Hello everybody.

I've been having some serious problems with my pc during last 7-8 months. One day, after using it in the morning and turning it off for lunch, I went back to it and it didn't turn on anymore (I mean, it didn't even power up). Then I went away one month for work. When I came back home, the pc wouldn't still turn on. So I took it to a pc store, they somewhat "reset" the motherboard and it was working again. However, they told me the motherboard was probably damaged or faulty, and suggested me to change it (of course, they have to sell stuff).
I brought it home and used it for a while. Then it started having problems again: after a shutdown, it didn't turn on again for a couple days. A couple times it even shut down on its own. I could hear some sort of "click" inside the psu when I tried to turn it on without success, and I had to unplug it from the power grid in order to be able to turn it on after a couple of days.
So I took it again to the store, where they did some tests, they tried my cpu on another motherboard and they said it was probably damaged, so they suggested to buy a new cpu and motherboard. I used to do it myself once, but now with all the fans and the water cooling and stuff, I didn't want to make any mistakes, so I had them change the components. I got my hands on the fixed pc around half December.
I used it for a couple weeks flawlessy, then a couple weeks ago it rebooted while playing. No blue screen, no errors, nothing. At first I thought that could have been a current surge or something. Then it happened again, and again, and again. I thought there could have been some drivers issues (I didn't reinstall my system after the motherboard/cpu change because I didn't have a backup drive and an installation drive at hand at the time), so I reinstalled the system and got all drivers up to date.
But the problem is still there, worse than before. I can't even play a game for 5 minutes before the pc to reboot. Sometimes now the pc reboots even while browsing, watching some videos, or idling. I phoned the store and told them about my problem, they said it's weird because they stress-tested the pc, the gpu, the ram, the psu, everything. They told me to try a few things before bringing it back to them (since the store is 100km away from my home).
I tried removing/swapping ram modules, unplugging all peripheral devices and my data hard-disk.
I changed the power cord and the power socket with no success.
Temperatures are fine.
I noticed that it reboots fewer times if I don't plug my phone in (I have to access internet through usb tethering at the moment, old motherboard also had built-in wifi but this doesn't and I don't have a receiver at hand). For example, playing Diablo 2 Resurrected online makes the pc reboot after a couple of minutes, while offline (with the phone unplugged) sometimes I can even play for hours before a reboot. But it reboots nonetheless.
I feel heavy games make it reboot quicklier than light games. For example, Assassin's Creed Origins makes the pc reboot almost instantly after loading, while Door Kickers: Action Squad doesn't make it at all.

I don't really know what else to try. I don't have any spare parts to try. I don't have time to go to the store in the next weeks. I really hope the gpu isn't dying. I thought it was the psu but the guy at the store said it was perfect one month ago. Could it be the m2 ssd?

Sorry for the wall of text. Do you have any ideas, any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

1 year ago

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I'm surprised the repair shop didn't test your pc with a known good PSU. It's always hard to diagnose by user description of the issue alone but from what I read the power supply could be the culprit all along.

1 year ago
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The psu is a Cooler Master MWE 750 Gold and to be honest, I first thought it was the culprit. But the guy at the store said it used my psu for stress tests without issues. And the pc worked flawlessly for 2-3 weeks.

1 year ago
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I had a 650V one of those die on me when it was only 11 months old last year (tho it was probably just really bad luck on my side) and it also very much reads as a PSU issue to me (can say for sure ofc). If you have any friends that could borrow you a PSU to test out if the issue continues with a different PSU I would try that.

Also a bit of a wild guess, but I have seen it before: is there any chance there is something wrong with the outlet/power strip the PC is plugged in? Since the computer store didn't seem to have issues with it.

1 year ago
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The psu is a Cooler Master MWE 750 Gold...

What you're saying really (but in nicer words) : my PSU was made in an unknown Chinese sweatshop with components of unknown quality and Cooler Master slapped their name on it.

Always try to get power supplies from real manufacturers like Seasonic or Super Flower.

P.S. also this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouQE01aG2vA

1 year ago*
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+1

A PC not turning on or shutting down on its own (but especially not turning on) is usually a faulty PSU.

P.S. I sincerely doubt looking into overheating issues is going to solve anything, as you haven't even turned it on in a month or so, and, furthermore, it takes time to build up to the threshold at which the PC would shut itself down due to extreme temps.

1 year ago
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Did you check for overheating? You can use HWInfo to do this. Anything going above 90C is bad.

What model of PSU do you have, and how old is it? This sounds like a power issue more than motherboard (since they've replaced it already). They also had zero need to replace the CPU unless they got you a different board too, CPU's don't "break".

You said you didn't reinstall the OS after getting a new motherboard, but you really should (unless it was the exact same board as you had). You can get a free installer from Microsoft here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d

You will need a key to activate it, or you can use the free version just to see if the problem goes away that way, but it's probably hardware rather than software.

1 year ago
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No, pc is not overheating.
The psu is a Cooler Master MWE 750 Gold and the guy said it was fine.
I couldn't find a matching motherboard for a good price, and I didn't know whether my old cpu was damaged somehow, so I had to change motherboard and cpu. I didn't reinstall the OS at first because I didn't have an installation support available at the time and I had to turn the pc on to prepare it and save my data first. Then I reinstalled the OS when problems showed up, but that didn't help. In fact, things got worse.

1 year ago
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I know that they said it's fine, but how did they check? The only way you check if a PSU is good, is to use a different one and see if the problem still occurs. Did they do that?

I know you don't have a spare PSU or time to buy one, which is a bummer, but it is the only way to check if a PSU works properly. It isn't possible to order online, preferably from Amazon since they will accept a refund if you open/use the new PSU?

Does your CPU have integrated graphics? You could use those instead of the dedicated GPU and see if it reboots without it (although if it's the PSU, it likely won't since the power draw will be much lower).

You could also get MSI Afterburner and use it to reduce the clock speed and power limit of your GPU. If it's gone unstable for whatever reason, this is a method to improve stability.

Are you still getting failed boots, where nothing happens after turning the PC on, or is it only restarting while gaming?

1 year ago
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This feels like overheating due to old thermal paste. I think you should try to re-apply thermal paste and maybe use a better cooler.

1 year ago
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I checked temperatures with SpeedFan and the were all between 20 and 60°C even during gaming. As I said, sometimes it reboots even seconds after launching a game, it's not possible to overheat in that timespan.

1 year ago
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If the thermal paste gone bad, it's possible to overheat in a short time. You can try something like Prime95 to stress CPU to see if it will reboot (or shutdown, usually it should shut down) while also checking the temperatures.

My second suspect would be PSU. How old is it? And how powerful is it vs your total power consumption. If it's dying and losing power and your power consumption is close to its potential, you might end up with another broken parts. Though you said the PC store guy tested it. The fastest way to find the culprit is trying your parts one by one on another setup, from the biggest suspect to lowest one. This needs a bit tinkering.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Oh, didn't know about this, thanks!
Under critical it says event id 41, origin power kernel. It doesn't sound good. Happened 30 times during last 7 days.

1 year ago
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1 year ago*
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"event id 41, origin power kernel." sounds a lot like your PSU is dying. I would get a new one (it's not that expensive), replace it and see if that fixes the issue.

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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that is the generic power loss message and it's normal, you will see a lot of these on old laptops
probably some component (powergrid -> outlet -> cable -> PSU -> PSU-MB cable -> motherboard) is faulty and most likely it's the PSU

1 year ago
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It's your electrical installation, it's either unstable, maybe old cables or you have too many things plugged in. As you mention that a plugged in phone causes your problem to happen less and it makes sense that the pc is working fine at the store.

1 year ago
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I tried different sockets in different rooms. Electrical cables should have been changed like 10 years ago.
I don't know if it's the phone. I mean, now I've been playing Diablo 2 resurrected for 30 minutes without issues, without phone plugged in. Launched Assassin's Creed Origins and after before loading the game, the pc rebooted instantly. So the phone may affect the thing, but it's not only that.

1 year ago
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That's what I'm thinking, if a phone being plugged in affects it, it probably means there are too many things/appliances plugged in at the same time. You could try unplugging some and see if that makes your pc more stable.

1 year ago
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At the moment there are only mouse, keyboard, gpu, and two sticks of ram out of four plugged in. And it's still happening.
I used the pc for 3 weeks with all ram, phone, headphones and additional hard drive plugged in with no issue whatsoever.

1 year ago
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I don't mean mouse, keyboard, etc plugged in your pc. I mean stuff like phone chargers plugged into power sockets.

1 year ago
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Have you tried ruling out the actual power button on the case? Maybe it is full of dust or just faulty and it is making a connection on it's own causing the computer to turn off randomly or not working and not letting you turn the computer on. Just something to try while testing everything else.

I think if it is enabled in Windows power options, clicking the button once should tell the computer to shut down and it will go through the shutdown procedure, but I think on a lot of computers, if you hold the button down for a few seconds, it will immediately cut the power without doing a proper shutdown.

If you have the computer open while using it, you should be able to just remove the wires from the motherboard after turning it on and then it shouldn't turn off if the button is the issue. You would need to plug the button back in the next time you want to turn the computer on or you can just connect the 2 pins with something since that is all the button does. You could attach wires to the pins and touch them together instead of using the button or just use something conductive like a flathead screwdriver to touch the 2 pins.

1 year ago
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No, the issue is not the button, already tried that trick with the old motherboard with no luck. Thanks anyway!

1 year ago
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I had a PSU (Corsair 860W AX860i) that would constantly make my PC restart and make click sounds. Only after it happened to me I read and watched youtube videos about it having happened to others as well. I changed my PSU to a different brand and the problem went away.

1 year ago
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After reading everything you have written, its 1000% PSU problem, and the fact that as soon as it draws more power for a little bit longer it shuts down, this also means when you plug-in your phone it immediately starts charging it, causing motherboard to draw more power from PSU, even though it is not a high draw from USB port, it can cause an issue faster with faulty PSU since its drawn from +5 which is obviously weaker and can cause an issue quicker, since faulty PSU is already struggling.
Change the PSU, problem solved.

I have been working in Repair Shop for 10 years, and have encountered a lot of cases like this and similar ones.

BTW, if you don't know how to do it yourself, please don't take your PC to the same repair shop, since as you have said they have claimed that they had done a stress test of your PSU, which is obviously BS, at best case they have just connected your PSU to another system and as soon as it powered on, they have assumed that it works, and they got nice amount of money in the process for your new Motherboard and CPU, and if they had kept your old parts, then it is double profit for them.

1 year ago*
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It is basically a power supply issue.
The answer may not actually be computers.

If the outlet supplying power to the computer is wired to an octopus, the lack of power supply can cause malfunctions and problems.
(Check the power supply capacity of the room's breaker and if there are different outlets in the room, you need to separate them and secure the power supply. If not, move the computer to another room).

Alternatively, if there is a wireless facility or substation nearby, this may also cause a reset or other behaviour.
(No longer, there is nothing to do but to use grounding wires or electromagnetic countermeasures.)

From the story, it appears that the computer has been verified for normal computer problems, so it is a bit unlikely when considering that this kind of situation has occurred from a clean install state.

P.S. Since it says 41 in the event log, Error due to overclocking and power supply fluctuations is also suspected, so the power supply environment is more suspicious.

1 year ago
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Let me ask another question. Are you using a UPS or power strip?
If you use any of the above, have you tried plugging the PC directly into the outlet?

1 year ago
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That's a really good question. If the PC is plugged into something like a power strip that could be faulty and causing the issues.

1 year ago
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I thought he wouldn't have taken the extra part with him to the store and maybe that's why they didn't see any problem.
And also, the PSU has been mentioned by many already. :)

1 year ago
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Can ups or power strip cause this issue? I have a much older ups connected

1 year ago
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If it's faulty or is overloaded with things plugged into it, then yeah it can definitely cause a power issue.

1 year ago
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For UPS I'm not sure if the battery has lost its capacity over time if it shows any indication. But I guess if it can't give the power that the computer needs, there will be issues because the hardware will work with less current.
I, personally, use a power strip with a fuse in each outlet. So if there is a power spike, one of its positions becomes useless(1), without harming the PSU and therefore any hardware of my PC (or at least that's what I want to believe).
(1) It hasn't happened to me, and I don't know if it stops giving power or if it gives less, in which case it would be something similar to the example with the UPS.

1 year ago
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I think one of the biggest things that can help figure out what's going on is if they list everything they have hooked up to their pc as well as mentioning what it's plugged into. If they have more stuff hooked up then their power supply can handle it can cause this to occur, especially if they have something like a big amp / sound system, or if they are plugging it into a power strip which is faulty or is overloaded with other devices it can also cause something like this to occur.

1 year ago
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This is also a possibility and can be checked quickly.

1 year ago
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As others mentioned I also believe it's the power supply.

You mentioned you have a Cooler Master MWE 750 Gold, that's a 750w power supply. The shop said it's not faulty, maybe you need a bigger power supply. What do you have hooked up to your pc?

1 year ago
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Sounds like a PSU issues to me. Especially if you did not replace it when changing mb/cpu. It sounds like this store is just ripping you off by selling you new PC parts without replacing the only faulty one - PSU.

1 year ago
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I would permanently replace the power supply and then target any other ongoing problems afterwards.

1 year ago
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Well it might not be the cause, but you can always try https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/ to rule out anything with the SSD.

1 year ago*
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Change the cmos battery of the motherboard or check with a new psu what happens

1 year ago
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If I'm not mistaken, if the cmos battery has a problem, won't it affect the computer date?

1 year ago
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Yeah could be ... Sometimes also faulty rams make the system reboot constantly... Or no boot at all

1 year ago
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I actually have been having similar issues with my pc rebooting itself, no error messages in event viewer though, on googling it seemed to be my mobo had similar issues, but we updated bios and did recommended fixes and it still happened. This was all on a brand new PC put together by a repair shop (All parts recommended to me through a trusted tech savvy friend, who is also slowly helping me diagnose and test fixes). It happens far less often now, and doesn't seem to matter what im doing - gaming, browsing, even overnight with just browsers open but not doing anything. I even did a 48hr stress test with no reboots, 3dmark testing... I can go days or even weeks without a reboot and then suddenly it starts again.
Still haven't solved it, hopefully for you it is just the PSU, might have to test that out myself.
Good luck! I hope you find a solution faster than me!

1 year ago
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Hey thanks everybody for your comments! I can't answer everyone because I'm on phone right now.
During next days I'll make some more tests and let you know.

1 year ago
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How did this end?

1 year ago
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Oh I forgot about this! Working flawlessly after bios update to make ram compatible ò.ò

1 year ago
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I have encountered such issue before., Whereby my desktop will auto restart every few minutes. Tot tat it was due to my ssd and sent to repair shop. Were notified that it was due to faulty ram and upon changing, the issue have resolved.

1 year ago
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This might be a bit redundant with others' pieces of advice:

  • Check the event viewer in Windows for any error messages that may be related to the reboot issue.
  • Check if there are any overheating issues by using a temperature monitoring software.
  • Run a memory test (such as Memtest86) to check for any issues with the RAM.
  • You may also want to consider checking for any power supply issues.

What is weird is that you seem to have had the issue somewhat fixed every time you went to the repair store (changing motherboard the first time, changing motherboard and CPU the second time). Could it be that something is damaging your PC components at home? Maybe related to power surges of some sort. If that is causing hardware damage, maybe get a protection against these?

1 year ago
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1 year ago
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Closed 1 year ago by Schnapser29.