I just bought my first prebuilt PC from Amazon, and it keeps freezing and completely restarting whenever I try to play Devil May Cry 5. My old Windows Pro desktop could run the game on low settings, so I expected this system to handle it easily. The new PC has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, 16GB of RAM, and an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X. Even lowering the graphics settings doesn't help. Marvel Rivals worked normally until today, and Warframe crashes before it gets past the daily login rewards screen. I've already updated the CPU and graphics drivers, but I'm not sure what else to check. Windows Event Viewer also shows many errors at the same time as the crashes, and I'm worried I may have already damaged something.
3 Answers
Because this is a newly purchased prebuilt, don’t open it up or start replacing parts before checking the return and warranty policy. Confirm the exact power-supply model and wattage, since a poor-quality or defective PSU can restart a PC when the GPU is under load. Make sure the PC is plugged directly into a reliable wall outlet or surge protector, and reinstall the graphics driver with a clean installation if necessary. If it still crashes in several games after temperatures and drivers check out, request a replacement rather than trying to repair it yourself.
The Event Viewer errors happening at the same time are worth checking, but many of them may just be consequences of the forced restart. Look for the critical event immediately before the reboot, especially a Kernel-Power entry, and note whether it names a driver or hardware component. Also try running a memory test and a GPU stress test separately. If either test causes another restart, stop using the system heavily and contact the seller for a replacement or warranty repair.
Since multiple games are causing a full system restart, this probably isn’t a problem with one particular game or graphics setting. Check whether your motherboard chipset drivers, BIOS, and Windows updates are current, then monitor CPU and GPU temperatures while gaming. Also check that the graphics card’s power cables are firmly connected. A sudden restart can be caused by overheating, unstable RAM, a failing power supply, or another hardware problem.
I’ve updated the processor and graphics drivers, but I didn’t know the chipset and BIOS might need updates too. I’ll check those and monitor the temperatures.
I wasn’t sure what to look for in Event Viewer, so I’ll focus on the critical event right before the restart instead of treating every error as the cause.