I'm having a frustrating issue where my PC shuts down and restarts itself unexpectedly. It happens at random times—once it turned off while I was playing a game, and sometimes it restarts right at the boot screen after I've cleanly unplugged and re-plugged everything. Even though it manages to run games fine at times, the shutdowns usually happen when I'm trying to load a game or at a loading screen. I've updated my BIOS and GPU drivers, but I suspect the power supply might be the culprit. What do you all think?
2 Answers
It sounds like a power supply issue could be the root of your problem. Restarting while loading games or even in the BIOS often points to a PSU that's struggling. Before you replace it, consider a few quick checks:
1. Reseat your cables to make sure everything is snug.
2. Reseat your RAM and GPU; even a small misalignment can cause issues.
3. Run your PC with the minimum hardware to see if it stabilizes.
4. If you can, test with a different PSU to confirm if that's the issue.
Games can pull a lot of power, especially during load times, so a failing PSU often can't keep up. If testing another PSU doesn't work, next up would be checking the motherboard, but usually, it's the PSU causing the problem. Let me know your system specs, and I can help narrow it down further!
I had similar issues once, and it turned out my power supply was defective. I was using the Thermaltake Smart Series. A good troubleshooting step is to look for "Event Viewer" in Windows and check for crash events that correspond with the restart. I got a "critical kernel power" error message, which pointed me towards the PSU issue.
Yup, mine says the same code. Looks like I need to get a new PSU too!
I see that error as well. Definitely sounds like a new power supply is on my to-do list!
Here are the specs: CPU - Intel i7-8700k, GPU - 2080 Super, MB - MSI z370 gaming PLUS, PS - EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G3. It was all assembled in 2018.