PC randomly restarting while playing certain games

Mart2912 · 10 May 2015 at 20:59

I seem to have a problem of sorts but can't figure out what's going on.

My PC will randomly restart while playing certain games. This mainly happens in Planetside 2, yet never seems to have this issue while playing GTA5. The PC will just switch off completely, then boot back up again. I have auto restart disabled trying to catch a blue screen error, but it doesn't help. This has been ongoing now for about 3-4 weeks, before then the PC has been solid for almost a year.

My Specs:

Asus Sabertooth Z77
Intel i7 3770k @ 4.5ghz
16GB DDR3 1800 ram
Evga GTX 780 FTW
Plextor M5 256gb SSD
Seasonic X-Series 650W modular
Asus Xonar D2X soundcard
Custom water cooling

Other than that, 2 HHD and a blu-ray drive.

I have tried:

Reinstalling GPU drivers (Going into safemode and removing any remaining file)
Scanned for virus/malware
Cleaned registry
Removing any overclocks by resetting everything back to stock via bios
Monitoring temps (CPU 75c and GPU at 82c max during 100% stress test)
Stress tested both CPU and GPU at 100% (At the same time) for an hour without any issues

Now, the fact this issue happens in multiple games (Mainly PS2 as that's the game I play the most) I would say it's not game dependent. The issue can take anywhere from 10 minutes to just a few seconds.

The two errors that I found are:

Event 10 , WMI
Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.

Event 41, Kernel-Power
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

So, apart from all of the above, I have now switched out my GPU for an old one that I had lying around (AMD 5850) and so far, everything seems to be going fine in PS2 (Apart from a large FPS hit, but that was to be expected).

It seems strange that I can run benchmarks/stress tests with out any issues, yet some games cause the PC to restart? :confused:

Does anyone have any suggestions that may help further diagnose the problem? Or could it possibly be that my GPU is dying? As always help is appreciated!

stulid · 10 May 2015 at 21:21

What you havent tried I see is reinstalling the OS from fresh and stating again.

Mart2912 · 10 May 2015 at 21:26

stulid said:
What you havent tried I see is reinstalling the OS from fresh and stating again.

That is a good point. It has been a while since my last reinstall. I've got nothing to lose so I may as well give it a shot.

stulid · 10 May 2015 at 21:30

Oh and update the Boards BIOS, was the RAM setup via XMP?

Mart2912 · 11 May 2015 at 15:52

Well I done a fresh install of windows and so far so good. It's funny how the one thing that I thought wouldn't solve the problem, actually seemed to have. Thanks for that. Will report back if anything crops up.

Mart2912 · 11 May 2015 at 20:42

Unfortunately, the problem persists! Although now, it takes about 30 minutes to an hour for it to restart.

Also, same errors as before in the event viewer.

Plec · 11 May 2015 at 21:10

You seem to know what your doing from your first post...

A quick test would be to check there's no movement between the motherboard and the case - make sure all fixings are secure.

Another would be swap out any SATA cables run one stick memory etc...

Run memtest from a bootable device and let it run overnight...

Mart2912 · 11 May 2015 at 21:40

Plec said:
You seem to know what your doing from your first post...

A quick test would be to check there's no movement between the motherboard and the case - make sure all fixings are secure.

Another would be swap out any SATA cables run one stick memory etc...

Run memtest from a bootable device and let it run overnight...

Well, I know what I'm doing up to a point.

I'll try checking RAM and case internals then I'll go from there. Cheers.

nath247 · 12 May 2015 at 11:05

Edit: nevermind

signal11th · 12 May 2015 at 13:16

Gut instinct from a fair few years in the trade would be memory or psu or possible heat issue with the CPU.

Randall8686 · 12 May 2015 at 15:52

I had this issue, Turned out to be the PSU (corsair) it was replaced under warranty (4 years old) and problem totally went away. Have u another psu to try ?

Mart2912 · 12 May 2015 at 18:10

Thanks for all the replies.

After running memtest over night, no errors came back.

Randall8686 said:
I had this issue, Turned out to be the PSU (corsair) it was replaced under warranty (4 years old) and problem totally went away. Have u another psu to try ?

I do, unfortunately it's only a Corsair VX 450W, probably won't be able to run my GTX 780?

Plec · 12 May 2015 at 19:06

Mart2912 said:
I do, unfortunately it's only a Corsair VX 450W, probably won't be able to run my GTX 780?

The PSU was always a possibility and the fact that with your spec you're right on the limit of wattage (or over) - depending on where you look - it would be a real benefit to test a 600W+ branded PSU to rule it out.

Your problem certainly fits the symptoms of a lack of power when needed...

dawnyworld · 12 May 2015 at 19:19

This sounds just like the issues I've just had ,turned out to be my PSU

I'd invest in a PSU tester from a certain rain Forrest supplier there only a few quid

And would save a lot of time and effort

Mart2912 · 18 May 2015 at 20:53

Update:

Managed to test the PSU using a PSU tester, everything read/came back normal. And now, the PC is no longer restarting. My only conclusion is that I may have had a loose wire (Although everything looked OK and the PC had not been touched/moved in months) or a bit of dust build up?

Hopefully that's the end of it, but it does seem a bit random. I'll report back if the problem persists.

Thanks to all of you for your time.