Question Random Restarts and Power Cuts ?

[TNCurz]

Hi, I've had this PC for 5 years now, though it wasn't really used for about 3 years in between. Before it worked completely fine, so did it for a while after I started using it again. But now it seems to randomly get it's power cut off which comes back almost simultaneously, restarting the machine. There isn't really any error message after the restart, just windows sometimes trying to perform a disk check.

These restarts seem to take a while to happen when the PC's first turned out. It runs for about 1-4 hours just fine in the morning, but then after the first restart, they seem to get much frequenter. This however is not a regular trend, it varies from time to time. Though at night, once the PCs been on and about for quite some time, the restarts keep happening. At times it's gotten so bad that it would restart right after I'd open a browser or something.

During the power cuts, and sometimes right before them I hear what I assume is a fan going off. I'm not really sure as to what it is, but a sound definitely comes. Also, I don't really know how to relate this but it's happened too many times to just be coincidence, sometimes when I switch on my air conditioner, the PC gets a power cut. I've tried multiple sockets in my room, but nothing's helped. Surprisingly, while my PC restarts, other appliances like my monitor work just fine.

My PSU might be the culprit. It's a Corsair VS650, not the best, I know, but I was young and didn't know better.

Here're some of my specs that might help:
MB - ROG Maximus X Hero
Processor - i7 8700K
PSU - Corsair VS650

I've also logged the conditions at the restarts with HWiNFO here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'd appreciate any advice I could get, this has been driving me crazy over the past month.

 

[CountMike]

Hi, I've had this PC for 5 years now, though it wasn't really used for about 3 years in between. Before it worked completely fine, so did it for a while after I started using it again. But now it seems to randomly get it's power cut off which comes back almost simultaneously restarting the machine. There isn't really any error message after the restart, just windows sometimes trying to perform a disk check.

These restarts seem to take a while to happen when the PC's first turned out. It runs for about 1-4 hours just fine in the morning, but then after the first restart, they seem to get much frequenter. This however is not a regular trend, it varies from time to time. Though at night, once the PCs been on and about for quite some time, the restarts keep happening. At times it's gotten so bad that it would restart right after I'd open a browser or something.

During the power cuts, and sometimes right before them I hear what I assume is a fan going off. I'm not really sure as to what it is, but a sound definitely comes. Also, I don't really know how to relate this but it's happened too many times to just be coincidence, sometimes when I switch on my air conditioner, the PC gets a power cut. I've tried multiple sockets in my room, but nothing's helped. Surprisingly, while my PC restarts, other appliances like my monitor work just fine.

My PSU might be the culprit. It's a Corsair VS650, not the best, I know, but I was young and didn't know better.

Here're some of my specs that might help:
MB - ROG Maximus X Hero
Processor - i7 8700K
PSU - Corsair VS650

I've also logged the conditions at the restarts with HWiNFO here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'd appreciate any advice I could get, this has been driving me crazy over the past month.

Might want to change CMOS battery. 5 years is long time for it when with no other power.
If a fan connected to CPU_FAN stops, BIOS will shut down to protect CPU from overheating.
Electrolytic capacitors of which PSU has a lot including big one tend to dry out after a while and may short.

 

[Tac 25]

@TNCurz

I suggest cleaning the heatsink of the cpu fan, it might have a lot of dust buildup already. Also reapply thermal paste.

 

[TNCurz]

Might want to change CMOS battery. 5 years is long time for it when with no other power.

You're absolutely right about the CMOS, noticed it was dead the day I powered the PC on again. But I'm not sure how it's affecting me here.

If a fan connected to CPU_FAN stops, BIOS will shut down to protect CPU from overheating.

A lot of the times this has happened, I've had the fans cranked up to extreme or full power. Would this happen because of the CMOS?

Electrolytic capacitors of which PSU has a lot including big one tend to dry out after a while and may short.

Sucks , I was hoping to not have to change my PSU, I'll try changing the CMOS battery and see how it goes first.

Thanks for the help, really appreciate it!

 

[TNCurz]

@TNCurz

I suggest cleaning the heatsink of the cpu fan, it might have a lot of dust buildup already. Also reapply thermal paste.

Yeah, I was about to do that today. Haven't got to the CPU fans, but there was quite a bit of dust in the other parts.
I'll give it a shot of thermal paste too while I'm at it, thanks!

 

[CountMike]

You're absolutely right about the CMOS, noticed it was dead the day I powered the PC on again. But I'm not sure how it's affecting me here.


A lot of the times this has happened, I've had the fans cranked up to extreme or full power. Would this happen because of the CMOS?


Sucks , I was hoping to not have to change my PSU, I'll try changing the CMOS and see how it goes first.

Thanks for the help, really appreciate it!

Every time CMOS battery dies it resets CMOS settings so fan curve resets too.

 

[TNCurz]

Every time CMOS battery dies it resets CMOS settings so fan curve resets too.

Ahh, makes sense. It explains the sound I was hearing too. I'll be replacing the CMOS tomorrow, hopefully it gets fixed.
Thanks for the help again!

 

[TNCurz]

Every time CMOS battery dies it resets CMOS settings so fan curve resets too.

Thanks for the advice yesterday. I changed the CMOS battery just now but the problem persists. About 15 minutes into my session, a power cycle occurred. I replaced the battery again with another new one, but the same happened. Interestingly, I'm still getting a "configure optane memory or raid" error on boot after switching off the power, I had thought this was related to the dead CMOS battery. This error also comes with a complete reset of the BIOS settings. Also, after replacing the battery, when I pressed the power button, I noticed that it went through a few (roughly 2-3) power on and offs before it could actually get to the booting.

The batteries I got were CR2032s from a decently reputable brand available near me, not the original that came with my motherboard, 3V and not even close to their expiry.

 

[CountMike]

Thanks for the advice yesterday. I changed the CMOS battery just now but the problem persists. About 15 minutes into my session, a power cycle occurred. I replaced the battery again with another new one, but the same happened. Interestingly, I'm still getting a "configure optane memory or raid" error on boot after switching off the power, I had thought this was related to the dead CMOS battery. This error also comes with a complete reset of the BIOS settings. Also, after replacing the battery, when I pressed the power button, I noticed that it went through a few (roughly 2-3) power on and offs before it could actually get to the booting.

If you don't have either optane memory or raid you should be able to disable it in BIOS and use AHCI instead.
That "it went through a few (roughly 2-3) power on and offs before it could actually get to the booting." is normal for first BOOT after CMOS reset, It's trying to find all components during POST, Once it's all set in BIOS and working it may do it only once or never. Your date and time were also reset so for Windows sake you should set it in BIOS manually.

 

[TNCurz]

If you don't have either optane memory or raid you should be able to disable it in BIOS and use AHCI instead.
That "it went through a few (roughly 2-3) power on and offs before it could actually get to the booting." is normal for first BOOT after CMOS reset, It's trying to find all components during POST, Once it's all set in BIOS and working it may do it only once or never. Your date and time were also reset so for Windows sake you should set it in BIOS manually.

I set my PC aside without the power connected for 10 minutes. Turned it back on, the RAID/OPTANE error did not appear again. I'd assume it was related to the CMOS so the CMOS's good now. Aside from that, while turning on the PC, once I pressed the button, the lights came on then went off (with that possibly fan related sound I hear whenever the power goes off), they came back on right away and the system booted up fine.

Hoping for the best now, I'm running HWiNFO on the side just in case if that helps in anyway.
Thanks again for all the help!

 

[TNCurz]

@CountMike

No, the problem seems to persist. The CMOS is fine now and my BIOS doesn't get reset. But the random power cuts are still a thing. Here're the HWiNFO logs, if they're of any help. They're with both the batteries I used. The power cuts are pretty frequent at the moment, had 2-3 while trying to write this. I'm pretty convinces my PSU's acting up at this point.

 

[CountMike]

@CountMike

No, the problem seems to persist. The CMOS is fine now and my BIOS doesn't get reset. But the random power cuts are still a thing. Here're the HWiNFO logs, if they're of any help. They're with both the batteries I used. The power cuts are pretty frequent at the moment, had 2-3 while trying to write this. I'm pretty convinces my PSU's acting up at this point.

Well, PSU is always a suspect in that case. You also mentioned some problems with power like when you switch some big power user on, any device with electric motors uses 3-4 times more power moment they switch on. May help if you plug PC in a circuit on another phase. Are you on 110v or 220v power ? At 110v any device pulls twice the Amperes than on 220v.
Good old formula, W=A*V.

 

[TNCurz]

Well, PSU is always a suspect in that case. You also mentioned some problems with power like when you switch some big power user on, any device with electric motors uses 3-4 times more power moment they switch on. May help if you plug PC in a circuit on another phase. Are you on 110v or 220v power ? At 110v any device pulls twice the Amperes than on 220v.

I'm on a 220v power, I've tried moving the PC around to different sockets but getting it to another phase is a little difficult. I'll give it a try in a bit and see how it goes.

 

[CountMike]

I'm on a 220v power, I've tried moving the PC around to different sockets but getting it to another phase is a little difficult. I'll give it a try in a bit and see how it goes.

With 110v systems, psu that automatically switches voltage have more room to work with lower voltage, at 220v wiggle room is much smaller.

 

[TNCurz]

Did move it to another phase as well but the same happened almost instantaneously after login. I'm not really using any heavy appliances either.

I'm trying to use the original cable (European?) with a travel adapter I had (~6A, 250V), I'll see how this goes. I'd been using a different cable I had for a while, I did use the original cable a while back when the CMOS battery was dead but it wasn't much different.

This run's quite promising, I've been able to type out an entire post without getting power cycle'd :')

 

[TNCurz]

Well, not much luck, the same just happened again.

 

[TNCurz]

A quick update on this.
The PSU was the culprit, just installed a new one today. No restarts yet and everything seems fine.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me, really appreciate it