PC Powering Down - Not Overheating

[Lepudds]

Hi all,

-Specs at the bottom of the post-

I've got a strange issue at hand and can't quite pin down the solution to the issue. It started when I was playing Overwatch that my PC would lose power in the middle of a game. The NIC would lose power (a friend in game said I disconnected before I would've been kicked for being AFK), the display loses power, along with all USB ports, but the lights on the PC stay on, and all the fans continue running in the case.

At first I thought it was overheating, so installed some temperature monitoring software and a graphics stress testing tool. When running the tool, my GPU hit 80 degrees Celsius and the PC didn't lose power. In Overwatch, the GPU barely hit 60 degrees and it shut down. The CPU is liquid cooled and the temperatures on that were also fine. To further back up that this isn't an overheating issue, the PC hasn't been used for a week, and the room is now quite cold - it was very warm when this first happened - and it still happens within one game. This is not specific to Overwatch either; I've had the issue happen when playing Europa Universalis IV, but I've not tested with any other resource intensive games.

After buying and installing a new power supply, the issue has happened again within the space of one game.

The issue does not occur when playing less demanding games, just generally using the computer, or streaming videos to a TV through the HDMI connection.

The steps I've taken to fix this are:
Installed a new HDD with a fresh Windows 10 install - unlikely related, but I had OS corruption on the other one and it needed swapping out anyway.
Installed a new motherboard.
Installed a new PSU.
Reworked the airflow in the case and installed new fans.
Ensured the liquid cooling is running properly.
Installed new RAM.
Installed new graphics drivers.
Set GPU fans to run at max speed constantly.

I'm at a bit of a loss with this, could anyone give some suggestions on what might be wrong?

The PC specs are:
1x 8GB RAM 1600MHz - Crucial Ballistix
1x AMD Radeon R9 280x GPU - not overclocked
AMD FX 8350 4GHz - not overclocked
Gigabyte 970 Motherboard
Corsair 650M PSU
Corsair Hydro Series H55 AIO Liquid Cooler

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[lakimens]

I mean, since you tried everything else, why don't you try swapping the CPU too?

 

[Multipack]

Lol there's only the CPU/GPU left.. and I doubt the GPU would shut down the system

 

[lakimens]

Yep, most likely the CPU.

 

[amtseung]

Which Gigabyte 970 motherboard do you have? Many 970 chipset motherboards simply don't have the power throughput capabilities to properly power anything more than a stock clocked FX6300, let alone your thirsty, hungry 8350. As your CPU demands more and more power, eventually your motherboard VRM's just can't keep up, trigger overcurrent protection, and just give up, powering down just the motherboard before it lights itself on fire. Anything still plugged into your PSU will, of course, still be receiving power, leaving your LED's and fans on.

 

[Lepudds]

Which Gigabyte 970 motherboard do you have? Many 970 chipset motherboards simply don't have the power throughput capabilities to properly power anything more than a stock clocked FX6300, let alone your thirsty, hungry 8350. As your CPU demands more and more power, eventually your motherboard VRM's just can't keep up, trigger overcurrent protection, and just give up, powering down just the motherboard before it lights itself on fire. Anything still plugged into your PSU will, of course, still be receiving power, leaving your LED's and fans on.

Thanks for the insightful response. That makes a lot of sense. Sorry, I don't have the box to hand, but the Amazon listing is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B019NFFJXK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've actually just unplugged the disc drive as I rarely use it, and do recall plugging it in just before this started happening. I've tested it with a game of Overwatch, and so far it's not powered down yet.

To the other suggestions, thanks, I have considered them, but like some have said, I didn't think a faulty GPU would kill the whole system, and I'm reluctant to buy a new CPU unless I absolutely have to.

EDIT: If this is the case, what would your suggestion be to sort this most effectively? Get a less power hungry CPU or a better motherboard?

 

[lakimens]

The motherboard supports the CPU, if the disc drive proves to be the problem, that means it might be causing some short circuits, thus powering down the PC to preserve the components. Why this might be happening only while gaming? No idea.

 

[amtseung]

The Gigabyte 970 Gaming has a 4+1 power phase design, which for the AMD side of things, is barely acceptable for running even an APU. I wouldn't trust an 8350 on it. I've personally lit an ASUS M5A97 (970 chipset) motherboard on fire before with an 8320, even though Asus promised me it could properly handle an 8350. I keep that scorched case around just for giggles. By contrast, the Gigabyte 990FX Gaming has an 8+2 power phase design, and is beefy enough to handle even a 9590.

If the disk drive is the source of the problem, well I'll be damned. I haven't built a system with one of those things in the last 6 years. I would still keep an eye on your motherboard temps with that 970 motherboard. Placing it under lots of strain by, for example, gaming on it for a long time, could lead to a premature catastrophic failure of the motherboard's mosfets. Gigabyte isn't particularly well known for using the best of VRM's. Their recent G1 RX480 is proof of that.

 

[Lepudds]

The Gigabyte 970 Gaming has a 4+1 power phase design, which for the AMD side of things, is barely acceptable for running even an APU. I wouldn't trust an 8350 on it. I've personally lit an ASUS M5A97 (970 chipset) motherboard on fire before with an 8320, even though Asus promised me it could properly handle an 8350. I keep that scorched case around just for giggles. By contrast, the Gigabyte 990FX Gaming has an 8+2 power phase design, and is beefy enough to handle even a 9590.

If the disk drive is the source of the problem, well I'll be damned. I haven't built a system with one of those things in the last 6 years. I would still keep an eye on your motherboard temps with that 970 motherboard. Placing it under lots of strain by, for example, gaming on it for a long time, could lead to a premature catastrophic failure of the motherboard's mosfets. Gigabyte isn't particularly well known for using the best of VRM's. Their recent G1 RX480 is proof of that.

Very good to know, I've bookmarked the 990FX board for future reference.

I think we're onto a winner. I managed to keep it running all night last night through multiple games of Overwatch and resource intensive MMOs. That could also be a red herring though. I'll keep an eye on it over the next couple of days and keep this thread updated.

Update: I've just plugged my side case fans back into the motherboard and closed up the case, and again, it's lost power in the same way after one game. Currently running it with a room fan and open side for cooling and one more night of testing.

Looks like I'm going to return this board and get the 990FX one.

 

[Lepudds]

After replacing the old motherboard with the one suggested, I've had no further issues with the PC powering down, having tested this over a week. Over the testing period, the PC hasn't powered off once. Thanks for the advice and help!