Question Instant Restart after opening a Game.

[xCin1s]

Hey Everyone,
For the last week I've been having reboots after opening specific games, this happens when I open a Game after the initial loading, it originally happened when trying to open Pathfinder WOTR, right before I got to the main menu, the computer would just shut off, and then start back again, but not it happens randomly after opening a game, for example I also play Genshin Impact, before it used to run fine and only show the error with Pathfinder, but now it's a lottery of which game will run properly and which will shut down the PC. I thought it was the specific games at first but it started happening for multiple ones, and even in one instance the game ran, I closed it, and an hour later I tried to open it again and then it rebooted.
These are the steps I've taken so far and none have worked:

• Installed the game in another Drive (Event viewer gave a 'bad block' message on the install drive)
• Switched power outlets and PSU cable.
• Clean install of Windows 10 22H2
• Updated all drivers
• Checked the RAM (2 slots 16gb each, reboot happens with both)
• Disconnected all drives and tested with each.

At this point it might be the PSU? Is there a way to check this without a PSU tester? I've been monitoring the Event Viewer and nothing shows up at the time of the reboot, only an Error stating 'last shutdown was unexpected' and a Critical message saying that 'the system rebooted without cleanly shutting down first'.

Any help is appreciated.
Kind regards

 

[Jason H.]

First, what is your system specs?

Second, what is the temp of the cpu and gpu during the crash while in game?

There are some ways to test your psu but none are as accurate or reliable like a actual voltage meter. I believe Aida64 has some power management information you could try.

But other than a voltage meter you would need another psu to test.

What you can do is run a stress test on your PC or run Heaven Benchmark to see if its your system at fault or those specific games.

 

[xCin1s]

Hey Jason,
My Specs:

• Intel Core i5 9400 2.90 GHz
• Asus PRIME H310M-3 R2.0
• 2x 16gb DDR4
• Radeon RX 580 8gb VRAM
• Thermaltake 600W (Not 100% sure, but I think its a TR2)

I ran the Heaven Benchmark and checked the Temp, CPU stuck between 45 and 52° C, and the GPU started rising from 45 up to 71-74° C where it stayed for most of it.
I've also been opening and closing both games, while playing music and movies to give it more stress but the error still hasn't reproduced yet.
I'll keep trying and update once I have anything.
I'm gonna test a different PSU Friday night so hopefully that clears it up.
Thank you very much!

 

[helper800]

What does event viewer say about the restart?

 

[Jason H.]

Hey Jason,
My Specs:

• Intel Core i5 9400 2.90 GHz
• Asus PRIME H310M-3 R2.0
• 2x 16gb DDR4
• Radeon RX 580 8gb VRAM
• Thermaltake 600W (Not 100% sure, but I think its a TR2)

I ran the Heaven Benchmark and checked the Temp, CPU stuck between 45 and 52° C, and the GPU started rising from 45 up to 71-74° C where it stayed for most of it.
I've also been opening and closing both games, while playing music and movies to give it more stress but the error still hasn't reproduced yet.
I'll keep trying and update once I have anything.
I'm gonna test a different PSU Friday night so hopefully that clears it up.
Thank you very much!

If the stress tests did not crash the pc then I think it has something to do with the games themselves. Have you tried other games? If so, does the pc crash?

Are you running any overlays such as Nvidia overlays, RTSS, Discord? Sometimes if you have too many overlays (even if they are not visible on screen) they can crash the game.

Also, which games are crashing?

Let us know how the PSU works out, but I doubt its a PSU if you couldnt get the PC to crash during the stress tests.