Question Computer shuts down without being able to be turned back on while gaming

[Raindyrps2]

Hi all, first post. I've been building computers and playing on pc for more than 8 years but i've never had a problem like this one before. It's giving me grey hair lol. Anyways, my problem is my desktop computer (which is about 6 years old, but parts are continuously upgraded) is now all of a sudden shutting down in any game that isnt Valorant pretty much. And i mean ANY game. Generation Zero, Untitled Goose game, Crisis 3, you name it. When these hard crashes occur, the PC will shut down without blue screen or any notification and you will only see the power light on. You can NOT restart the computer via the hardware buttons. you have to manually turn the power switch in the back OFF and ON again. then power it back on. when it turns back on, its like nothing ever happened!

To start, my specs are listed below

GPU: GTX 980ti (about 2 years use, no signs of failure)
CPU: Ryzen 2700x (about 2 years old, replaced motherboard and CPU from intel to AMD)
MOBO: B450 AORUS ELITE (AM4) (same time as CPU)
OS: Win 10 Pro 64 bit
Hard Drives:
465GB Samsung SSD 970 EVO 500GB
232GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB
931GB ST1000DM003-1CH1 SCSI
111GB Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120G
PSU: Corsair 750w 80+ Gold (bought 2 years ago to replace my 650w bronze for my 980ti)
RAM: 32gb.

I can play valorant all day long for hours at a time but in any other game. for example, Generation zero, will shut my pc down in around 10 minutes. Untitled goose game lasts about 10 minutes as well. my pc is cleaned every few months and heating is not the issue to my knowledge. I ran a 3dmark benchmark and that runs better than actual games.

Some info, on ultra settings on Generation Zero my temps were idling around cpu 60c, gpu 80c, and mobo 45c which ive been told is not bad. there was no noticable jumps in frames or tempature while playing until shutdown. During the BENCHMARK the highest temps reached was mobo 63c, cpu 73c, gpu 82c, ssd's 48c and the benchmark held it at those temps for about 10 minutes with no issue. I have updated my graphics drivers to the newest driver and it still occurs. Im at a loss and dont know what to do. Any help on this I would absolutely love. and no, I have not overclocked ever.

Some extra details are, when the pc shuts down, the mobo logo light will stay lit along with the power button. I have also been able to play other games in the past years and months before about 2-3 weeks ago when it started happening out of the blue here and there. but the problem has just gotten worse and worse.

 

[Ralston18]

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes, warnings, and even informational events that correspond with the shutdowns.

Especially if there are numerous and varying error codes. Remember that you can right-click entries for more information.

Overall, I would place the PSU as the primary suspect.

Could be that that 2 year old PSU is nearing its designed EOL (End of Life).

All the more so if the PSU has been supporting constant and heavy gaming. May be starting to falter when it comes to times of increased power demands.

Works okay until some threshold power requirement is demanded/required by the computer.

And at that threshold - crashes.

 

[Raindyrps2]

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer for error codes, warnings, and even informational events that correspond with the shutdowns.

Especially if there are numerous and varying error codes. Remember that you can right-click entries for more information.

Overall, I would place the PSU as the primary suspect.

Could be that that 2 year old PSU is nearing its designed EOL (End of Life).

All the more so if the PSU has been supporting constant and heavy gaming. May be starting to falter when it comes to times of increased power demands.

Works okay until some threshold power requirement is demanded/required by the computer.

And at that threshold - crashes.

Hi and thanks for the reply. So I did a number of things in the last night which im going to test this upcoming night when im off of work. I really dont think its the PSU as it's a corsair and theyre expected life is 5-10 years. I tried with a simular PSU just to make sure and it was still occurring. I actually would like to go back on the heating as the prime suspect because i did a few tests last night. So after resetting all settings in bios (not that i think that i messed with any) and downloading older drivers to test (which did work either) I reseated all the cables in the computer again to check for shorts, melts, out of place, or if my fans were not functioning as need be.
this gave me a HUGE clue. because all the fans were working tremendously well as they should (as i just replaced them about 7 months ago) and were still clean but I noticed in MSI Afterburner's overlay the tempature was stablizing during gameplay without the case side on. I think its possible that the game is causing the GPU to produce so much heat that even all those fans are still not enough to keep it cool. I read online that the 980ti max temperature is 89c-91c and that alot of the games that were causing shut downs were running at 82c on max power. I also read that there is sometimes a 5% marginal error when calculating temperatures. So Im thinking the thermostat in the GPU is off. To test this, In Afterburner, I limited the max tempature of the GPU to 70c (about 75% power) and launched Generation Zero again. It was running about 85 FPS at high settings rather than the 100 earlier at max, but still playable and I monitored the temperature every 30 seconds of gameplay as the software was keeping it at 70c believe it or not and it lasted for an astounding 30 minutes with no crash! I think this may have been the fix (power or heat related). When putting the case side back on during mid gameplay without MSI keeping it at 70c, i started to notice the heat raise incredibly fast to 83c and it shut down once more. Using the software to keep it at 70c may effect my gameplay some but I think its worth the sacrifice. I have had this PC for a few years now and i think it might be time to get water cooling for my next build this time Haha. I will post again tonight an update on a range of games to see if the problem persists again because i will have more than a few hours to test it. Again thanks for your reply