# Built a PC - Now Randomly Restarting in Games



## catchthetide (Sep 21, 2015)

Hi All,

I built a desktop this summer which was working perfectly well until a few weeks ago. Out of the blue, it started restarted (seemingly at random) while playing games. This can happen as soon as the game's open, or it can happen after a few minutes, or it can happen after many hours of uninterrupted play; I really can't discern a pattern. The game - any game, as undemanding as Dota or as taxing as The Witcher 3 - will run seemingly without issue for some length of time, then suddenly freeze briefly, followed by a black screen and an immediate restart of the PC (no BSOD or any other error indicator). These restarts never occur while the system or idle or while I'm running non-game apps like Chrome, Office suite, etc.

Here are my system stats: Page missing...

I can't for the life of me figure out what's going on. All the components are brand new. The PC isn't getting especially hot - nowhere near maximum rec'd CPU or GPU temps, according to Speccy. This can happen even when the fans aren't especially loud and the game isn't doing anything much more taxing than running the main menu. I've felt the power supply (XFX TS Series P1550SXXB9 550W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91) immediately after crashes, and it's cool (or barely warm) to the touch. I plugged it directly into the wall to avoid any potential power strip issues, so no dice there. Still happens on any outlet around the house. 

Despite the lack of indication that there's any overheating going on, I even thoroughly cleaned and replaced the thermal compound on my CPU. Still happens. I'm not overclocking.

All my drivers are thoroughly up to date. I ran Memtest from a bootable USB and found no RAM errors. I've searched for hours and read through hundreds of support threads around the web without finding any helpful advice. Weirdly, I ran all of 3D Mark's stress tests for hours and wasn't able to reproduce the crash under the most taxing GPU conditions - again, these restarts seem to happen at random while gaming regardless of how graphically intense or system-taxing a game is.

Windows Event viewer is showing these crashes as Event ID 41 crashes, source: Kernel-Power and reading "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."


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## bassfisher6522 (Jul 22, 2012)

What are your system specs? What OS were you running before windows 10? Where you getting this issue prior to windows 10? 

My suspension is windows 10 to be the cause....I can't confirm this but it's just a gut feeling I have. Either the wrong drivers are installed and not compatible or there are no windows 10 drivers for your hardware.


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## catchthetide (Sep 21, 2015)

bassfisher6522 said:


> What are your system specs? What OS were you running before windows 10? Where you getting this issue prior to windows 10?
> 
> My suspension is windows 10 to be the cause....I can't confirm this but it's just a gut feeling I have. Either the wrong drivers are installed and not compatible or there are no windows 10 drivers for your hardware.


I built this rig in July, and I was running Windows 8 for only about a week before upgrading to 10. The restarts didn't start occurring until about two weeks ago (early September). I don't think it's a driver issue - or at least not the GPU driver. I've already tried rolling back my GeForce driver to multiple older versions, and the issue still occurs in any of them.


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## catchthetide (Sep 21, 2015)

Since the Speccy link went down, here are my system specs again:
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel Core i5 4460 @ 3.20GHz
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz
MSI H81M-E34 (MS-7817) (SOCKET 0)
4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (MSI)
931GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1ER162 (SATA)
NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
XFX TS Series P1550SXXB9 550W ATX12V 2.2 & ESP12V 2.91


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

running a 550w psu is pushing it a bit. 500w is recommended and its usually wise to add 30% to that to cover everything so that would be 650w.

please go into your BIOS and post your temps and voltages.

test your RAM with memtest86 for 7 passes on each stick individually (7 passes can take 6 hours)

download seatools for windows and run all the tests if either test fails it means your hd is knackered.

But post your temps and voltages first.


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## catchthetide (Sep 21, 2015)

greenbrucelee said:


> running a 550w psu is pushing it a bit. 500w is recommended and its usually wise to add 30% to that to cover everything so that would be 650w.
> 
> please go into your BIOS and post your temps and voltages.
> 
> ...


Already ran Memtest86 overnight, no errors. Temps after a brief game session are as follows:
CPU: 38 °C
Motherboard: 39 °C
GPU: 39 °C
HDD: 30 °C

I'll check the voltages and see if seatools finds anything.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

The readings need to be from the BIOS and not some software program.


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## catchthetide (Sep 21, 2015)

Same figures.


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

Did you happen to see what the voltages were?


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## catchthetide (Sep 21, 2015)

CPU VCCIN: 1.712v
System/SV: 5.080v
System/12v: 12.320v

I have no idea what that means though.


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

I recommend you do a few hardware tests:

Please preform a MemTest86 test using this guide here:

How to perform a MemTest86 Test - Tech Support Forum

Please preform a hard drive test using this guide here:

How to perform a Seagate's Seatools Test - Tech Support Forum


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## catchthetide (Sep 21, 2015)

As I said several times in the thread, I have already done both of these. But I appreciate the thought.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

use the pc at a different wall outlet and see if the error occurs.


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## catchthetide (Sep 21, 2015)

greenbrucelee said:


> use the pc at a different wall outlet and see if the error occurs.





catchthetide said:


> Still happens on any outlet around the house.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

did you use all of the standoffs when you put the motherboard in the case?


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