Computer turns OFF when trying to QUIT Battlefield 4.

[sindre.thorsteinsson]

Hi, I have a very odd problem where my computer turns itself OFF when I try to QUIT (Not start, or during gameplay), Battlefield 4. When it does turns itself off, I can't turn it back on.. sometimes it helps removing a hard drive (I have two hard drives in my computer), sometimes it don't. Sometimes it helps unplugging my optic drives (two as well), sometimes both things don't work.

In the last two instances it happened, I tried switching a data cable to one of the hard drives, just to try. It worked, then shortly after I did the same for my SSD. Helped as well. I really don't get it.

I don't have any problems with my computer otherwise, ONLY when I'm going to QUIT Battlefield 4. Makes no sense at all. You'd think my computer overheated or something, but no. I'm stable around 55-60 celsius (131-140 fahrenheit) in-game. I can play for hours without any problems, I can tab out of the game and what not. But when I try to quit the damn game, my computer turns off and refuses to turn back on.

I have spent hours on end trying to find a solution for this, but all I could find was some guy who turned down the graphics that magically fixed it. (changing everything on 'Normal' and turning off the extra graphics settings), It worked.... for a little while, and now It is the same issue. I suspect it is either my motherboard or power supply misbehaving, since I recently upgraded my computer (with a new fan and graphics card), after upgrading this problem occured... I don't even know anymore.. At first my computer refused to boot at all after upgrading, it would just start then shut itself off before the fans could even turn around.

... but now that issue is solved, it starts, and works just fine... but the SAME thing happens again whenever I quit Battlefield 4 of all things. As I am writing this, I am reinstalling Battlefield 4 hoping it will do any good.

Side note: There have been couple times where quitting the game has worked fine, but if I do something else (like watching a movie, listen to music or whatever), my computer turns itself off and refuses to get back on. What is even going on ?? Why Battlefield 4 of all things?

- Should maybe also add that there are never any errors in event viewer after computer shuts off.

I hope there are any clever heads out there that can hopefully help fix this

My specs are:
CPU: Intel i7 2600k 3.40 GHz
GPU: Geforce GTX 1060 6GB
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V PRO
RAM: 12 GB
- Windows 10 N 64-bit

 

[Flyfisherman]

Hi,
Just a thought: BF4, its graphics engine Frostbite is somewhat incompatible with your graphics card?

Nvidia has some driver update for some of the problems You know?
You should start with download the latest graphics driver
Download > it doesn't matter where you save it > right click on the installation file > run as Administrator > follow the instructions > restart the computer.
Afterwards You can just delete the installation file.

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
Especially this driver: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/132845/en-us

How does it work now?

 

[sindre.thorsteinsson]

Hi, thank you for the answer.

So, even though I knew all my drivers were updated, I went ahead and did a clean install anyway. I also reinstalled BF4 as I mentioned in my previous post. Did it help? Yes, for couple hours. The first two hours I was able to play and actually quit the game without any problems. (I even did other things after quitting, that usually resulted in my PC shutting down.. but it didn't), some time later I played again. Amazingly enough it let me quit without any problems AGAIN! I even played couple other games too, no problems.

But... now, some time ago I started playing the campaign. For the first time ever, my PC shut down without any warning during gameplay. This is the FIRST and only game this has happened. Same thing happened, I could not turn my computer back on. I waited 15 minutes for it to start.

- Side note: There were no errors in event viewer after this happened.

Do you have any clue what this could be? Think it could be my motherboard misbehaving? .. shouldn't be, right.. ? since it works fine otherwise.

 

[Flyfisherman]

Ok.
I'm sorry to hear that,
It was just a long shot but we try another thing:

In Origin > My game library > right click on Battlefield 4 => Repair
It will take some time because it will check all game files and download new ones if needed and if so it requires you to accept the changes.
See if this works.

Or else

In BF4 settings or Options> in the
graphics video menu > Vertical sync => Turn off
graphics video menu > Graphics API make sure it is set to Direct 3D11
Custom video > graphics quality > set Antialising defrerred to 2XMSAA
Custom video > graphics quality > set Antialiasing post to Medium
Custom video > graphics quality > set Ambient Occlussion to SSAO
Custom video > graphics quality > set Post process quality to meduim
Custom video > graphics quality > set Effects qualyty to High
Custom video > graphics quality > set Texture filtering to High

If this works, then you have a serious problem with your graphics card, no matter what other game is working.

If not, we will continue the trouble shooting.
Best regard's from Sweden

[Edit] Added an instruction for game repair to start with.

 

[sindre.thorsteinsson]

Hi,
First I'm going to list couple other things I've tried since my last post;
I read somewhere how to fix your computer from randomly shutting down (mainly after an upgrade), and they said to change the maximum processor state in the power settings in Windows would help. I did this, I turned it down to 80% .. not sure if it had anything to do with the crash during gameplay earlier, but I tried anyway and can say it hasn't happened after I did this.

I also turned off data sharing and crash report in BF4.. Just to try. Not sure if it did anything either, but things worked pretty well.. the first time after playing today, I quit without any problems what so ever. (I quit through task manager, instead of clicking ''quit'' in-game), no shut down !

(Note; I haven't tried turning down the graphics like you suggested, since I already tried that. It helped for a little bit, for about two launches, my PC shut down after quitting the second time [through the game]),

I just recently played the game again (now the campaign), and I tried quitting the game from the game itself, by clicking ''Quit'' .. the game closed, shortly after my PC turned itself off.

I turned off the main power, and waited until all lights were off and turned it back on.. it actually did turn itself on, but then off again during post boot. Then I had to wait 15 minutes for it to start.

- Should probably add that after 15 minutes, I got an error during start up saying ''Overclocking failed, please enter setup'' after going into setup and exit, it started up normal. (there are no events in event viewer).

From now on I am going to try to ONLY quit the game through the task manager. Hoping it will make any difference.

PS: I closely monitored my degrees during gameplay just to be 380% sure, and I can confirm for sure it is not a overheating problem.

I still haven't had any problems with any other applications.

 

[J_E_D_70]

That sounds like a PSU issue. What make/model/age?

Then again, no one should ever quit BF4...

 

[Flyfisherman]

- Should probably add that after 15 minutes, I got an error during start up saying ''Overclocking failed, please enter setup'' after going into setup and exit, it started up normal. (there are no events in event viewer).

Yeah, there You might have the problem.
In to the Bios setup, make a note on which drive etc is set as the first boot drive and then make a Load Optimized Bios Defaults or similar, save & exit.
Into Bios setup again and check if any boot-priorities has to be changed according to the previous notes.

Btw. Did You check the game-files using repair, that I suggested in the post above?

And also, do You have the latest BOS ver.? Info is at the main top window in the BIOS setup menu.
Then check on the motherboard support site.

 

[razamatraz]

15 minutes to restart sounds like overcurrent or overvoltage protection went off. I suspect that when you quit the game and it unloads the GPU and CPU it has a transient voltage spike that trips the overvoltage. This can be caused by a bad powersupply or VRM'S (or voltage/current sensors) on the motherboard that are starting to go. Replacing the driver may have slowed the power transient to the GPU which helped with the original problem but caused it to show up in other places.

The P8Z68-V PRO was a great board but it did come out in 2011. Electronic components do not last forever unfortunately and if the board and PSU are both that old it may be time to upgrade.

The other thing I've heard of recently (and I only mention it because you talk about the hard drive disconnect fixing the issue) is bad sata power cables causing an overload condition to the PSU. They might look fine but if they've been pinched or bent funny and there is an internal short (even a small one) it can throw voltage regulation in the dumpster and then cause failures.

The other possibility I've seen is a bad ground. If your computer is not properly grounded through the third prong (I assume you're in north america?) then the ground voltage can float and the reset and shutdown switched rely on a proper delta between ground voltage and 5V. Usually this results in a machine that is shutdown restarting on its own but it can happen the other way round too.

Is it overclocked? memory overclocked?

 

[sindre.thorsteinsson]

I have a Corsair hx850w... and you might be right, there are coming weird clicking noises from the PSU. Not loud at all, but you can only hear it if you put your ear to the PSU while its on.

 

[sindre.thorsteinsson]

I recently upgraded my BIOS. It seems like I had one of the oldest versions.. which explains quite a lot. After upgrading I haven't had any issues booting up, and it boots up almost instantly instead of using couple minutes. After upgrading I haven't had any issues yet with quitting BF4. But I've been told numerous times it might be my PSU. Just discovered there are weird clicking noises coming from it as well, so yeah...

 

[sindre.thorsteinsson]

Yes, I think you might be right. I don't know if this is related at all, but I've seen that the voltage limit goes a little all over the place while playing BF4. (monitoring with MSI Afterburner), It goes all of a sudden from 0 to 1, then instantly back to 0.. while the power limit stays at 0. Like I told the other two in this post, I just noticed there are coming very faint clicking noises from the PSU. (I have a Corsair hx850w),

I also recently upgraded my BIOS. I apparently had one of the older versions which explains quite a lot. After upgrading I haven't had any problems at all booting up, also (yet so far), no shut down after quitting BF4. If this fixed it entirely, I don't know.. but if my PSU is failing, I will have to get a new one.

Also, yes. There were two bad cables, one of the cables to one of the HDD were damaged, after replacing it and the one for my SSD, everything has been working fine. All I had to do recently was to wait about 15 minutes to start it up again, so maybe it is my PSU. (before I updated my BIOS), yes.. maybe it is time to upgrade.

but now that everything seems to be fine, do you recommend I wait before I change my PSU or should I do it as fast as possible?

- No, I live in Norway. Electricity and everything is good! and I have never overclocked anything in my computer, and never will. I only use Afterburner to control the fans in my computer, and monitor the degrees.

 

[razamatraz]

Yes, I think you might be right. I don't know if this is related at all, but I've seen that the voltage limit goes a little all over the place while playing BF4. (monitoring with MSI Afterburner), It goes all of a sudden from 0 to 1, then instantly back to 0.. while the power limit stays at 0. Like I told the other two in this post, I just noticed there are coming very faint clicking noises from the PSU. (I have a Corsair hx850w),

I also recently upgraded my BIOS. I apparently had one of the older versions which explains quite a lot. After upgrading I haven't had any problems at all booting up, also (yet so far), no shut down after quitting BF4. If this fixed it entirely, I don't know.. but if my PSU is failing, I will have to get a new one.

Also, yes. There were two bad cables, one of the cables to one of the HDD were damaged, after replacing it and the one for my SSD, everything has been working fine. All I had to do recently was to wait about 15 minutes to start it up again, so maybe it is my PSU. (before I updated my BIOS), yes.. maybe it is time to upgrade.

but now that everything seems to be fine, do you recommend I wait before I change my PSU or should I do it as fast as possible?

- No, I live in Norway. Electricity and everything is good! and I have never overclocked anything in my computer, and never will. I only use Afterburner to control the fans in my computer, and monitor the degrees.

Sorry, I didn't see that you had replied. Clicking in the PSU is usually just a dirty fan with the blade occasionally hitting something lightly. If it's more of a buzzing click then you might have a faulty inductor (or possibly a capacitor, but they usually just pop when bad; look for any bulges on top of the caps or any black liquid coming through the crosscut on the top). There are no mechanical relays in PSUs so none of the electronic parts should ever click. If everything is working fine now you are probably good for a couple more years; keep an eye on the fan though. The HX850 isn't Corsair's highest end PSU but it's a very good one and its parts should be good for 10 years as long as you aren't running it at max, which you're not.