[SOLVED] My PC kept restarting if I watched videos or played video games ?

[MidLaneKilla]

Hello to all. First of I will start saying I live in Europe so sorry for the bad English.

Okay so I decided to share my experience I had with my PC. It started randomly restarting if I play video games or watch Youtube videos. Now I had a hunch it was the motherboard or CPU.. But I read on the internet that the main case its almost always faulty PSU. My PC is kinda old I build it 2014 so it lasted pretty damn long. I had crazy gaming sessions for hours on it so I am not gonna say bad things about the parts. I will put a complete info of my rig at the end of this.

Okay so lets continue.. I order a brand new Seasonic PSU 650W gold 80+ which is obviously overkill for my old PC. But I want it to run so I can do things on it so I roll with that. My PC starts and I am amazed how silent my PC is with that new Seasonic power I got. Ten minutes later my motherboard blew up. It didn't go so big like a bomb but like someone throwed a small firework. The smell was bad so I turn off power and take cables off in case of fire hazard.

Okay so now I open the PC and I see one capacitor on the mother board completely fried. I mean its black and the bad smell is still there even worse then before. I took the CPU out , ram too, and GPU as well. I hope they work I haven't tested yet. The only thing I tested was the the PSU Seasonic I bought and it works like a charm still. I was very worried cause its brand new lol. But I haven't tested the other parts since I no longer have a desktop so making this thread from my laptop. My mouse and keyboard still work too. I thought its the motherboard at start I just wasn't completely sure. Hope this helps for someone else having this problem. I will point out I was not having blue screens just random restarts. Like I said PC was build 2014 so I guess it was its time.

Photo of the burned capacitor: https://ibb.co/SvhmrMf

PC SPECS:
Motherboard: Asrock B85M-DGS, Socket 1150
Procesor: Intel® Core™ i5-4460, 3.2GHz, Haswell, 6MB, Socket 1150
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 Window, ATX Mid Tower
Ram: Kingston HyperX Savage 8GB(2x4GB), DDR3, 1600MHz, CL9, 1.5V, XMP
GPU: Biostar RX 550 4gb
SSD: Samsung 860 EVO, 500GB, 2.5", SATA III
CD/DVD: Asus DRW-24F1ST/BLK/B/AS, SATA
PSU:Seasonic 650W, Core Series, 80 PLUS Gold, ATX v2.4

 

[Aeacus]

Like I said PC was build 2014 so I guess it was its time.

Naah. However, as you've found out, replacing the PSU did fix the random reboots issue. Meaning, the issue was with your old PSU.

Now, cheap/crap PSUs, can damage components gradually as well (not just outright blowing them up). At every such random reboot/shut down. And this was probably what happened with your PC. MoBo got damaged over time and once you got proper PSU, it finally blew up. Not because Seasonic unit was responsible of it, but because your old PSU damaged it over time.

Moral of the story is: never cheap out on PSU, since PSU is the most important component inside the PC, because it powers everything.

---

As of PCs age, and if it is taken care of, it can last for a long time. For example, my Haswell build (full specs with pics in my sig), was bought 7 years ago (in 2015) and it is still going strong. So does my AMD build, which is even older, 11 years (bought it 2011). But since i take good care of them, and they are powered by high-end Seasonic PSUs, they don't show any signs of going out.

 

[MidLaneKilla]

The problem with the reboot was still going after I switch with the Seasonic PSU. And I was in the BIOS when that capacitor got fried. The reason I was there was because I thought I got C-states on and maybe that was causing it to reboot and while I was looking on where to find them that's when it happend. But yeah my previous PSU was 5 or 6 years old Segotep 600W. I can share a link so you can take a look of it maybe it wasn't giving enough power and damaged my motherboard after all these years.
https://mallbg.com//Захранващ-блок-Segotep-SG-D600SCR-600W-SG-D600SCR_VZ_161088.html

I dont know I cant say its bad one but I do know with time they provide less and send less power so that might did it.
I am thinking to build a new PC and go with the 12100 chip it looks fair enough for gaming and cheap too. This time I will buy Asus motherboard going for Asus Prime H610M-K D4 because I don't plan doing overclocking and stuff. Let me know what you think.

 

[Aeacus]

5 or 6 years old Segotep 600W

Holy h*ll... Segotep.... Yeah, that is really bad and i even wouldn't touch any of the Segotep units with a 10 feet pole.

I'd say it's a miracle that you got 6-7 years out of it, without it blowing up and frying your PC outright. Still, that PSU damaged your PC over the years and you can see the result yourself.

I am thinking to build a new PC and go with the 12100 chip it looks fair enough for gaming and cheap too.

i3-12100 is value king and offers great performance with low price. It's the best 4 core CPU currently on the market. Oh, might want to look towards i5-12400 too, for a bit more "oompf" (2 more cores, 4 more threads).

Asus Prime H610M-K D4

H610 chipset is cheap end regarding 600-series. With MoBo, i'd look towards B660 or H670 chipset. Sure, they cost a bit more, but also offer better quality (including longevity). Unless, you want your H610 MoBo to also blow a capacitor. 😆

 

[MidLaneKilla]

H610 chipset is cheap end regarding 600-series. With MoBo, i'd look towards B660 or H670 chipset. Sure, they cost a bit more, but also offer better quality (including longevity). Unless, you want your H610 MoBo to also blow a capacitor. 😆

Thanks yeah for sure I will have to look up B660 or H670 for sure. 12400 is nice but for the same price here I could get 10600k. These two chips cost the same price here and the z490 motherboards here cost about 120$ right now and if I go for 10600k I could even overclock it with one of these. I will have to think about it these days.

 

[Aeacus]

12400 is nice but for the same price here I could get 10600k.

Maybe the same price, but not equal performance. And not equal even when you OC the 10th gen CPU,
comparison: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-10600K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-12400/4072vs4122