Question My pc is randomly turning on and off

[markhession17]

So on Saturday I came home from work to find my pc was on and it had an error on screen saying something about windows failed to update/close correctly and to restart which I did. It worked fine so I shut it down then went to sleep. When I woke up it had turned itself on but I figured maybe I didn't shut it down right so I shut it off and had some breakfast and when I came back it was on again. It then turned itself off when I was using it later and I was just doing some general browsing. I was advised to reset my windows which I did on Monday and it worked fine all Tuesday. Then Wednesday when I came home from work it has turned itself on. Then it turned off on my randomly later. Now it's turning itself on and off within 30 seconds, doesn't even get time to fully boot. I also can't turn it on manually with the power button, it's randomly turning on/off by itself.

I'm afraid to try and turn it on incase it's a PSU issue. What should I do to fix this? I can list my parts if needed, just typing this all out on mobile now to try and get help asap.

 

[PC Tailor]

Please do post your entire system spec including PSU make and model.
Is this a new build, or an used build with this problem now occurring?

It could even be a faulty front panel, so you could always unplug the reset and PWR switch from your front panel header on the MB and see if it continues. Next to this, random reboots can indicate a PSU problem.

 

[markhession17]

Corsair vs550 PSU
Nvidia 1060 6gb GPU
Ryzen 5 1600 CPU
ASRock A320M PRO4 Motherboard
Corsair CC-9011052-WW Carbide Series case
Patriot Memory Viper Elite 8 GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4

I have managed to get it to turn on and it has been on for about 20 mins now. I checked my temps and they are perfectly fine. Is it possible to rule out the PSU since it has turned on now?

 

[PC Tailor]

No, the PSU can cause reboots even after a couple of hours. Sometimes not at all one day, then reboots the next. You can never really eradicate any component without replacing it entirely and retesting.

It might not be the PSU, but these kind of power issues are often indicative of it being so. But as I said, I would also try testing the front panel, faulty PWR or RESET switches can cause the problems you describe.

I would also verify you have latest BIOS, drivers, and windows updates installed as far as possible.

 

[markhession17]

Ok, it's getting a bit late now so I will test the power switch tomorrow along with updating the bios as I did check for driver updates and I'm up to date on those. How would I test for a faulty power switch?

 

[PC Tailor]

Just remove the power switch entirely from the motherboard and either short the 2 pins to turn it on or use the reset switch on the header instead - obviously this doesn't help if the reset switch is faulty!

 

[markhession17]

Just remove the power switch entirely from the motherboard and either short the 2 pins to turn it on or use the reset switch on the header instead - obviously this doesn't help if the reset switch is faulty!

Ok I will try this when I get home from work. I am leaning towards it being a switch issue over a psu issue as from what I have read around the web it shouldn't be possible for the psu to turn on the pc randomly overnight

 

[markhession17]

Just remove the power switch entirely from the motherboard and either short the 2 pins to turn it on or use the reset switch on the header instead - obviously this doesn't help if the reset switch is faulty!

Sorry for the late delay.
Essentially in the last week it worked fine, didn't have to change anything do I figured I got lucky. I didn't. It turned of today and wouldn't boot all the way, maybe 10 seconds or so before turning off again. So I disconnect the reset/power switch and jumped it with a screwdriver and it worked. Then plugged it all back in and used the power button and the issue came back.
Does this confirm its a faulty power/reset switch?

 

[PC Tailor]

Can you confirm if the restarting completely stopped when the switches were removed?

You may need some time to verify this, last thing I'd want you to do is to get a new front panel when it was just coincidence.

But if it is, is you can contact the case manufacturer, inform them and request a new front panel.

Because it could still equally just be a PSU issue (and in some circumstances) a MB issue. We just have to eradicate the options.

 

[markhession17]

Can you confirm if the restarting completely stopped when the switches were removed?

You may need some time to verify this, last thing I'd want you to do is to get a new front panel when it was just coincidence.

But if it is, is you can contact the case manufacturer, inform them and request a new front panel.

Because it could still equally just be a PSU issue (and in some circumstances) a MB issue. We just have to eradicate the options.

I'll use it as is for a few days in that case so and see if it does any restarts etc. I'll just use the screwdriver to start it whenever I need it.