[SOLVED] PC Suddenly shuts down while gaming

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Jun 14, 2021
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Hi all,

I'm running into a strange issue with my PC right now and am looking for some assistance. For the past month or so now I've been running into an issue where my PC will sometimes suddenly shut down while I'm in the middle of playing a game. This most frequently was happening when I was playing Valorant with some friends. I'd be playing for an hour or two and then all of a sudden my system would shut down completely. Sometimes my PC would actually restart itself on its own but now I typically have to power on my PC manually when these shutdowns occur. I recently opened up my PC and had found that the housing where my power supply resides had not been dusted since I built the PC back in June 2018. After thoroughly dusting my entire PC, I don't seem to run into the issue in Valorant any more but I am still getting these shutdowns when playing some other games (Most recently, Risk of Rain 2 after playing for about 3 hours straight as well as a little game called ALTF4 on Steam).

Here are the current specs of my build:

Intel i7-8700
ASRock Z370 Extreme4 LGA 1151 Motherboard
EVGA GTX 1080 SC
EVGA SuperNOVA 650W G3 Power Supply
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 Ram
Noctua NH-U9S CPU Cooler

While in game my temperatures seem to be fine, which is why I don't think I'm having an issues with CPU or GPU temps. About an hour ago my system crashed while playing ALTF4 (a bit ironic I suppose), and on my second monitor I have CAM running and saw my CPU temp was about 50 C and my GPU was right around 70 C right before my system shutdown. I feel that this may be a power supply issue but is there any way to know for sure with some amount certainty? The last thing I'd like to do is buy a PSU and then find out there might have been something else wrong I have overlooked. Any suggestions on where to start with troubleshooting this? I was running a couple different tests, benchmarks, and programs from looking into other threads on here such as Aida64, Prime95, and the Heaven Valley Benchmark and wasn't running into any crashes, although under a Prime 95 torture test I was getting CPU temps of around 85 C which was a bit concerning. I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions for this, I'm not super knowledgeable in hardware so I'm looking for a little direction on what might going wrong currently. Thanks
 
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Solution
One final bump and update for anyone who might come across this thread later:

I did figure out my issue. I took my PC to a local shop for diagnostics and they concluded it was a power draw issue due to insufficient wattage from my power supply when under load in game. They swapped out my EVGA G3 650W for a Corsair RMx at 850W. I haven't had a shut down since then. They tested out all my other parts and did not find any issues. In this case, looks like I just needed some additional wattage. Thanks again to anyone who helped pitch in some suggestion for this issue.

Not sure if I can mark this as SOLVED? If a mod sees this, I believe this can be marked as being SOLVED now.
Jun 14, 2021
12
2
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To me this sounds like PSU overheating problem. How to check it? Move your PSU out of case and put a fan blowing on it (preferably in such way so the extra air goes to air intake on PSU). If it stops crashing or considerably increases the time it can work before it crashes this would be strong sign of overheating.
This was and still kind of is my gut feeling. My PC sits on top of my desk and is situated at the corner of my office space. I also live in what is easily one of the hottest climates in the United States so my room temperature is probably much higher than what others might be used to for purposes of not spending an insane amount of money on electricity each month having my AC run continually (78-80 F) I just moved my PC forward a little bit so that there is more space in the back for airflow once my system is under load while in game. I played 30 minutes of ALTF4 last night and had no crashes which was rare, so I'm going to continue to do some more testing under my slightly new setup to see if I encounter any crashes in that game or Risk of Rain 2 where I encountered a crash a few nights ago.

Do PSUs typically have temperature sensors that can pick up this data? From researching my own PSU I know mine definitely does not, and this is not information I'm getting in CAM.
 
Do PSUs typically have temperature sensors that can pick up this data? From researching my own PSU I know mine definitely does not, and this is not information I'm getting in CAM.
Some of them do, but mostly the higher end models. Or more precisely, higher end models offer you a way to see that temp. Because many models have over-temperature protection which shuts PSU down if its too hot but they offer no way to check those temps by the user.
 
Jun 14, 2021
12
2
25
One final bump and update for anyone who might come across this thread later:

I did figure out my issue. I took my PC to a local shop for diagnostics and they concluded it was a power draw issue due to insufficient wattage from my power supply when under load in game. They swapped out my EVGA G3 650W for a Corsair RMx at 850W. I haven't had a shut down since then. They tested out all my other parts and did not find any issues. In this case, looks like I just needed some additional wattage. Thanks again to anyone who helped pitch in some suggestion for this issue.

Not sure if I can mark this as SOLVED? If a mod sees this, I believe this can be marked as being SOLVED now.
 
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Reactions: Freddy sheikh
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