PC shuts down under load with no blue screen or helpful error logs. It's not the PSU. What else can we try?

[Antrikshy]

Posting this on behalf of my brother. We've been troubleshooting for a few weeks. Under gaming load, the PC randomly powers off. I'd say once every hour or two. We've tried this in Overwatch and Battlefield 2042. Temperatures are fine.

 

Because there are no helpful error logs in Event Logger (except something about an unexpected shut down) and no blue screen, we thought it was a PSU issue. He couldn't not have this PC running for the weeks it would take for RMA, so we decided to get a replacement (then RMA/sell later). Got a Lian Li SFX PSU. Issue persisted. We tried removing the decorative cable extensions. Issue still persists. We'll try updating the BIOS, but I'm not sure that'd help with an issue that's just cropped up.

 

Originally built in 2021, this system ran fine for years until this started happening in the last few months. In the current state, even if we build a new PC, the current parts will be really hard to sell. We'd rather pinpoint the root cause.

 

So we've ruled out the PSU and cables. What's next?

 

Here's the part list, if it matters to anyone:

• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor
• ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
• G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory
• SK Hynix Gold S31 1000 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
• XFX Speedster QICK 308 Black Radeon RX 6600 XT 8 GB Video Card
• Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini Snow Edition ATX Mid Tower Case
• EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply

 

[Tridefender]

6 minutes ago, Antrikshy said:

the current parts will be really hard to sell.

Not quite, they won't worth as much as before, but for a budget constrained pc builder it's still pretty much okay.

[Antrikshy]

38 minutes ago, Tridefender said:

Not quite, they won't worth as much as before, but for a budget constrained pc builder it's still pretty much okay.

No no, I meant it'll be hard to list items if we don't figure out which part is bad and leading to shutdowns.

[Mark Kaine]

uh... not the best idea to tell us right away what it *not* is... sounds like psu to me... recommend corsair rmx 650-850w to test.

 

also does he use a riser for the gpu?

 

extension cables? 

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, Antrikshy said:

Posting this on behalf of my brother. We've been troubleshooting for a few weeks. Under gaming load, the PC randomly powers off. I'd say once every hour or two. We've tried this in Overwatch and Battlefield 2042. Temperatures are fine.

 

Because there are no helpful error logs in Event Logger (except something about an unexpected shut down) and no blue screen, we thought it was a PSU issue. He couldn't not have this PC running for the weeks it would take for RMA, so we decided to get a replacement (then RMA/sell later). Got a Lian Li SFX PSU. Issue persisted. We tried removing the decorative cable extensions. Issue still persists. We'll try updating the BIOS, but I'm not sure that'd help with an issue that's just cropped up.

 

Originally built in 2021, this system ran fine for years until this started happening in the last few months. In the current state, even if we build a new PC, the current parts will be really hard to sell. We'd rather pinpoint the root cause.

 

So we've ruled out the PSU and cables. What's next?

 

Here's the part list, if it matters to anyone:

• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor
• ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
• G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory
• SK Hynix Gold S31 1000 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
• XFX Speedster QICK 308 Black Radeon RX 6600 XT 8 GB Video Card
• Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini Snow Edition ATX Mid Tower Case
• EVGA SuperNOVA 650 GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply

 

https://github.com/GpuZelenograd/memtest_vulkan

 

Run this to test the GPU for memory errors.

[Antrikshy]

23 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

uh... not the best idea to tell us right away what it *not* is... sounds like psu to me... recommend corsair rmx 650-850w to test.

 

also does he use a riser for the gpu?

 

extension cables? 

We bought a brand new PSU and the problem still persists in the same way. Isn't that evidence enough?

 

The case only fits SFX PSUs, so we can't test with a different form factor model. We don't have any extras at hand, unless I un-build my PC.

 

No risers or extensions, no vertical mount or anything unusual.

[Mark Kaine]

8 minutes ago, Antrikshy said:

We bought a brand new PSU and the problem still persists in the same way. Isn't that evidence enough?

 

The case only fits SFX PSUs, so we can't test with a different form factor model. We don't have any extras at hand, unless I un-build my PC.

 

No risers or extensions, no vertical mount or anything unusual.

ok so its likely not the cables, and ok psu seems unlikely also (weirdly enough) 

 

the only way to figure something like this out is usually replacing each part one by one until it doesn't happen anymore...

 

i know it's cumbersome,  maybe building outside the case would help though... you probably could "borrow" most parts from your pc? 

[Antrikshy]

There's a possibility of the PSUs overheating in the back chamber of this case. Not totally confirmed, but we have strong observations. Removing the back panel allowed him to play a long session of BF2042 without crashing, and he says the PSU was not as hot to the touch as it was one time after crashing.

 

Not sure what would cause it now and across multiple PSU models. Anyone have ideas? I suppose the old one's fan could have broken, and the new one's is DOA. It would be some coincidence though.

[Antrikshy]

We seem to have fixed it. Somehow, the XFX AMD GPU was at fault.

 

I brought my 4070 over, uninstalled the AMD drivers (without DDU), and installed minimal Nvidia drivers. We tested a number of games with several other apps open in the background to force a crash. It worked perfectly.

 

Bought a new Gigabyte 4060 Ti as replacement. Whole system has been working fine for several days.

 

Fun fact: The XFX warranty ran out about 3 days before the day of diagnosis.