My boyfriend's newly built PC worked normally at first, but after he accidentally pressed a reset button while trying to change the RGB lighting, it now shuts down or restarts whenever he plays games. It seems to run for about 10 minutes, and the temperatures appear normal. A red debug light briefly appears on the motherboard before the restart. The system uses a Ryzen 5 7600X3D, Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX V2 motherboard, 1TB Lexar NM790 SSD, 16GB DDR5-6000 memory, Corsair 3500X case, Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE cooler, Montech Century II 850W Gold power supply, and a PowerColor RX 9070 XT. What could be causing this, and what should we check first?
4 Answers
A sudden restart under gaming load usually points to power delivery, memory instability, or a protection shutdown rather than a normal software crash. Check the CPU and GPU temperatures while gaming, reseat the graphics card and both power connectors, and make sure the GPU uses the correct dedicated PSU cables. Also test the RAM carefully—one stick may be faulty or the DDR5-6000 profile may be unstable. Try running with the memory profile disabled and see whether the restarts stop.
The red light is probably one of the motherboard’s EZ Debug LEDs. The label beside it matters: CPU, DRAM, VGA, or BOOT. Try to see which one stays lit during the restart. DRAM would suggest the memory or its settings, VGA could indicate the graphics card or its power connection, and CPU may point to the processor power cable or BIOS settings. Reseat the RAM and graphics card, then clear CMOS properly if the reset button changed the firmware settings.
An 850W Gold PSU should generally be enough for this hardware, but a defective unit or a loose cable can still cause instant restarts under load. Make sure the motherboard’s 24-pin and CPU power connectors are fully clicked in, and check every GPU connector. If possible, test with another known-good power supply before replacing parts. Avoid using a single daisy-chained cable for high-power GPU connections if the card provides multiple sockets.
I had similar instant restarts caused by a bad power supply. Replacing it fixed the problem, even though the original unit was rated for enough wattage.
If the button was actually a CMOS reset, the BIOS may have returned to default settings. Load the motherboard’s optimized defaults, update the BIOS if needed, and leave memory overclocking disabled while testing. Since the system has one 16GB stick, it is also worth testing that module in the recommended slot and checking it with a memory test. If it still restarts at stock settings, the PSU, RAM, motherboard, or graphics card should be tested individually.
It usually happens after around 10 minutes, and the temperatures look normal. It also seems to restart rather than show a blue screen.