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Computer "restarts" while playing a game

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  • Computers
  • Games
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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June 30, 2014 7:17:58 PM

So basically, the issue I have is leaving me baffled. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why my computer all of a sudden wants to just "restart" while I am the middle of a game. Basically, I am playing a game, then the computer shuts off, after a few seconds it turns back on and begins it's POST. There is no blue screen and the only error log generated is one stating that the computer restarted unexpectedly.

It has happened on a couple of a different games (Watch_Dogs, Company of Heroes 2, Crysis 3). This computer has been working wonderfully since August, up until about two weeks ago. When I launched Watch_Dogs for the first time, it "restarted" my computer computer out of the blue while playing the game. Since that happened, it has done it on every game with the exception of League of Legends.

I've ran a stress test on my GPU (with Furmark), Prime95 for my CPU, and memtest86 for the RAM, all resulting in nothing. The only thing I can think of at this point is maybe a PSU issue, but I figured running the GPU test with Furmark would have let me know if it was a PSU issue as well. I could be wrong about it though. I still think it may be something related to the PSU. I've tried plugging it into different power sources, which did nothing.

Specs (all default, nothing overclocked):

Motherboard - Asus Sabertooth x79 (Bios 4701)
Video Card - EVGA Geforce GTX 780
CPU - i7 4930k @ 3.4ghz
PSU - Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1000w
RAM - Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1866MHz

Is there a simple, cost effecient method I could use to test my PSU? Is there anything that I could try to fix this issue?

More about : computer restarts playing game

June 30, 2014 7:29:07 PM

It sounds to me like a faulty PSU.
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June 30, 2014 7:38:12 PM

Cooler Masters, from what I've heard, aren't a very good quality PSU. It's also normally the cause for random shut-downs like this.

You should be monitoring your temperatures as well, just in-case you're hitting a thermal threshold for some reason.
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June 30, 2014 7:40:01 PM

Could be wrong but i have suspicion this may have something to do with the directx subsystem after installing watch dogs causing instability in the operating system.

If you haven't yet, check for Microsoft updates. Possibly could try a combination of a system restore before watch dogs was installed and installing Microsoft updates first might help.

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June 30, 2014 7:45:53 PM

Iron124 said:
Cooler Masters, from what I've heard, aren't a very good quality PSU. It's also normally the cause for random shut-downs like this.

You should be monitoring your temperatures as well, just in-case you're hitting a thermal threshold for some reason.


I have been monitoring temps. Nothing seems to extreme. CPU was around 55 degrees C under 100% load. GPU was around 63 degrees during the stress test.

boju said:
Could be wrong but i have suspicion this may have something to do with the directx subsystem after installing watch dogs causing instability in the operating system.

If you haven't yet, check for Microsoft updates. Possibly could try a combination of a system restore before watch dogs was installed and installing Microsoft updates first might help.



I wondered this same thing. I actually re-installed Windows last week and still had the same thing. I was do for a reformat, so I just went ahead and did it then. Problem still persists.
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June 30, 2014 7:50:45 PM

lxWicKeDxl said:
Iron124 said:
Cooler Masters, from what I've heard, aren't a very good quality PSU. It's also normally the cause for random shut-downs like this.

You should be monitoring your temperatures as well, just in-case you're hitting a thermal threshold for some reason.


I have been monitoring temps. Nothing seems to extreme. CPU was around 55 degrees C under 100% load. GPU was around 63 degrees during the stress test.

boju said:
Could be wrong but i have suspicion this may have something to do with the directx subsystem after installing watch dogs causing instability in the operating system.

If you haven't yet, check for Microsoft updates. Possibly could try a combination of a system restore before watch dogs was installed and installing Microsoft updates first might help.



I wondered this same thing. I actually re-installed Windows last week and still had the same thing. I was do for a reformat, so I just went ahead and did it then. Problem still persists.


If you've done a reformat and the problem remains, it's almost definitely the PSU. Could be other hardware components I suppose, but that's the most likely culprit.
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June 30, 2014 7:52:38 PM

Iron124 said:
lxWicKeDxl said:
Iron124 said:
Cooler Masters, from what I've heard, aren't a very good quality PSU. It's also normally the cause for random shut-downs like this.

You should be monitoring your temperatures as well, just in-case you're hitting a thermal threshold for some reason.


I have been monitoring temps. Nothing seems to extreme. CPU was around 55 degrees C under 100% load. GPU was around 63 degrees during the stress test.

boju said:
Could be wrong but i have suspicion this may have something to do with the directx subsystem after installing watch dogs causing instability in the operating system.

If you haven't yet, check for Microsoft updates. Possibly could try a combination of a system restore before watch dogs was installed and installing Microsoft updates first might help.



I wondered this same thing. I actually re-installed Windows last week and still had the same thing. I was do for a reformat, so I just went ahead and did it then. Problem still persists.


If you've done a reformat and the problem remains, it's almost definitely the PSU. Could be other hardware components I suppose, but that's the most likely culprit.


That is what I believe it is. Any way to test the PSU?
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June 30, 2014 7:54:02 PM

lxWicKeDxl said:
Iron124 said:
lxWicKeDxl said:
Iron124 said:
Cooler Masters, from what I've heard, aren't a very good quality PSU. It's also normally the cause for random shut-downs like this.

You should be monitoring your temperatures as well, just in-case you're hitting a thermal threshold for some reason.


I have been monitoring temps. Nothing seems to extreme. CPU was around 55 degrees C under 100% load. GPU was around 63 degrees during the stress test.

boju said:
Could be wrong but i have suspicion this may have something to do with the directx subsystem after installing watch dogs causing instability in the operating system.

If you haven't yet, check for Microsoft updates. Possibly could try a combination of a system restore before watch dogs was installed and installing Microsoft updates first might help.



I wondered this same thing. I actually re-installed Windows last week and still had the same thing. I was do for a reformat, so I just went ahead and did it then. Problem still persists.


If you've done a reformat and the problem remains, it's almost definitely the PSU. Could be other hardware components I suppose, but that's the most likely culprit.


That is what I believe it is. Any way to test the PSU?


Sure, just buy a cheap PSU tester:

http://www.amazon.com/eForCity-24-pin-Power-Supply-Test...
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June 30, 2014 8:18:00 PM

The PSU tester will probably show all is fine when there's no load on the system. Just plugged into the tester. I suspect a bad capacitor or other component in the PSU. Those kind of symptoms are very hard to track down. They only occur for a split second.
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July 1, 2014 12:41:20 AM

You say you've tested, have you tested stressing the CPU AND GPU at the same time? That will put the most load on the PSU at once. I'd also remove any OC you have.
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