System shut down due to power surge. Faulty PSU or virus?

[NX Valiant]

Hi there,

I found a lot of similar topics in this and other forums, but I couldn't find an answer to my question. Starting a few days ago, my system started to shut down irregularly whenever I play Civ 6 or Elder Scrolls online (haven't tried it yet with other games). Sometimes it happens on the loading screen, mostly though after about 5-30min into the game.
I disabled my motherboards surge protection, but it happened anyway. Probably because the PSU has a similar mechanism built-in.

On first glance the reason should be a faulty PSU (I have a Seasonic Platinum 460W Fanless), but I have reason to believe that there might be something else behind it:
1. I didn't do any changes to my system in the past months, my PSU is only about three years old with a good brand and a load that probably never goes above 200W (I measured it, it was around 175W in-game).
2. About a month ago, I accidentally opened the attachment of a phising mail (whoops). Although I did various virus and malware sweeps (one virus found), something could still linger around.

Any other ideas on what might be the reason and what I should do? Here's my system (hardware mostly from 2013):

Windows 7
Intel i5-4570
Sapphire Radeon R9 270 OC
Asus Z87-Plus (Mainboard)
12GB DDR3 RAM
2 DVD Drives, 2 HDD, 1 SSD

Many thanks in advance!

Update: I ran a furmark test now for 30min and although my GPU heated to a sizzling 87°C and power consumption was 10W above normal consumpion under load, the system was stable. At the same time, the OCCT PSU test crashed the system within less than 5min.

How can this be? I'm at a loss... :/

 

[Vic 40]

Is there a way to test with another psu? Maybe from a friend or a local shop or ...

 

[NX Valiant]

Is there a way to test with another psu? Maybe from a friend or a local shop or ...

Hi Vic, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I seem to be pretty much the only person still using a desktop pc around here. Even at work everybody has a laptop... Maybe I could find a nice shopkeeper somewhere, though I wouldn't know where at the moment.

 

[Vic 40]

Other things to check for,

the ram is 12gb,is that an equal amount in both channels like 2x4+2x2 or is it 3x4? Might want to remove the stick that didn't cam with the set (i assume at least 2x4 is a set) and see what happens. If 1600mhz or faster enable XMP in the bios if not enabled already.

For virusses could you make a topic here,
http://spywarehammer.com/index.php?action=forum
Use "post here for malware removal". look at their stickies,they contain info about how to post!

 

[NX Valiant]

Other things to check for,

the ram is 12gb,is that an equal amount in both channels like 2x4+2x2 or is it 3x4? Might want to remove the stick that didn't cam with the set (i assume at least 2x4 is a set) and see what happens. If 1600mhz or faster enable XMP in the bios if not enabled already.

For virusses could you make a topic here,
http://spywarehammer.com/index.php?action=forum
Use "post here for malware removal". look at their stickies,they contain info about how to post!

Thanks for your new reply. The RAM is 2x4 + 2x2, at 1333MHz, so seems like that shouldn't be the problem. I'm going to try posting in the forum you mentioned, thanks for the advice. Will report back when I know more.
In the meantime: Something else that strikes me as funny is that I now found out I can seemingly play Anno 2205 without any time restrictions. So why does the system crash when running Civilization 6, Elder Scrolls online and OCCT, but not when running Furmark or Anno 2205?

Edit: I just had a crash in Anno 2205, but it seems to take far longer and be a lot less likely. My guess would be that the programs have different use of some resource, but what?

 

[NX Valiant]

UPDATE In case anyone else ever has this problem:
If you have a modular PSU, try switching the cables to different outlets. At some point, the OCCT test suddenly worked and showed erratic behaviour for the 12V connection. This was the culprit. After I switched the 12V cables to empty sockets, the problem was gone.