Question First Self Built PC Randomly Restarts While Gaming and Streaming

[DedByt]

First Self Built PC Randomly Restarts While Gaming and Streaming

I built my first PC about 7 months ago. It runs great while doing pretty much anything. However, it randomly restarts during gaming/streaming sessions. I am unable to recreate the issue and force a restart no matter what stress tests I run. There is no warning, no BSODs, no memory dump files. I am at a loss as to what it could be.

Troubleshooting I have done:

• Adjusted power plan settings
• ensured all drivers are up to date
• ensured NVIDIA drivers are up to date
• updated to latest BIOS
• ensured there was no over heating while running prime 95/furmark/heaven load testers by watching the Temps with HWinfo.
• checked the voltages with HWinfo for the 12v 5v and 3v rails. All seemed to be within acceptable tolerances.
• ran memtest86 and intel's memory diagnostic tool on all sticks of ram for a full day (did test of all 4 in, then each stick by itself, then in pairs, then all 4 again) had some errors I believe when I had XMP at 3200. removed XMP profile and did not have any errors after that.
• ran the sfc scannow and dism commands in cmd. no issues were found.
• tried clean install of windows 10. still restarting randomly
• tried clean upgrade to winows 11. still restarting randomly.
• tried DDU of all graphics drivers and fresh install of nvidia drivers. still restarting.
• disabled auto restart (still restarts without warning, no BSODs, no error codes)
• enabled memory dump files (tried mini dumps, full memory dumps, and another type I cant remember. No matter what there is never a dump file)
• reviewed event viewer and I have a kernel power event 41 just stating the computer shut down unexpectedly at a certain time and an event 56 application popup with ACPI 2 issue. I can't figure out what this is.

System Specs:

• Case - Cooler Master MasterCase H500M ATX Mid-Tower
• Motherboard - GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS ULTRA (LGA 1200/ Intel Z590/ ATX/ Triple M.2/ PCIe 4.0/ USB 3.2 Gen2X2 Type-C/ Intel WIFI 6/ 2.5GbE LAN/ Gaming Motherboard (I had some issue with some bios updates but nothing too crazy. One bios update to the latest bios was in a perpetual black screen after a full 24 hours so I had to power it down manually. PC booted right up after that and said I had the newest bios. I reflashed the bios to the newest one again just to make sure there was not a corrupted bios, but the random restarts continued.)
• GPU - EVGA GeForce 3080 Ti FTW3
• CPU - Intel i9 11900k
• Thermal Paste - ARCTIC MX-4
• RAM - 64GB G.skill Trident Z Neo 3600 DDR4 (4 sticks of 16GB running at base speed. I believe its 2444. Can't enable XMP or else system wont boot which sucks because I want to run them at at least 3200. Should I drop down to 32GBs with just two sticks and run it at a higher speed, or is 64GBs better?)
• PSU - 1300w EVGA Supernova 80+ Gold Fully Modular (I just RMAd the PSU and waiting for the new one to come back. I was trying to use an external PSU tester with the digital display, but the PSU fried I think when I tried plugging in the GPU power cables. I already had the 24 pin in the tester and I saw other people on youtube plugging in and unplugging cables while the PSU was turned on, but when I did, I heard a sizzle and the PSU wont start anymore. I already had the PSU disconnected from everything in the system so nothing else was fried. I don't know why I was unable to do what I saw so many other people doing. Why do you think that happened to mine?)
• Windows Boot Drive/System Integral Program Storage - 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD m.2 NVMe
• Main Storage - Seagate FireCude 4TB 3.5 inch 7200RPM 256MB Cache HDD
• Cooling - Cooler Master Master Liquid ML360R Close-Loop AIO CPU Liquid Cooler 360 radiator with 3 120mm fans. (pump was plugged into the CPU fan header, but switched it to the CPU OPT header after pulling out the PSU to have it RMAed. Motherboard manual says to use the CPU OPT for AIO.)
• Monitors - 2 x DELL S2716DG 27" Gaming Monitor with WQHD 2560 x 1440 Resolution 144 Hz Refresh Rate and NVIDIA G-Sync 16:9 TN Panel
• Mouse - Razer Naga Trinity Mouse
• Keyboard - Razer Huntsman mini
• Webcam - Logitech c920
• Headphones - Sony Wireless Headset
• Microphone - Blue Yeti USB

I am hoping the random restarts were due to a PSU dipping the wattage during use at random intervals, but I have done some additional research while I wait on the new PSU to be delivered. Things I am thinking about. My motherboard has reports of over powering the CPU. My CPU is known for being power hungry and drawing high watts. Maybe I need to under-volt/under-clock my CPU. Maybe a bad motherboard.

I am hoping someone can maybe shed some light on something I am missing. Maybe a known issue with my hardware combination that I missed or am unable to find. Maybe something about the CPU / Motherboard nuances I do not know about. Again, this is my first build and I am new to this trouble shooting stuff, but I am going crazy trying to figure this out. I cannot recreate the restarts and I am getting really frustrated with this! I will update this post when I get the new PSU and see how it runs from there.

Thanks everyone! Sorry for the long post.

 

[GarrettL]

When will you receive the new psu? Not much to do until then. You stated the psu voltages were fine then stated you fried the psu trying to read the voltages?

No components were pulgged into the psu when you fried it? If there were they could be toast.

How were you connecting the psu to the rtx 3080 ti?

 

[DedByt]

When will you receive the new psu? Not much to do until then. You stated the psu voltages were fine then stated you fired the psu trying to read the voltages?

No components were pulgged into the psu when you fired it? If there were they could be toast.

How were you connecting the psu to the rtx 3080 ti?

Thanks for the reply.

I will get it the new PSUthis Thursday, in 2 days. As soon as I get it I plan on plugging everything in before doing the wire routine and management and testing it out by playing some games and streaming. I am hoping its going to fix it, but I have a feeling it's not going to.

I first read the voltages through HWinfo and everything looked great, but the restarts were still there. And with the system just completely rebooting without any BSODs or memory dumps, I read it was probably because the PSU just dropped power entirely. I also read in a couple posts that the PSU could be dipping in power over time due to it being on the way out. so I unplugged the PSU from the system and tried reading the voltages with an external PSU tester (Computer PC Power Supply Tester, ATX/ITX/IDE/HDD/SATA/BYI Connectors Power Supply Tester, 1.8'' LCD Screen (Aluminum Alloy Enclosure). I did this because I read that the software HWinfo could be displaying the wrong wattage and voltage.

I first plugged in the 24 pin to check the readings and it all read fine. I then went to plug in the left side of the PSU tester while the PSU was on and I heard a sizzling noise, and then everything died. I tried the PSU self tester and the fan wouldn't spin so I figured it was fried. I called EVGA and RMAd the PSU.

Correct, there was nothing plugged in because I didn't want to chance frying anything else. So all my other components should be good.

I was connecting the PSU with two 3 x 8 pin VGA G+ cables that came with the EVGA 1300W supernova.