Discussion Pc randomly crashes and restarts

Aug 20, 2020
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I have had a problem for maybe a month or two where my pc randomly restarts maybe once a week or twice. Then it will continually restart and theirs nothing i can do. It happens randomly and regardless of whether or not im gaming or just letting the pc idle.
Basic Specs: Rx 560 4gb
AMD ryzen 7 2700 8 core
2 sticks 8gb ddr4
Prime b450m-a motherboard

Also ive tested my memory, temps my psu, and have checked for viruses. I changed various power settings but cant figure it out. Please help
 
Aug 20, 2020
12
1
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I bought a prebuilt pc about a year and a half ago, It came with a Ryzen 560, Intel 7 1700, 8gb ddr4 ram and a Toshiba 500 gb hard drive as well as a 450 bronze psu. My pc started randomly freezing or restarting with out bios regardless of whether I was gaming or not. I upgraded to 2 sticks of 8 gb ddr4 and bought a SSD M.2 and the crashing continued, I upgraded my GPU to a RTX 2060 and the crashing continued, the crashes are not related to my temps or my memory as I have tested both, I have the latest edition of Windows 10 and have tried reinstalling all drivers and reorganizing my HDD ive defragged, wiped windows and can not find a solution. Any help would be appreciated.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
The computer randomly rebooting every now and then, then getting stuck in a boot loop is often caused by a bad or under-sized PSU. The PSU may be able to cope with weird power transients at boot while all the components are going through their power-up sequence when cold but gets tripped up when warm.

This resembles the failure pattern of most PSUs I have repaired while they were still in active use in one of my PCs.
 
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Aug 20, 2020
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The computer randomly rebooting every now and then, then getting stuck in a boot loop is often caused by a bad or under-sized PSU. The PSU may be able to cope with weird power transients at boot while all the components are going through their power-up sequence when cold but gets tripped up when warm.

This resembles the failure pattern of most PSUs I have repaired while they were still in active use in one of my PCs.
Thank you for the information, I've just ordered a 600w psu. Hopefully this solves it!
 
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Aug 20, 2020
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I have had a problem for maybe a month or two where my pc randomly restarts maybe once a week or twice. Then it will continually restart and theirs nothing i can do. It happens randomly and regardless of whether or not im gaming or just letting the pc idle.
Basic Specs: Rx 560 4gb
AMD ryzen 7 2700 8 core
2 sticks 8gb ddr4
Prime b450m-a motherboard

Also ive tested my memory, temps my psu, and have checked for viruses. I changed various power settings but cant figure it out. Please help
Upgrading PSU did not solve the problem, I just bought and installed a 600w psu and not even 5 min after install my pc crashed.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
Upgrading PSU did not solve the problem, I just bought and installed a 600w psu and not even 5 min after install my pc crashed.
What is the brand and whole model number? There are some crappy 500+W PSUs out there that struggle to deliver 300W. Quality matters at least just as much as nominal rating. It is also common for PSUs based on old designs to struggle with the fast load transients newer CPUs and GPUs generate.
 
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Aug 20, 2020
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InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
There isn't much information about Gamemax out there aside from it mostly being a rebrander of Chinese brands, so I'm going to guess it likely is of 'meh' or worse quality, which makes it difficult to definitely rule out the PSU as a likely suspect.

One thing you can do to test whether it may be a borderline PSU is go into BIOS and disable C-states in the CPU configuration. This prevents the CPU from going into its lowest power states, which reduces the worst-case transients the PSU and CPU VRM need to cope with.
 
Aug 20, 2020
12
1
15
There isn't much information about Gamemax out there aside from it mostly being a rebrander of Chinese brands, so I'm going to guess it likely is of 'meh' or worse quality, which makes it difficult to definitely rule out the PSU as a likely suspect.

One thing you can do to test whether it may be a borderline PSU is go into BIOS and disable C-states in the CPU configuration. This prevents the CPU from going into its lowest power states, which reduces the worst-case transients the PSU and CPU VRM need to cope with.
I went in and looked around in BIOS and was unable to locate C-states anywhere, even after looking up guides and other things.
 
Aug 20, 2020
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Also another thing I have noticed since using the new psu, when playing among us my pc will not crash no matter the amount played. However when playing Modern Warfare not even 5 min in my pc crashes.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
If your PC crashed while playing Among Us with the 450W PSUs but not with the 600W one, then that likely confirms that the 450W PSUs were inadequate for your system.

Another detail to keep in mind about PSUs is that nearly 100% of PC load besides USB ports is on the 12V rail(s) so if the sum of your components is 400W, you need a PSU capable of outputting at least 35A aggregate total on 12V plus some margin on top to make sure peaks are within its comfort zone and peace of mind. That's how a ~400W requirement becomes a 550-650W recommendation. (And there aren't many decent quality PSUs below 550W anyway since smaller components for lower power PSUs cost nearly as much.)

If you have tried Modern Warfare with both the RTX2060 and RX560 and still get crashes, at least you can be fairly confident it isn't the GPU either.