PC Restarting When Under Load.

Caporegime
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Hey,

The above has happened twice this evening while gaming. My first thought was the PSU. I've had no driver display messages so other than the PSU, I can't really think of what it could be?

The unit is a bequiet! 650w modular one which I've been using for the last 6 to 7 years, IIRC.

Can you suggest anything else or should I just go ahead and get the PSU (will need to factor in a new system for when Zen 2 launches).

Ta.


Edit: just done it again and at precisely the same point in the game (two different games/three restarts).

I've removed the CPU overclock and have also tried running a game with the fps limited to 75. It didn't restart.

What's the advice regarding which brand to go with these days? Seasonic, be quiet!, Super Flower?
 
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Soldato
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Unless CPU has degraded from overclocking, or GPU has started failing that hints strongly to PSU.
And despite of brand's marketing hype, BeQuiet has most of their PSUs with cheap capacitors, which models would be well past their designed life in enthusiast use.
Certainly wouldn't risk new parts with it.

It's anyway past its warranty.
Even BeQuiet's overpriced top models have only completely lack luster 5 year warranty, which makes me think they've undersized cooling.
Pretty much all other brands/makers give 10 year warranty for anything supposed to be good and without any paying any luxury price.
Even Seasonic's 12 year warranty top serie models are cheaper than BeQuiet's 5 year warranty model!
 
Permabanned
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I wouldn't be so quick to blame the PSU. There are tons of things that can go wrong with a PC that are load related. The number one suspect if your PC crashes gaming is the graphics card. Graphics cards age pretty fast. They are under a lot a stress, gaming, and they tend to run hotter than anything else in the PC. I mean especially if you are saying that with the OC removed and the framerate limited it doesn't crash then I would seriously doubt there is anything wrong with the PSU. Another hint is that it happens at the same point in the game. I would tie it down to either the framerate or the CPU OC and go from there but don't replace the PSU just yet.
 
Caporegime
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@EsaT - I never realized that about their PSUs. Very surprising. Are their CPU coolers any good?

@pp111 - You might be right but at this point, I'm still confident that it's the power supply. I've not had any graphics memory corruption/GPU display driver messages pop up, and the temps for it (and CPU) are healthy. However, on the minus side, it is nearly four years old.

I'll need to replace the PSU for my new build anyway though I really hope it's not the GPU - at least not just yet; hopefully, it can last another two or three months.
 
Soldato
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I had this (you can probably search for details on my name), and initially went with PSU - which didn't fix the issue. Not to say it won't for you of course!

But knowing what I know now, the first thing I would do in your situation is use something like HWInfo or HWMonitor and have a look at temps to see if it's the computer shutting itself down as a safety measure because something is overheating.

In my case, I was utterly convinced it couldn't be that - because it would instantly restart and work happily. I thought if it was overheating, it would still be overheating 30 seconds later when it restarted. But it turned temperatures were the issue (root cause: too high voltages due to an out of date BIOS version), but very short term spikes in the temp, hence being able to restart and run fine.

Saying all that - while it wasn't the solution, I am not displeased to have a better PSU in place now anyway.
 
Soldato
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@EsaT - I never realized that about their PSUs. Very surprising. Are their CPU coolers any good?

I've not had any graphics memory corruption/GPU display driver messages pop up, and the temps for it (and CPU) are healthy. However, on the minus side, it is nearly four years old.
CPU coolers are good.
Though no reason to change from your NH-D15.
From reviews it has slight edge over Dark Rock Pro.
For more compact single tower it would be again hard to recommend anything other than Scythe Mugen 5.
That price and step behind dual towers performance (+ full DIMM/PCIe clearance) is hard to beat.

You could try stressing only GPU with Furmark.
Though it could still make also failing PSU stumble without load from CPU.
Changing parts is only sure way.

Though CPU alone couldn't crash PSU, if it handles anykind gaming load.
So you could try stressing CPU with Prime/Linpack in case CPU has degraded or VRM on motherboard has worn.
Removing overclocks also lowered its stress.
 
Caporegime
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@bazzabear - Yup, I've checked the temps and they look good/like normal (I've been using Afterburner and HWMonitor). Hopefully, my diagnosis is correct but time will tell! :)

2n1cocp.png
 
Soldato
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Another little test you can do @arc@css is set the CPU overclock again but leave the RAM at stock. I had DDR3 RAM set to 2400 for the first two years of the system no problems, then started getting strange restarts. Lowering the frequency sorted it. I think the CPU IMC degraded slightly. Been fine for four years after that.
 
Soldato
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So pretty sure that neither memory or memory controller have been stressed much.

Stressed: no. However, it should do 2400 easily being DDR4, and yet it can only do 2133. So I find that interesting in terms of a weak IMC (or XMP setting needed bit more voltage than it was setting/or other).
 
Caporegime
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Well, I've just completed over a 3.5 hour render in Premiere with no problems (purposely lowered the render settings/no overclocks).

PSU is arriving tomorrow.
 
Caporegime
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That should hammer CPU and memory pretty well.
Unless using GPU encoding.

Very true though I was thinking more about how strange it was that the machine didn't crash despite the greater power demand. Max temps for the CPU/GPU during the render were 47C & 56C respectively.
 
Caporegime
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New unit installed and all seems to be fine at the mo. I've just tested a game where it previously crashed twice at the same point, but this time there was no problem (ran with an overclock applied on the CPU as well). I also gave the entire system a clean which no doubt will help matters.

Thanks to all. :)
 
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