PC restarts under stress. No bsod, no report

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beguiler

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May 30, 2013
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10,510
Hi,

PC reboots when running intensive applications, games and some stress tests. It can stop after in-game loading screen or it can run for a few minutes. The PC had all the drivers and updates installed, it passed all tests after it was put together and didn't crash on any.
There is no error dump file, no bsod, even when I enabled them in settings and searched for them.

It had the same reboot problem with a single game but since all other programs were running smoothly I just assumed it was a game-specific issue.

Aside for that it ran everything for a few months and after I modified a game it started rebooting. I uninstalled all mods and it still continues to reboot even when different games are launched.

I found a suggestion to launch two stress tests at the same time and it reboots with prime95 and furmark after two minutes, but it can run them separately without problem.

Specs:
CPU: Intel i5-4690k stock
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970
MB: MSI Z97-G43
PSU : Cooler Master v550 semi-mod gold
16 GB of ram

Memtest shows no errors, temperatures stay at 25 idle and 58 max for both CPU and GPU.

Any ideas as to what could be the cause?
Thanks all.
 
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synphul

synphul

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Mar 11, 2011
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Is the cpu overclocked? The way it just shuts down during gaming, I'm wondering if it isn't a power problem. The stress tests don't seem to showing a instability whether the cpu is oc'd or not but they're designed to stress the cpu - not the cpu and gpu both like a game often will. The harder both have to work at the same time, the more power it takes. Possible the psu is shutting down to prevent overheating or overloading which is why you don't get a bsod. More like someone just pulled the plug.
 
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B

beguiler

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May 30, 2013
7
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10,510

No overclock, is the 550 Watt PSU not enough then? Is there a way to test if it's faulty?
Do you have an UPS? Maybe try using one to regulate your electricity and see if that helps.
Click to expand...
Not yet. I've been thinking of using some kind of power controllers like UPS or surge protectors, but it will take time until I get one, so I can focus on testing other possible issues.
It also doesn't explain why games started suddenly causing reboot when they have worked properly in the past.
 
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synphul

synphul

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Mar 11, 2011
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Usually a software conflict or other hardware problem will cause some sort of bsod with an error message. I don't know for sure that it's a bad power supply, it's just trying to narrow down and guess at what the problem may be. Your thermals look fine. Memtest isn't 100% foolproof, it's possible to pass and still have faulty memory but again that usually shows up in a bsod. Since it doesn't seem to happen under individual stress tests but happens when both are stressed at the same time - same thing when starting into a game and it reaches a point where both are stressed, that would be max power consumption. That's what made me think a power issue, though it could be motherboard or psu. Both are involved in power delivery.

Just to make sure it's not the video card, I know you ran furmark. Maybe try unigine valley? They have a free version.
https://unigine.com/products/valley/
 
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loki1944

loki1944

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Oct 31, 2013
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I just noticed your mobo, I had all kinds of electrical issues with my MSI Z87 G45, up to and including sparks flying out the of the MSI GTX 780 I had with it (it did not do this when tested with another mobo), also looking back on that nightmare, I had a bad Corsair HX850 PSU before that which resulted in computer shutdowns and finally died with blue flames coming out of it. Yours doesn't sound that drastic yet. Another thing that can cause shutdowns, though usually when booting in my experience, is a short somewhere in the case, not sure if you've cracked your case to make sure you don't have that going on.
 
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beguiler

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May 30, 2013
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It restarted after 3 seconds of running ungine valley on max HD. That test seems to emulate the gaming conditions when both cpu and gpu are engaged so it seems to be a MB or PSU malfunction.
 
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synphul

synphul

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Mar 11, 2011
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It's hard to diagnose from a distance but if you had access to another power supply it would be good to test and see. If it did it again, it may be the motherboard but if not, it could be the power supply. I realize that's a top tier psu but it's no guarantee that they're free from defects. Defective units can happen in any scenario.

If it's plugged into a power strip, it would be best to plug straight to the wall just to eliminate as many links in the chain as possible.
 
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beguiler

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May 30, 2013
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10,510


I live in a pretty isolated region, so it will take a few days or weeks before I get another one.
Final question is it fine to just RMA this v550 and try how the replacement works, would it be conclusive that it's not a psu issue? Or should I focus on testing it with an entirely different psu that has more watts?

So thanks for the help you guys provided so far, I'll pick the solution when the problem gets solved though.
 
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loki1944

loki1944

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Pretty conclusive, unless you're unlucky and you get two bad PSUs of the same brand in a row (happened to me, but haven't heard of it happening to most people); now if you have a ton of hard drives coupled with high voltage ram and a power hungry cooler for your CPU then you might be getting close to 550W. RMA would be the sensible choice to avoid wasting money, there are ways to test PSUs, but I've only done it to see if they're dead and yours is not; I assume the fan spins on your PSU?
 
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