My PC reboots by itself

[WebMaximus]

Starting yesterday my PC randomly reboots by itself. First time it happened was shortly after I started a flight and while checking out different saved camera views. The loaded aircraft was the Zibo mod 737-800 in XP11.

I was very surprised since I've been flying a lot lately with zero issues. I was also surprised the way my computer restarted. Not a crash to the desktop and no error messages. Instead it was like I would have unplugged the power where I was thrown directly from XP to a black screen and then the MSI logo always seen when I restart my computer.

I then downloaded and ran 3D Mark to stress my computer outside XP. Only some 30 seconds into the test the same thing happened.

That made me think it appeared as a potential overclock issue. Still strange since my 6700K @ 4.5 GHz has been 100% stable for years. Anyway I increased VCORE a bit from 1.25 to 1.275 and ran another test in 3D Mark. This time the complete test was successful which made me think I had found the culprit and that my CPU maybe degraded over time and thus now required a tad more voltage.

Unfortunately the joy didn't last long. Next time I started XP the same thing happened again.

Next thing I tried was to run at stock speed but still same thing so clearly not an overclock issue.

Speaking of the CPU I've been building a huge amount of photo scenery the last couple of weeks meaning the CPU has been working really hard but without any problems. This also makes me think there's nothing wrong with the CPU.

Right now I'm running a complete memory test which so far shows zero errors after about 4 hours into the test. 

Since I only seem to have this issue when running graphic intense stuff I wonder if it maybe is my graphics card that is starting to fail. I have an MSI 1080Ti running at stock speed.

Should also mention I tried unchecking the option where Windows automatically restart after a STOP error. This to hopefully get a clue what is causing the sudden restarts with nothing shown in the system event log other than Windows didn't shut down correctly last time. To no avail though since Windows doesn't even have time it seems to present a STOP error. The computer just restarts in a split second whenever this happens.

Starting to feel a bit worried how to sort this out with no clues what is happening other than it only seems to happen when a load is put on the graphics card. I guess that's my best bet right now.

Any tips or ideas would be highly appreciated!

[jrs182p]

I'm not sure weather this possibly could be the same issue. But I was having issues with my PC randomly powering off when using xplane. Turned out to be my PSU not being a high enough Wattage after I upgraded to a 1080ti. I was running a 600Watt and upgraded to an 800watt PSU and have had no issues since.

 

[Jim Young]

This is why I got a 1000watt PSU.  Sounds logical this would be the cause especially since Richard has tried many other things w/o success.

I have my System Properties>Advanced>System failure setting set to automatically restart and write an event so there may be a clue in the Event Viewer.  Make sure you go to Custom Views>Administrative Events which shows all of the Events in one location.

Best regards,

Jim

 

[rickjake]

Sounds like it might be a power supply issue. When the CPU and Graphics card are under load, your power supply might be acting up, causing a reboot. 

As like Jim, I also run a 1000 watt PSU, but I have had to replace my old 1000 Watt PSU when it when it started acting up, causing random reboots. So, even if you do have a high wattage power supply, it could still cause this if its acting up.

[Luke]

Yes, it's likely the age or quality of the PSU, not the wattage. A modern CPU and video card may pull 200W under load at most. Usually when people think they have solved their problems by getting a new, larger power supply they attribute it to the increased capacity rather than replacing a defective item.

Cheers!

[188AHC]

Not to pile on but I had exactly the same problem and as others have said +--PSU.

[stans]

Been there, done that, it was a failing power supply unit.

[WebMaximus]

Thanks guys! 

Will get a new PSU today and hopefully that will fix my problem. I have a Corsair 850 today which I think should be enough for my config consisting of 3 HDDs and one M.2 SSD on top of the 6700K and the 1080Ti.

My local PC store doesn't have 1000W in stock so will go with a 1200W. A bit overkill I think but the price difference isn't that big and I don't want to spend the upcoming Easter weekend of 4 days off with a PC rebooting itself 

Was thinking about the PSU myself and the fact I got the third HDD to fit all photo scenery I've been building and maybe that became too much for my PSU. But then I thought I would have seen the problem right away when I added the disk to my computer rather than some 3 weeks later.

Will let you know how things progress.

[WebMaximus]

Well what do you know...just completed a number of tests using 3DMark, Unigine Heaven 4.0, IPDT (as mentioned already), FurMark and last but not least XP and my PC is back being 100% stable. Or maybe I should add...or so it seems so far fingers crossed...

So what did I do?

Turns out my girlfriend was right, using the vacuum cleaner every once in a while isn't such a bad idea 

My case is rather well protected by filters etc meaning I never get much dust inside the case. Still though allowing for a good airflow thanks to all my fans keeping the components at nice temps. What I guess was the actual culprit in this case (no pun intended) was all the dust that had been collected by the filter sitting just below the air intake for the PSU. It was almost like a thick carpet of dust...

So I guess my PSU is equally happy as I am right now and once I've seen my computer being stable for a couple of days the 1200W PSU is going back which I luckily decided to not unbox before I tried these things out.

Thanks again guys for all good advice!