Whenever I play demanding games such as Fortnite, the game suddenly crashes and the entire computer powers off without showing a blue screen. When I turn it back on, Windows gets stuck cycling through ASUS Automatic Repair and Diagnosing Your PC for around 20 minutes. I usually have to shut the system down, switch off the power supply, unplug it for a few minutes, and then reconnect everything before it boots normally.
Event Viewer only reports Kernel-Power, Event ID 41, indicating that the system lost power unexpectedly. The PC works normally for homework and other light tasks. I have monitored the RTX 3090 temperature while gaming and it reaches about 60°C, but I have not checked the CPU temperature yet. The system has an RTX 3090, a Ryzen 9 5900X, and an 850W 80 Plus Platinum power supply. What could be causing these shutdowns?
4 Answers
Event ID 41 only confirms that Windows lost power; it does not identify the failed component. Other possibilities include unstable RAM settings, especially an aggressive XMP or EXPO profile, outdated BIOS settings, or a component beginning to fail. Try loading BIOS defaults, temporarily disabling the memory overclock, and updating the motherboard BIOS and chipset drivers.
Start by checking both CPU and GPU temperatures under load. The GPU temperature sounds fine, but an overheating CPU or VRM can still trigger a protective shutdown. Use a hardware monitor while gaming and check whether the CPU is reaching unusually high temperatures before the system turns off.
A sudden total shutdown during demanding workloads often points toward the power supply or a power-delivery problem. An 850W unit can be enough for a 3090 and 5900X if it is healthy and properly connected, but the 3090 can produce large transient spikes. Check that the PSU is a reputable model, use separate PCIe power cables for the GPU, and test with another known-good PSU if possible.
The power supply is rated at 850W and 80 Plus Platinum. I’ll check the GPU power connections and consider testing another unit.
If the temperatures and power connections check out, test the system methodically: run a CPU-only stress test, a GPU-only test, and then a combined load. Also test the memory and inspect Windows reliability history. If it shuts off only during combined loads, that makes the PSU or motherboard power delivery more suspicious than the graphics card temperature.
I only checked the GPU so far, and it stayed around 60°C. I’ll monitor the CPU as well.