PC reboots when playing games on a certain windows settings mentioned below, New GPU!

[omma_]

Hello,
Some days earlier, my GPU decided to give up after 1 month of constant hard booting when playing games. Initially, It used to reboot somewhere between 2 hours and reduced to around 15-20 minutes of gaming and finally my system wasn't able to POST because of it.
A week ago, I bought a new GPU, GTX 1050ti as a replacement. I did not make any other changes in the system. And again it started replicating my old GPU i.e restart on gaming.
However I noticed one thing, when I use the Windows Power saver mode, my system runs fine, no reboots. I have been busy lately but the max I was able to play hassle free was around 90 minutes of Team Fortress 2 and Spec Ops: The line and then voluntarily powering off the system. Al tough, I suffer great loss in performance.
Yesterday, I kept the system in 30m of power saver state while playing games and then switched to balanced mode to play for about 2 hours again. But as soon as I booted it in balanced mode for the next use, It rebooted on me 10 minutes into the game.
My specs:
FX 6300
GTX 1050Ti
Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3
ASUS M5A97 R2.0
Seagate 2TB HDD
Corsair VS550

Note: My system is 3 years old except the graphics card. I live in India, where we have occasional hiccups in electric supply, It mostly happens in the night times when people use their AC and the voltages dip low. To solve this issue, I am going to buy a UPS soon. Regarding the rig, I keep the side panel off and the readings are 40-50c for CPU, 40-75c for GPU(only reaches 75 when playing games on high/ultra preset) and 40-45c for the mainboard. I suspect a bad PSU but any advice from the forum users is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Aeacus]

Reboots during gaming are caused mainly by 2 issues:
1. CPU/GPU overheats and to protect itself from the damage, system reboots.

Since you keep your side panel off, there's no proper airflow in your system and your components do get hot. 75°C for GTX 1050 Ti under load shows that clearly. For example, my GTX 1060 3GB goes up to 61°C under load and up to 66°C when benchmarking.

2. PSU fails to deliver enough power to the GPU and system reboots.

While GTX 1050 Ti is only 75W GPU, your low build quality Corsair VS series PSU should be handling it. But just in case if it doesn't, then for new PSU i suggest good quality Seasonic M12II-620 EVO,
amazon: http://www.amazon.in/Seasonic-M12II-620-M12II-620-Watt-Modular/dp/B003HE260I

 

[omma_]

Aecus, thanks for replying
Lately, I have been closely observing the voltages. When I ran FurMark test, the +12v rail goes from 11.75 to around 11.2 to 11.3~ volts. Also, my system would also restart on normal usage after 1 hour. My PSU has been through a lot, voltage fluctuations and my cousin used to turn the system off by the main switch key and not shut it down properly. Idle temps are 40C for all the components. As stated I live in a humid climate in India and the ambient temperature is around 32-36C. I'll be switching my room to an AC room soon.

 

[Aeacus]

By ATX PSU standard, the output voltage can vary up to 5% on all rails (10% on -12V rail). In other words, on +12V rail, the voltage can vary between +11.4V and +12.6V. If it's any lower or higher than specified by ATX standard, the PSU isn't safe to use in the PC.

As far as PC temps go, you'll gain better cooling with proper airflow rather than keeping your side panel off. With proper airflow, your components are basically sitting in a wind tunnel where air is constantly moving around them to keep them cooled off. Though, you can't go any lower than ambient temp if you use air cooling.

 

[omma_]

Aeacus, Thanks for explaining how +12v works, I'll be getting a new PSU soon. Can you elaborate on the 'not safe to use' part, Should I take any safety measures until I buy a new one?

 

[Aeacus]

Voltage variation of 5% is the limit PC components can endure. Since +12V is mostly used by CPU and GPU, your low quality PSU can shorten the lifespan of your CPU and GPU by not providing them enough power voltage vise. Under voltage can also be one of the reasons behind your sudden reboots.

There's not much you can do to keep your system safe until your get new PSU. Best option would be not to use the PC at all. But i get that you still may need your PC for web browsing. Though, do not put any big loads on your PSU (e.g gaming) until you get new PSU.

Corsair VS550 has warranty of only 3 years and since your PSU is about 3 years old, it isn't much of a surprise to me why your PSU is acting up. The Seasonic M12II-620 EVO i suggested to you has OEM warranty of 5 years. My Haswell build is also powered by M12II EVO series PSU but mine is 850W. In the matter of fact, all my 3 PCs: Skylake, Haswell and AMD are powered by Seasonic. Full specs with pics in my sig.

From hardware standpoint, shutting the PC down from the main switch doesn't hurt the components. The only damage that can be done via the hard shutdown is software side. Without shutting PC down from start menu, you can corrupt the files and filesystem on your drives. And that up to the point where your OS fails to boot.