[SOLVED] Sudden restarting but not under heavy load - underpowered PSU?

rostopchin

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Jun 12, 2016
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My PSU (Super Flower Golden Silent 500w) is at the limit of what I need to power my system (PSU calculator says 480w needed). Recently when using music software under moderate load (20-30% CPU usage) I've experienced random and sudden system restarts, just black screen reboot with no warning. I've only been able to do half a memtest as I didn't know it took so long, however no errors were found. Would the PSU be at fault? I'd assume that a failure would take place when the GPU and CPU were both taxed in gaming, not when doing less demanding tasks.
 
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My PSU (Super Flower Golden Silent 500w) is at the limit of what I need to power my system (PSU calculator says 480w needed). Recently when using music software under moderate load (20-30% CPU usage) I've experienced random and sudden system restarts, just black screen reboot with no warning. I've only been able to do half a memtest as I didn't know it took so long, however no errors were found. Would the PSU be at fault? I'd assume that a failure would take place when the GPU and CPU were both taxed in gaming, not when doing less demanding tasks.

It's your memory.

Make sure "automatically restart" is unchecked (assuming you're using Windows): http://jongerow.com/automatically-restart/index.html
My PSU (Super Flower Golden Silent 500w) is at the limit of what I need to power my system (PSU calculator says 480w needed). Recently when using music software under moderate load (20-30% CPU usage) I've experienced random and sudden system restarts, just black screen reboot with no warning. I've only been able to do half a memtest as I didn't know it took so long, however no errors were found. Would the PSU be at fault? I'd assume that a failure would take place when the GPU and CPU were both taxed in gaming, not when doing less demanding tasks.

It's your memory.

Make sure "automatically restart" is unchecked (assuming you're using Windows): http://jongerow.com/automatically-restart/index.html
 
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Solution

rostopchin

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Jun 12, 2016
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Thanks for the replies - I already have automatic restart disabled so it's not that. Looks like the PSU is probably the cause but I'm just confused that I can run GPU/CPU intensive games without any problems, but everyday music software is bringing about a hard reboot. PSU upgrade will suck as I need absolute silence, and the next step up is a Seasonic passive 700w which will set me back hundreds.
 
What are your PC specs again ? Ryzen by any chance ? Try disabling XMP profile or RAM overclock.

Seriously?

I hope it's that simple. I'll give that a try myself!

Check this out.... I have a Ryzen 5 3600 and a RX 5600. I can play any game. No problem. Couldn't render a video for the life of me. Any software. PC just crashes. We're not talking about movies either. I shoot a video on my phone and it's too big to email so I want to trim it, reduce resolution, etc. Nope. Can't do it. So stupid.
 

Juular

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I hope it's that simple. I'll give that a try myself!
Well, it's not simple but after having zero problems with all and any Intel platforms and RAM XMP - if it boots then it's stable. Ryzen was a hell of a ride, especially right after release when XMP just didn't work and anything past 2800MHz didn't boot. Now after dozen of UEFI updates i can run my kit on higher than XMP settings (3600MHz 16CL on 18CL kit) with some tweaking (Ryzen DRAM calculator helps). But if i lower some timings and it boots, passes all stress tests - it still can just crash randomly once in a few days, at idle or under load ...
 

rostopchin

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Jun 12, 2016
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Yes I'm on a 3900X, with RX5700 GPU, on ASUS ROG Strix Gaming X470 - I know 500w is pushing it but it does seem like it's something else... Don't think I have any XMP or overclocking on the RAM, I'm going to do driver and firmware updates to see if that helps. Have to say this AMD setup seems flakier than my old Intel 2600k/Nvidia 1060.
 
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rostopchin

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Jun 12, 2016
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Thanks all, I've bought a power meter to see actual usage, and will update firmware and drivers on everything, if that doesn't work I'll disable XMP as it seems like that has a performance penatly, and seems like a bit of a wormhole that I don't 100% understand.
 

80-watt Hamster

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Oct 9, 2014
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It's your memory.

Make sure "automatically restart" is unchecked (assuming you're using Windows): http://jongerow.com/automatically-restart/index.html

Until a month ago, I would have 100% agreed with you 100% of the time. Then new RAM didn't help a particular patient with its arbitrary reboots. A new PSU did. So agreed, probably memory, but I don't think power supply can be completely ruled out.

(And before anyone points it out, yes, I do know who I'm talking to.)
 
Until a month ago, I would have 100% agreed with you 100% of the time. Then new RAM didn't help a particular patient with its arbitrary reboots. A new PSU did. So agreed, probably memory, but I don't think power supply can be completely ruled out.

(And before anyone points it out, yes, I do know who I'm talking to.)

"Arbitrary reboots" are not the same as "reboots during certain applications while full load applications does not cause reboots".

Not all reboots are RAM. Not all reboots are PSU. It depends on when and why and how it's doing the reboot.
 

rostopchin

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Jun 12, 2016
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Another question - would an increasing rate of these reboots occurring point more to PSU than to RAM? As they have started to happen more regularly in the past week, can't think why that would be happening if it was to do with the memory setup (on the other hand it's still at moderate or even idle load so again, that points away from PSU). Whatever it is it's really annoying and I want it fixed!
 

rostopchin

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Jun 12, 2016
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Well my power meter tells me that the maximum my system uses during any of the things I use it for is 280watts (while gaming), and most of the time is spent between 100 and 150, so I think it probably is the memory. I've read some people saying that upping the voltage may help with XMP, mine seems to be at 1.35... In the Asus BIOS it has the RAM set to DOCP which seems to be AMD's equivalent to XMP? I've also seen some people saying that the AMD GPUs can cause hard resets. I'm not an expert with any of this and it's confusing that there are so many things that could be causing it.