intermittently. Stress testing has not caused a crash so far, yet the system sometimes crashes straight into the BIOS when I put it into sleep mode. Event Viewer reports an Event 41 power-related error. Could this be caused by the motherboard, BIOS settings, memory configuration, or a sleep and wake problem? The current hardware is an Intel Core i7-13700K on an ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-A GAMING WIFI D4 motherboard with 128 GB of DDR4 memory (four 32 GB G.Skill F4-3200C16-32GVK modules). The memory is running at 2666 MT/s, and the BIOS is version 3001 from March 7, 2025. I have not recently changed any BIOS settings.
2 Answers
It would also be worth checking the motherboard firmware and memory stability. Four 32 GB modules put more load on the memory controller, so even though the RAM is currently running at a conservative 2666 MT/s, test with the default firmware settings and run a proper memory test. Event 41 only confirms that Windows detected an unexpected shutdown; it does not identify the faulty component. If there are no minidumps, that supports this being a hard reset or power-state failure rather than a normal Windows blue-screen crash.
Since replacing the power supply did not resolve it, the PSU is less likely to be the cause. The sleep transition sounds especially suspicious. As a test, disable sleep for a few days and see whether the random shutdowns continue while the system stays awake. If the crashes stop, check Device Manager and prevent the network adapter, mouse, and keyboard from waking the computer. In the BIOS, temporarily disable Fast Boot and Wake on LAN as well. That can help determine whether a sleep or wake setting is triggering the failure.
I have not changed the BIOS settings recently, and the BIOS is currently version 3001. The full hardware list is an i7-13700K, ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-A GAMING WIFI D4, and four 32 GB DDR4 modules running at 2666 MT/s.