[SOLVED] Friend's PC randomly shutting off

[astraeos]

This has me genuinely confused. About two weeks ago my friend told me that his PC started to randomly shut off after he dusted it out (he uses some sort of air gun he bought on amazon, its not crazy powerful like compressed air). My first thought was maybe that something came lose when he was going through it. Made sure the GPU was in, re-seated the RAM sticks, checked the MOBO headers and everything. I mentioned it could possibly be his CPU overheating and the PC was shutting off to protect from any damage (He said he was getting roughly 60c on his i5-5400). We replaced the intel stock cooler for a cooler master tower cooler just to be safe. Also bought and installed a new PSU incase there was something wrong with the one that came in his prebuilt. When I pulled it out, it was some random company i've never heard of so I assumed that was probably causing it.

After we changed those two parts it seemed to run fine but then he told me later that night it just shut off randomly. He told me that it used to go to a blue windows 'shutting down' screen, but as of recently it just turns off completely with no warning. He's tried all the recommended google searches such as updating drivers, messing with power options, etc. I've never had this issue and was wondering if someone on here has run into something similar and what their fix was?

side note; there was a small amount of thermal paste that was spilt onto the mobo but we cleaned it with alcohol and a microfiber towel and looks like there is nothing left on the board. gave it plenty of time to dry as well.

thanks for your time in advanced.

 

[Aeacus]

on his i5-5400

This CPU does not exist.

Only 5th gen Intel CPUs that are there, are mainly for laptop use and none of them have 5400 model number. Closest you can get is either i5-5300U, i5-5350H or i5-5575R.

Also bought and installed a new PSU

Just because PSU is new, doesn't mean it's good. PSU make and model (or part number) is?

Also, what's the full system specs?

 

[astraeos]

This CPU does not exist.

Only 5th gen Intel CPUs that are there, are mainly for laptop use and none of them have 5400 model number. Closest you can get is either i5-5300U, i5-5350H or i5-5575R.



Just because PSU is new, doesn't mean it's good. PSU make and model (or part number) is?

Also, what's the full system specs?

he's adamant its a i5-5400. I think its a i5-6400 but wasnt sure.

From what I know he's got
GPU: nvidia 1660
CPU: i5-5400/6400
RAM: 16gb Corsair vengance
PSU: corsair bronze rating 650w
mobo: im unsure which but i believe its an asus of some sort

I'm going back over his house today and will try find out what mobo he has.

 

[Aeacus]

he's adamant its a i5-5400

It just can't be. 5th gen of Intel CPUs use either LGA1168 (laptop/mobile) or LGA1364 (desktop) socket. Both of these are rare, just like the CPUs. Only i5-5675C uses LGA1150 socket, that is common for Haswell and Broadwell CPU families. Also all those CPUs use DDR3 RAM.

So, most likely, he has i5-6400, from Skylake family with LGA1151 socket and operating with DDR4 RAM.

corsair bronze rating 650w

That doesn't tell much. So, what the PSU model (or part number) is?

 

[astraeos]

Sorry for the late response!

His CPU is a i5-9400F
PSU is a Corsair Cx650m
and MOBO is a ASRock B365M

 

[Aeacus]

Also bought and installed a new PSU incase there was something wrong with the one that came in his prebuilt.

Do you know what PSU he had before?

Btw, CX650m is poor PSU and only suitable for an office PC without dedicated GPU. For gaming build with dedicated GPU, better quality PSU is needed.

Just because PSU is sold by popular brand (Corsair), doesn't mean it's good. Sure, it's cheap but that's the only good part of it. And if you want to get good and cheap product, you have to buy two products, the good one and the cheap one.

You can cheap out on every other component inside the PC except PSU. Since PSU powers everything, it is the most important component inside the PC. And no-one in their right mind, would want to cheap out on that.

After we changed those two parts it seemed to run fine but then he told me later that night it just shut off randomly.

PC shutting off randomly is 80% of times due to the poor PSU. 15% is due to overheating and 5% is always reserved to the ghost in the machine.

i5-9400F isn't hot running CPU and i don't think it would overheat in his system. Same goes to GTX 1660.

With that, i suggest that he tries to power his PC with good or great quality PSU. Seasonic Focus or PRIME series, in 500W range will do.
(All 3 of my PCs are also powered by Seasonic, full specs with pics in my sig.)

From Corsair lineup: RM, RMx, RMi, HX, HXi, AX or AXi; are good ones to go for.

 

[astraeos]

Do you know what PSU he had before?

Btw, CX650m is poor PSU and only suitable for an office PC without dedicated GPU. For gaming build with dedicated GPU, better quality PSU is needed.

Just because PSU is sold by popular brand (Corsair), doesn't mean it's good. Sure, it's cheap but that's the only good part of it. And if you want to get good and cheap product, you have to buy two products, the good one and the cheap one.

You can cheap out on every other component inside the PC except PSU. Since PSU powers everything, it is the most important component inside the PC. And no-one in their right mind, would want to cheap out on that.



PC shutting off randomly is 80% of times due to the poor PSU. 15% is due to overheating and 5% is always reserved to the ghost in the machine.

i5-9400F isn't hot running CPU and i don't think it would overheat in his system. Same goes to GTX 1660.

With that, i suggest that he tries to power his PC with good or great quality PSU. Seasonic Focus or PRIME series, in 500W range will do.
(All 3 of my PCs are also powered by Seasonic, full specs with pics in my sig.)

From Corsair lineup: RM, RMx, RMi, HX, HXi, AX or AXi; are good ones to go for.

I recommended he gets a seasonic as well (I currently have a Seasonic prime TX-850 in my system myself) but he refuses to order stuff online and only buys from out local best buy which dosn't have a great selection. We will swap the PSU out today if possible.

As for his previous PSU it was a Coolmax of some sort, never heard of the brand before and I know prebuilts usually like to cheap out on PSU's as one of their cost savers.

Thank you for the info!

 

[Aeacus]

but he refuses to order stuff online and only buys from out local best buy which dosn't have a great selection.

I guess he needs to learn it the hard way, when low quality unit goes sky high, with a good chance of frying everything the PSU is connected to.

Oh, you might want to link this topic for him,
link: https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...pply-discussion-thread-toms-hardware.3212332/

It's a good read regarding PSUs.

As for his previous PSU it was a Coolmax of some sort, never heard of the brand before

I know that brand. One of the many doorstep makers. All of their PSUs are junk.

 

[astraeos]

so we swapped the PSU for an EVGA gold series. He told me that it is still turning off/restarting. Could it be a motherboard issue?

 

[Aeacus]

it is still turning off/restarting. Could it be a motherboard issue?

It could be, if the issue is with MoBo VRM (Voltage Regulator Module). Other than that, overheating can also cause reboots/shut downs.