PC keeps restarting under intense load

arshkumaran18

Prominent
Nov 18, 2017
4
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510
So recently (within the past month or two), my PC has been having some troubles. It keeps restarting when playing games like Insurgency or Dying light or even some VR games that I had no problem playing earlier. Now, however, the PC restarts and pretends like nothing ever happened. But oddly enough, the time it takes to restart is significantly lengthened when I remove the side panel. I know for a fact that the temps don't have anything to do with this (under load my CPU is at 50-60 degrees and my GPU is always under 60). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Specs:
I5-6600k OCd to 4.4ghz
MSI GTX 1070 gaming X
16 gigs of ddr4 ram
EVGA supernova 650P2
An NZXT Kraken x62 with the stock fans
2 exhaust fans on top (corsair AF140s) and 2 intake fans in front (stock NZXT Kraken fans)
Phanteks P400S TGE
 
Depending on your motherboard, VRM cooling can also be an issue. Dust out the insides and check your cabling for possible airflow obstructions that may be causing turbulence. Airflow and dust could also be affecting other components such as memory, make sure you have good airflow there as well.

Depending on your voltages, can still acquire CPU damage over time. You may want to try bumping your overclock down a bit to check for stability.
 

arshkumaran18

Prominent
Nov 18, 2017
4
0
510


I cleaned out my PC yesterday so I doubt that's a problem. However, when I went into the bios to bump my OC down (which I did, now it's at 4.1 ghz), it showed that it was drawing more voltage than I initially set it at (I set it as 1.35V but it was drawing 1.36V), so I tried going into task manager to check my cpu load and lo and behold, it was at 100% but with nothing over 1% running in the background. Although, I did do a virus and malware scan using windows defender and Malwarebytes but nothing showed up. Any ideas on what just happened? I uploaded an image of what task manager was showing over here: https://imgur.com/a/ZIVr4
 
If you are looking to dump background processes that may be contributing to CPU load, need to know Windows version...on Win 10? (There is ALOT you may be able dump)

For the lower clock, voltage bumped down ?

Get a copy of autoruns (microsofts sysinternal utility.) This will show you a lot more startup items than msconfig will so you can see what starts up.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

Microsoft's Sysinternals Process Explorer also very good to have to see what is being used:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer


 

arshkumaran18

Prominent
Nov 18, 2017
4
0
510


So according to Process Explorer, more than 90% is used up by "system idle process". That's normal right? But shouldn't that show up in Task Manager? Also yes it's windows 10, and I bumped down the voltage from 1.35V to 1.25V.
 
The appearance of high use by the system idle process is normal in Process Explorer, the main goal there is to see if any processes are using an inordinate amount of cpu time, and if you see any malware processes running.

Depending on your MB and cooling, your CPU and GPU temps can be fine, but VRM temps can be high. Some people have to add a fan specifically on the VRMs for stability.

With less voltage that should ease the load on the VRMs, and the memory controller as far as heat goes. If your system is stable with the changes made, you may want to stay there. Aida64 or Prime 95 are decent testing programs for stability for your cpu. IntelBurnTest is good as well, and prob the most stressful. It can take even stock processor speeds up to high temps in very short amount of time. Def not a program you run overnight.

For overclocking stability, I am assuming you have disabled the processor power states and are running flat out all the time?

If you wish to pursue Windows tweaking to get rid of items, let me know. You only have a partial list of running tasks listed btw. Everything below MSI's active-X service from your graphics card overclocking software isn't shown.
 

arshkumaran18

Prominent
Nov 18, 2017
4
0
510


I ran Prime 95 overnight last night so as of now, CPU stability isn't an issue. And yeah the voltage is always running at 1.25V. I cropped out all the stuff below MSI Active-X because the stuff down there was either not using anything or was a windows process using less than 1%. If you want to see everything (excluding anything under 0.01%) it's over here: https://imgur.com/a/jxPpI

I'm still having this problem though, even after adding an extra fan I was always too lazy to put in (but it took several hours this time so I think your diagnosis was in fact correct). I appreciate your help a lot, it's hard to come by people who know what they're talking about (but then again this is my first post on tom's hardware so yeah). Thanks!