PC Shuts Down Randomly While Gaming Despite a New Power Supply
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MellowQuill47
My PC is about six or seven years old, although I've upgraded several components over time. Recently, it has started powering off completely while I'm gaming. It might happen after 10 minutes or after 10 hours, and there's no consistent pattern. I suspected the power supply, but replacing it didn't change anything. The problem seems to have become more noticeable after upgrading from an RTX 2070 to an RTX 4070 Ti Super. What should I check next? Current specifications: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super, MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk motherboard (MS-7D75), and 64GB Corsair DDR5 RAM.
Answers
Check the CPU and GPU temperatures while gaming. Since the system turns off completely, overheating or another protection-triggered hardware issue is possible. If the CPU thermal paste is around two years old, cleaning the cooler and applying fresh paste would be a reasonable maintenance step. Also monitor temperatures, clock speeds, and fan behavior while reproducing the problem.
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The motherboard could still be worth investigating, since failing power-delivery components can cause sudden shutdowns under load. Look for damaged or swollen capacitors, but keep in mind that a board can have an electrical problem even when there’s no obvious visual damage.
MellowQuill47: I checked the board and don’t see any capacitors that are bulging or otherwise damaged.
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MellowQuill47: It’s been roughly a year and a half to two years since I last replaced the CPU thermal paste, so I’ll check the temperatures and consider repasting it.