[SOLVED] Pc started to shut down and reboot on its own after MOBO and CPU overheating issues.

[Blitex]

Before the rebooting and overheating issues began, my PC started to make a rattling noise. I checked every fan (except PSU fan) by stopping it with my finger to see if they were causing the noise which none were. I wrote it off as a minor inconvenience and moved on. A couple days later after playing Trover saves the universe for about an hour my PC randomly shuts down and POSTs into a MOBO and CPU overheating error screen. It does this about 3 more times, and after those 3 times my PC wouldn't want to turn on. I would press the power button, and it turns on for a second then dies turns on for another second and turns off again. The only way I could get it to POST again was by shutting off the power to the power supply, and let it sit for a minute or two. Fixes I have tried were cleaning out the dust, and resiting all my fans. After trying these fixes the problem still remains but instead of giving me the POST error screen, it just reboots into Windows. It has only shut off on me while playing games. Do you guys believe my PSU or my MOBO is to blame. Hope to fix this before school starts and to hear from you guys soon.

Specs;
CPU: i7 6700k
Cooler: Deepcool Captain 240EX
RAM: Crucial Ballistic 16 GB
MOBO: Asus Z170-A
GPU: Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 1070
PSU: EVGA 650 Bq, 80+ Bronze 650W, Semi Modular

 

[Aeacus]

overheating issues

rattling noise

Sounds like your AIO pump went bad. That also explains the overheating issue. And like any other proper CPU, it will shut down or reboot the PC if CPU temp goes way high (to prevent CPU frying from overheating).

Here, i'd go with new CPU cooler and preferably tower-type air cooler, instead of an AIO.

As far as AIOs vs air coolers go, you won't gain any cooling performance if you go with AIO over air cooler since both are cooled by ambient air.
For equal cooling performance between AIOs and air coolers, rad needs to be 240mm or 280mm. Smaller rads: 120mm and 140mm are almost always outperformed by mid-sized air coolers.

Here are the positive sides of both (air and AIO) CPU cooling methods;

Pros of air coolers:
less cost
less maintenance
less noise
far longer longevity
no leakage risks
doesn't take up case fan slots
additional cooling for the RAM
CPU cools down faster after heavy heat output

Pros of AIOs:
no RAM clearance issues*
no CPU clearance issues
CPU takes longer time to heat up during heavy heat output (about 30 mins)
* on some cases, top mounted rad can give RAM clearance issues

While how the CPU cooler looks inside the PC depends on a person. Some people prefer to see small AIO pump in the middle of their MoBo with tubing going to the rad while others prefer to see big heatsink with fans in the middle of their MoBo.

Main difference between AIO and air cooler is that with AIO, you'll get more noise at a higher cost while cooling performance remains the same.
Here's also one good article for you to read where king of air coolers (Noctua NH-D15) was put against 5x high-end AIOs,
link: http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/noctua/nh-d15-versus-closed-loop-liquid-coolers/1

Personally, i'd go with air coolers every day of the week. With same cooling performance, the pros of air coolers outweigh the pros of AIOs considerably. While, for me, the 3 main pros would be:
1. Less noise.
Since i like my PC to be quiet, i can't stand the loud noise AIO makes. Also, when air gets trapped inside the AIO (some AIOs are more prone to this than others), there's additional noise coming from inside the pump.
2. Longevity.
Cheaper AIOs usually last 2-3 years and high-end ones 4-5 years before you need to replace it. While with air coolers, their life expectancy is basically unlimited. Only thing that can go bad on an air cooler is the fan on it. If the fan dies, your CPU still has cooling in form of a big heatsink. Also, new 120mm or 140mm fan doesn't cost much and it's easy to replace one. While with AIOs, the main thing that usually goes bad is the pump itself. And when that happens, your CPU has no cooling whatsoever. Since you can't replace pump on an AIO, you need to buy whole new AIO to replace the old one out.
3. No leakage risks.
Since there's liquid circling inside the AIO, there is always a risk that your AIO can leak. While it's rare, it has happened. It's well known fact that liquids and electronics don't mix.

 

[Blitex]

Sounds like your AIO pump went bad. That also explains the overheating issue. And like any other proper CPU, it will shut down or reboot the PC if CPU temp goes way high (to prevent CPU frying from overheating).

Here, i'd go with new CPU cooler and preferably tower-type air cooler, instead of an AIO.

As far as AIOs vs air coolers go, you won't gain any cooling performance if you go with AIO over air cooler since both are cooled by ambient air.
For equal cooling performance between AIOs and air coolers, rad needs to be 240mm or 280mm. Smaller rads: 120mm and 140mm are almost always outperformed by mid-sized air coolers.

Here are the positive sides of both (air and AIO) CPU cooling methods;

Pros of air coolers:
less cost
less maintenance
less noise
far longer longevity
no leakage risks
doesn't take up case fan slots
additional cooling for the RAM
CPU cools down faster after heavy heat output

Pros of AIOs:
no RAM clearance issues*
no CPU clearance issues
CPU takes longer time to heat up during heavy heat output (about 30 mins)
* on some cases, top mounted rad can give RAM clearance issues

While how the CPU cooler looks inside the PC depends on a person. Some people prefer to see small AIO pump in the middle of their MoBo with tubing going to the rad while others prefer to see big heatsink with fans in the middle of their MoBo.

Main difference between AIO and air cooler is that with AIO, you'll get more noise at a higher cost while cooling performance remains the same.
Here's also one good article for you to read where king of air coolers (Noctua NH-D15) was put against 5x high-end AIOs,
link: http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/noctua/nh-d15-versus-closed-loop-liquid-coolers/1

Personally, i'd go with air coolers every day of the week. With same cooling performance, the pros of air coolers outweigh the pros of AIOs considerably. While, for me, the 3 main pros would be:
1. Less noise.
Since i like my PC to be quiet, i can't stand the loud noise AIO makes. Also, when air gets trapped inside the AIO (some AIOs are more prone to this than others), there's additional noise coming from inside the pump.
2. Longevity.
Cheaper AIOs usually last 2-3 years and high-end ones 4-5 years before you need to replace it. While with air coolers, their life expectancy is basically unlimited. Only thing that can go bad on an air cooler is the fan on it. If the fan dies, your CPU still has cooling in form of a big heatsink. Also, new 120mm or 140mm fan doesn't cost much and it's easy to replace one. While with AIOs, the main thing that usually goes bad is the pump itself. And when that happens, your CPU has no cooling whatsoever. Since you can't replace pump on an AIO, you need to buy whole new AIO to replace the old one out.
3. No leakage risks.
Since there's liquid circling inside the AIO, there is always a risk that your AIO can leak. While it's rare, it has happened. It's well known fact that liquids and electronics don't mix.

I see. Now that you say that a lot of things are making sense for example the radiator getting a little too hot for comfort. Thank you so much for your input.

 

[Blitex]

Sounds like your AIO pump went bad. That also explains the overheating issue. And like any other proper CPU, it will shut down or reboot the PC if CPU temp goes way high (to prevent CPU frying from overheating).

Here, i'd go with new CPU cooler and preferably tower-type air cooler, instead of an AIO.

As far as AIOs vs air coolers go, you won't gain any cooling performance if you go with AIO over air cooler since both are cooled by ambient air.
For equal cooling performance between AIOs and air coolers, rad needs to be 240mm or 280mm. Smaller rads: 120mm and 140mm are almost always outperformed by mid-sized air coolers.

Here are the positive sides of both (air and AIO) CPU cooling methods;

Pros of air coolers:
less cost
less maintenance
less noise
far longer longevity
no leakage risks
doesn't take up case fan slots
additional cooling for the RAM
CPU cools down faster after heavy heat output

Pros of AIOs:
no RAM clearance issues*
no CPU clearance issues
CPU takes longer time to heat up during heavy heat output (about 30 mins)
* on some cases, top mounted rad can give RAM clearance issues

While how the CPU cooler looks inside the PC depends on a person. Some people prefer to see small AIO pump in the middle of their MoBo with tubing going to the rad while others prefer to see big heatsink with fans in the middle of their MoBo.

Main difference between AIO and air cooler is that with AIO, you'll get more noise at a higher cost while cooling performance remains the same.
Here's also one good article for you to read where king of air coolers (Noctua NH-D15) was put against 5x high-end AIOs,
link: http://www.relaxedtech.com/reviews/noctua/nh-d15-versus-closed-loop-liquid-coolers/1

Personally, i'd go with air coolers every day of the week. With same cooling performance, the pros of air coolers outweigh the pros of AIOs considerably. While, for me, the 3 main pros would be:
1. Less noise.
Since i like my PC to be quiet, i can't stand the loud noise AIO makes. Also, when air gets trapped inside the AIO (some AIOs are more prone to this than others), there's additional noise coming from inside the pump.
2. Longevity.
Cheaper AIOs usually last 2-3 years and high-end ones 4-5 years before you need to replace it. While with air coolers, their life expectancy is basically unlimited. Only thing that can go bad on an air cooler is the fan on it. If the fan dies, your CPU still has cooling in form of a big heatsink. Also, new 120mm or 140mm fan doesn't cost much and it's easy to replace one. While with AIOs, the main thing that usually goes bad is the pump itself. And when that happens, your CPU has no cooling whatsoever. Since you can't replace pump on an AIO, you need to buy whole new AIO to replace the old one out.
3. No leakage risks.
Since there's liquid circling inside the AIO, there is always a risk that your AIO can leak. While it's rare, it has happened. It's well known fact that liquids and electronics don't mix.

Okay I just replaced my AIO cooler for an air cooled one, and the problem persists. Motherboard temps seem to have gone down, but my CPU is still extremely hot. 60-65 C at idle, 70-80 C while gaming. Rattling noise is also still there. Would you say the power supply or MOBO needs replacing or is my CPU ready to be replaced?

 

[SkyNetRising]

CPU is still extremely hot. 60-65 C at idle, 70-80 C while gaming.

What CPU cooler are you using now?

Find the source of rattling noise first. If you suspect PSU, then put your ear to it. Is PSU fan spinning or not?

 

[Aeacus]

6th gen Core i7 is one of the hotter running chips and without knowing which air cooler you put on, i can't tell if the issue is with air cooler or somewhere else.

For Core i7, i wouldn't look anything lower from mid-sized CPU air cooler (e.g Arctic Freezer 34 series) or even better yet, a big-sized CPU air cooler (like NH-D15 or Dark Rock Pro 3).

Of course, CPU cooler alone may not be the reason of high CPU temps. Others that contribute are:

• thermal paste (type, and how much you applied it. I take that you did clean out old thermal paste and applied new one when replacing CPU cooler, right?)
• PC case airflow (rule of thumb: front & bottom - intake; top & rear - exhaust. Which and how many case fans you're running. Also what make/model your PC case is?)
• OC level on CPU (is your CPU OC'd or are you running stock clocks?)
• ambient temperature is?

Without knowing all that above, i can't tell why your CPU is running hot.

For example: My Skylake build (full specs with pics in my sig), in there, i have:

• 6th gen Core i5 in use (6600K) with Arctic Freezer 32 series cooling it, with 2x high-end fans in push-pull conf.
• using Arctic MX-4 thermal paste in enough quantity (not too much).
• Case: Corsair 760T V2 Black + 6x 140mm high-end fans and 1x 120mm high-end fan (2x 140mm and 1x 120mm are intake; 4x 140mm are exhaust, creating negative pressure).
• Running stock clocks on CPU (don't need to OC my chip for my use).
• ambient temp is 26C.
• very little, if any dust inside the PC.

Due to all that above, my CPU idle temps are around 26C and full load (100%) temps are 55C.

As far as rattling nose goes, and if you have HDD, it could be the source as well. For other possible sources, case fans give out vibrations and can resonate to other parts of the PC case.
E.g in my Haswell build (again, full specs with pics in my sig), the bottom 120mm high-end intake fan sometimes resonates the stock PSU filter and the filter starts rattling. To stop the noise, i only have to touch and so slightly move the plastic framed PSU filter.

But as said above, put your ear to your PC to locate where the noise comes from.

 

[Blitex]

6th gen Core i7 is one of the hotter running chips and without knowing which air cooler you put on, i can't tell if the issue is with air cooler or somewhere else.

For Core i7, i wouldn't look anything lower from mid-sized CPU air cooler (e.g Arctic Freezer 34 series) or even better yet, a big-sized CPU air cooler (like NH-D15 or Dark Rock Pro 3).

Of course, CPU cooler alone may not be the reason of high CPU temps. Others that contribute are:

• thermal paste (type, and how much you applied it. I take that you did clean out old thermal paste and applied new one when replacing CPU cooler, right?)
• PC case airflow (rule of thumb: front & bottom - intake; top & rear - exhaust. Which and how many case fans you're running. Also what make/model your PC case is?)
• OC level on CPU (is your CPU OC'd or are you running stock clocks?)
• ambient temperature is?

Without knowing all that above, i can't tell why your CPU is running hot.

For example: My Skylake build (full specs with pics in my sig), in there, i have:

• 6th gen Core i5 in use (6600K) with Arctic Freezer 32 series cooling it, with 2x high-end fans in push-pull conf.
• using Arctic MX-4 thermal paste in enough quantity (not too much).
• Case: Corsair 760T V2 Black + 6x 140mm high-end fans and 1x 120mm high-end fan (2x 140mm and 1x 120mm are intake; 4x 140mm are exhaust, creating negative pressure).
• Running stock clocks on CPU (don't need to OC my chip for my use).
• ambient temp is 26C.
• very little, if any dust inside the PC.

Due to all that above, my CPU idle temps are around 26C and full load (100%) temps are 55C.

As far as rattling nose goes, and if you have HDD, it could be the source as well. For other possible sources, case fans give out vibrations and can resonate to other parts of the PC case.
E.g in my Haswell build (again, full specs with pics in my sig), the bottom 120mm high-end intake fan sometimes resonates the stock PSU filter and the filter starts rattling. To stop the noise, i only have to touch and so slightly move the plastic framed PSU filter.

But as said above, put your ear to your PC to locate where the noise comes from.

The air cooler I got is a MSI Core FROZR L, I did clean out the old thermal paste, and put new thermal paste (about the size of a cooked rice grain.) Case fans are 2 intake fans in the front, 1 exhaust on the rear, 1 exhaust on the top. The cooler is set to intake on the right side (so it's pulling air from the front of the case). My case is the Phanteks Eclipse P400 Steel. CPU is running stock clocks. I would say that the ambient temperature is about normal temp(around 70-75F). I have just cleaned out the dust from my PC two days ago. I pulled up Event Viewer, and the reoccurring critical error is Kernel-Power Event ID 41.

 

[Blitex]

What CPU cooler are you using now?

Find the source of rattling noise first. If you suspect PSU, then put your ear to it. Is PSU fan spinning or not?

MSI Core FROZR L is my new cooler. I will try to find the source of the rattling when it starts again.

 

[Aeacus]

MSI Core FROZR L

Fancy cooler. Have been thinking to replace my Arctic Freezer I32 with that one as well (have MSI build and it would match great aesthetically). 😄

Your idle temps with Frozr L are a bit hotter side and load temps are about right. Based by this review of Frozr L,
link: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8033/msi-core-frozr-cpu-cooler-review/index.html

Review test setup also used i7-6700K and they got 55C idle and 75C load temps with that cooler.

However, to make a simple test to see if your PC case airflow could be the issue of hotter temps:
* take off your P400 front panel (PC case manual, page 11), so that you can see the intake fans. Run your PC and either bench it or game on it with front panel off. Also, monitor your CPU temps. Look if you have any temp differences.

Edit:

critical error is Kernel-Power Event ID 41.

That points towards PSU issue and common result would be reboot during heavy load (gaming/benching).

 

[Blitex]

Fancy cooler. Have been thinking to replace my Arctic Freezer I32 with that one as well (have MSI build and it would match great aesthetically). 😄

Your idle temps with Frozr L are a bit hotter side and load temps are about right. Based by this review of Frozr L,
link: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8033/msi-core-frozr-cpu-cooler-review/index.html

Review test setup also used i7-6700K and they got 55C idle and 75C load temps with that cooler.

However, to make a simple test to see if your PC case airflow could be the issue of hotter temps:
* take off your P400 front panel (PC case manual, page 11), so that you can see the intake fans. Run your PC and either bench it or game on it with front panel off. Also, monitor your CPU temps. Look if you have any temp differences.

Edit:



That points towards PSU issue and common result would be reboot during heavy load (gaming/benching).

Ok, will do. I will be back with the results.

 

[Blitex]

Fancy cooler. Have been thinking to replace my Arctic Freezer I32 with that one as well (have MSI build and it would match great aesthetically). 😄

Your idle temps with Frozr L are a bit hotter side and load temps are about right. Based by this review of Frozr L,
link: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8033/msi-core-frozr-cpu-cooler-review/index.html

Review test setup also used i7-6700K and they got 55C idle and 75C load temps with that cooler.

However, to make a simple test to see if your PC case airflow could be the issue of hotter temps:
* take off your P400 front panel (PC case manual, page 11), so that you can see the intake fans. Run your PC and either bench it or game on it with front panel off. Also, monitor your CPU temps. Look if you have any temp differences.

Edit:



That points towards PSU issue and common result would be reboot during heavy load (gaming/benching).

Ok I benched using Time Spy, and Fire Strike from 3D Mark. Without the front panel, temps varied from 46-60 C on Time Spy, and 49-62 C on Fire Strike. No random shut offs or anything. I then went onto Trover Saves the Universe, and kept track of temps. Temps were normal (50-60C). Never went above 60C, yet my PC still shut off, and restarted itself. Event Viewer still says Kernel-Power 41. Do you think my PSU is the culprit here?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Kernel-Power 41 just means restart without clean shutdown.

Restart can be because of BSOD also.
Make sure, restart on system failure is turned off. Then you'd see BSOD instead of restart.

 

[Blitex]

Kernel-Power 41 just means restart without clean shutdown.

Restart can be because of BSOD also.
Make sure, restart on system failure is turned off. Then you'd see BSOD instead of restart.

Ok I turned off automatically restart, but I didn't get blue screened. The PC just shut off, and tried to turn itself back on but gave in a split second after it tried. I had to switch off power to the PSU to get it back on. This time I put the front panel back on, and temps raised to 65-71C, and shut off after being at 71C for around a minute. I am honestly so confused on what is going on 😆

 

[SkyNetRising]

Are you monitoring GPU temperatures also?

Anyway - I'd suspect PSU to be the issue there.

 

[Blitex]

Are you monitoring GPU temperatures also?

Anyway - I'd suspect PSU to be the issue there.

Yes. My GPU stays at a constant 52-56C. I'll buy a new PSU tomorrow to see if that fixes the issue. Thanks for the help

 

[Aeacus]

While new PSU may fix your random reboot issues (provided that you don't cheap out on PSU), it does not fix your high temp issues.

For the latter, you'd be looking to improve your cooling. Easiest is to run without front panel but it doesn't look good and there's no dust filtration either.

Better solution would be buying high-end static pressure fans, that are capable of pulling air through the tiny gaps at the edges of your front panel. But that in turn also increases the fan noise.

To get the best possible airflow with the least amount of noise, you'd be looking towards different PC case which has grilled front panel and which can hold more than 4 fans, preferably 140mm in size (many full-tower ATX cases are capable of that). And once you have better airflow PC case, install as many (high-end) fans in your case as possible. Preferably 140mm rather than 120mm since 140mm fan moves more air and does that more quietly than it's (same spec) 120mm counterpart.

While installing 5x to 7x fans in your PC may look like that you'd get extremely loud noise out of your PC, it's actually vice-versa. The trick is that the more fans you have inside the case, the less each fan has to work to maintain the airflow and the less noise fans produce.

And that is also a main reason why i have 7x high-end case fans in my Skylake and Haswell builds (Corsair ML Pro LED and NZXT AER140 RGB). Mostly 140mm but few 120mm as well. Since i have that many case fans, i can keep all of my case fans spinning between 800 - 1100 RPM and thanks to this, my PCs are very quiet while still having proper airflow inside my full-tower ATX cases.

Though, the main downside of getting new PC case is system swap, which is one time consuming thing to do. (i've done it twice, once with my Haswell build and once with my AMD build.)

 

[Blitex]

While new PSU may fix your random reboot issues (provided that you don't cheap out on PSU), it does not fix your high temp issues.

For the latter, you'd be looking to improve your cooling. Easiest is to run without front panel but it doesn't look good and there's no dust filtration either.

Better solution would be buying high-end static pressure fans, that are capable of pulling air through the tiny gaps at the edges of your front panel. But that in turn also increases the fan noise.

To get the best possible airflow with the least amount of noise, you'd be looking towards different PC case which has grilled front panel and which can hold more than 4 fans, preferably 140mm in size (many full-tower ATX cases are capable of that). And once you have better airflow PC case, install as many (high-end) fans in your case as possible. Preferably 140mm rather than 120mm since 140mm fan moves more air and does that more quietly than it's (same spec) 120mm counterpart.

While installing 5x to 7x fans in your PC may look like that you'd get extremely loud noise out of your PC, it's actually vice-versa. The trick is that the more fans you have inside the case, the less each fan has to work to maintain the airflow and the less noise fans produce.

And that is also a main reason why i have 7x high-end case fans in my Skylake and Haswell builds (Corsair ML Pro LED and NZXT AER140 RGB). Mostly 140mm but few 120mm as well. Since i have that many case fans, i can keep all of my case fans spinning between 800 - 1100 RPM and thanks to this, my PCs are very quiet while still having proper airflow inside my full-tower ATX cases.

Though, the main downside of getting new PC case is system swap, which is one time consuming thing to do. (i've done it twice, once with my Haswell build and once with my AMD build.)

Oooo that's actually a great idea! Do you have any case recommendations? Also I guess time to buy some Noctua fans then. 😆

 

[Aeacus]

Do you have any case recommendations?

Since choosing a case is personal choice, i can't say which one to pick. However, for good build quality, you can look towards Corsair and Phanteks. Also, look towards mesh/grille front panel for optimal airflow.

On Corsair side, there are: 750D Airflow Edition, 760T (Black or White), 780T (Black or White).
On Phanteks side, there are: Enthoo Pro M (regular, Acrylic, TG or SE), Enthoo Pro (regular, TG or SE), Enthoo Pro 2 (TG).
Another good airflow case, with plenty of color options is: Fractal Design Focus G.

 

[1foxracing]

You don't need a entire new case you can purchase the P400A mesh front panel for $20 direct from Phanteks.
https://www.phanteksusa.com/product...a-air-mesh-front-panel?variant=30590989238327

 

[Blitex]

You don't need a entire new case you can purchase the P400A mesh front panel for $20 direct from Phanteks.
https://www.phanteksusa.com/product...a-air-mesh-front-panel?variant=30590989238327

Thank youuuuu! I will buy the panel right now.

 

[Blitex]

Since choosing a case is personal choice, i can't say which one to pick. However, for good build quality, you can look towards Corsair and Phanteks. Also, look towards mesh/grille front panel for optimal airflow.

On Corsair side, there are: 750D Airflow Edition, 760T (Black or White), 780T (Black or White).
On Phanteks side, there are: Enthoo Pro M (regular, Acrylic, TG or SE), Enthoo Pro (regular, TG or SE), Enthoo Pro 2 (TG).
Another good airflow case, with plenty of color options is: Fractal Design Focus G.

I'm going to get the front mesh panel for my case instead. Just figured out you can do that lol. It seems like my PSU was the problem. No more random restarts. Thank you all for the help 😀