Why does my PC randomly reboot while gaming?
Asked by
MellowOrbit42
Over the past few months, my PC has occasionally powered off and immediately restarted while I was playing games. It has happened about three times this year, including once while playing Dawnwalker. There is no blue screen or error message beforehand. GPU temperatures were around 45–50°C and CPU temperatures around 50–60°C, so overheating does not seem obvious. What should I check to determine whether this is a power supply problem, hardware instability, or something game-related?
Answers
What CPU, GPU, and power supply are you using? If Event Viewer only shows Kernel-Power 41 with no useful preceding error, the PSU becomes a strong suspect, but it is still worth checking graphics drivers, BIOS settings, overclocks, and hardware stability. Make sure automatic restart is disabled temporarily so Windows has a chance to show an error if a real crash occurs. If Windows creates minidumps, those may also reveal whether a driver is involved.
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Some games can expose a marginal stability problem even when stress tests and other demanding games appear fine. Game-specific crashes do not automatically prove the PSU is failing, especially if the system degrades for a moment before rebooting rather than instantly losing power. I would first record the exact game, load level, Event Viewer entries, and any driver or BIOS changes before replacing expensive parts. Testing with another known-good PSU would be the most useful confirmation if the problem continues.
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Those temperatures are completely normal, so overheating is unlikely. A sudden shutdown followed by an immediate restart usually points more toward the power supply, power delivery, or another hardware stability issue. Check Event Viewer around the time of the reboot, especially for Kernel-Power Event 41. That confirms Windows lost power or shut down unexpectedly, although it does not identify the exact component. Also check whether it only happens when the CPU and GPU are heavily loaded.
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BrightNoodle7: If the power supply is starting to fail or cannot handle a transient load, that could definitely explain the random restarts. Checking its age, model, wattage, and the power cables would be a good first step.