PC randomly shutting down/restarting

[taskee]

Hi everyone

I've had the following issue for a while now. My pc started restarting whenever i would play certain games (LoL, Dota2). It would restart at the exact same time at first, which was exactly when the game finished loading, i could see the game map and everything for a split second then the pc would restart, but it would actually get stuck at the first part of starting up - it never made it into windows. The same thing kept happening, sometimes often sometimes not but steadily it started happening every single time and even in other games. My first guess was that the system was overheating so i installed 3DMark and to my suprise, it completed the whole test. Twice. With more than average rating, thus i figured it was not the RAM,power supply or CPU.

I stopped playing games alltogether but the pc would keep "restarting randomly" until one day i turned it on and it ran super slow. It took like 5+ minutes to get into windows and then, when i ran DxDiag it would not detect any sound card nor graphic card, internet connection was also nonexistent. It was as if there were no components on the motherboard at all. I somehow managed to format my drive and now, its back to the initial issue, "restarting" randomly.

I'm at a loss here, from what i've gathered from people i talked to and some forums, a faulty motherboard would be the most probable cause for this but im not sure.

Specs for my PC are:
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T (not overclocked)
4GB RAM
NVidia GeForce GTX 470
500GB harddrive
MSI 770-C45 motherboard

I have no idea what to do, what to test next or how to handle this problem anymore so i would greatly appreciate any advice or tips.


Thank you in advance

EDIT:

PSU : LC6550GP2 V2.2 550W (http://www.lc-power.de/index.php?id=46&L=1)

 

[Foldalot]

post PSU

 

[littleleo]

I had a similar problem and it was my Power Supply, and because of the restarts it affected my windows O/S. I replaced the power supply and rolled back my computer to a date before I started having the problems, and that fixed it for me.

 

[dgingeri]

That could be many things: loose CPU or GPU cooler, MB malfunction, memory issues, underpowered power supply, corrupted OS files or drivers, but the instance you comment on where it "ran super slow" and didn't recognize components tells me it is likely the motherboard. I can't say for certain, though.

If you can get another computer, possibly from a friend or relative, try out each component separately in a known-good system. Start with the video card, as it is the easiest, then the memory, then the power supply, then hook up the hard drive as a secondary in that system and run a "chkdsk /r" on it. Finally, try moving the necessary components (memory and video card) over from the known-good system and see if it continues. Do each of these in separate steps, and don't change too much at once. That should narrow down the malfunctioning component.

 

[Foldalot]

There are bad reviews about LC-Power PSUs, being cheap and fail often.

This is from NVIDIA for GTX 470 :

- Minimum System Power Requirement : 550 W

So maybe your PSU is failing

 

[littleleo]

Even good power supplies fail, try another power supply and see if that fixes the problem.

Bad RAM usually shows up as BSOD, but you can try moving the ram to another slot. A bad VGA card and the system usually won't start. A bad hard drive and you get bad boot sector errors and all kinds of O/S errors.

I've seen this reboot issue a few times and it usually is the power supply. The system restarting may have damaged your Windows files that is why it would be good to roll back the computer to your last good configuration before this started.

 

[dgingeri]

A while back, (long while back) I had a bad ATI Radeon 9750 that would look like it worked fine, but after a short time gaming, sometimes 5 minutes sometimes an hour, it would reboot the system with no warning. The problems when away when I upgraded to a 6800GTS. I tried it later in another system and it did the same thing. So, a bad video card won't just not allow the system to start, littleleo.

Also, bad sectors on the hard drive aren't always directly detected without a chkdsk. It can corrupt certain system files without coming up as a read error on the drive.

Bad RAM can cause all sorts of errors that you'd never expect, including random restarts and shutdowns while moving data. I had a bad 2GB stick in my server for a little while, and thought it was the motherboard. It would shut down during my backups from my main machine and randomly restart in the middle of the night. I got a new motherboard and started having the same issues. I ran a memtest and found a single stuck bit in the second stick. (Of course, now I have a Core i7 920 and Asus P6T sitting around with nowhere to go, and an Asus 970 board with a triple core processor in my server, with two of the three sticks of memory from the kit.)

Don't assume you know exactly where the issue is coming from without doing any sort of troubleshooting. That was a lesson I learned from 16 years in IT.

 

[littleleo]

Sometimes the simplest solution takes care of the issue. I learned that after working 25+ years in the PC business.

 

[taskee]

hi everyone,

sorry for the late response but i finally figured what was the issue. It was in fact the PSU, i went to a friends place and we started replacing components, the psu was the first thing we tried. As soon as we hooked up his stronger PSU everything started running normally and smoothly.

I went to the nearby store and saw they're selling http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90359718/inter-tech-sl-700.asp for 50euro and http://www.inter-tech.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=617%3Aenergon-eps-650w-cm&catid=125%3Aausland-atx-netzteile&Itemid=540&lang=en for 45euro.

Im running on somewhat of a low budget at the moment. Im wondering if any of you know/have any experience with the PSU's i posted and if they're worth the price or are they cheap generic components not worth the hassle?

thanks

 

[littleleo]

hi everyone,

sorry for the late response but i finally figured what was the issue. It was in fact the PSU, i went to a friends place and we started replacing components, the psu was the first thing we tried. As soon as we hooked up his stronger PSU everything started running normally and smoothly.

I went to the nearby store and saw they're selling http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90359718/inter-tech-sl-700.asp for 50euro and http://www.inter-tech.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=617%3Aenergon-eps-650w-cm&catid=125%3Aausland-atx-netzteile&Itemid=540&lang=en for 45euro.

Im running on somewhat of a low budget at the moment. Im wondering if any of you know/have any experience with the PSU's i posted and if they're worth the price or are they cheap generic components not worth the hassle?

thanks

I'm glad you got it figured out from what you described it sure sounded like a power supply to me.

A power supply is the backbone of your computer get a good quality one the 1st time. Otherwise you'll just have to change it again later. There are lots of good brands out there I've had the best luck with Thermaltake. I'm not sure if they are available in your area. I've never heard of either of the brands you linked and they look a little underwhelming. What type of PS is your friend using?