My desktop has become increasingly unstable. It sometimes runs normally without crashing or freezing, but lately it often crashes within a few minutes of starting up—and occasionally within seconds. I suspect the power supply, but I'm not sure how to confirm that and I've already tried several troubleshooting steps. My temperatures seem normal: the CPU and GPU usually stay around 60°C or below, although the GPU may briefly reach about 70°C during startup. The system uses a Ryzen 7 5800X, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, and ASUS Prime B550-PLUS AC-HES motherboard. What should I test next to determine whether this is a hardware or software problem?
2 Answers
What temperatures are you seeing when this happens? Overheating is one of the first things to rule out, especially if the crashes happen under load.
Try booting from a Linux live USB and use the computer normally for a while—browse the web, play videos, and see whether it still crashes. If it remains stable in Linux, the problem is more likely related to Windows, drivers, or another software issue. If it crashes there too, that points more toward hardware such as the power supply, memory, motherboard, or GPU.
The CPU and GPU generally average around 60°C or less. The GPU briefly reaches roughly 70°C during startup, but it doesn’t stay there.