PC shutsoff when playing games

[sytez]

I built a pc 4 years ago and for the last couple years it worked fine. Randomly one day it would BSOD whenever I ran a game. (I tested it with alot of games, Minecraft, Sekiro, R6, CS2). After trying a bunch of things I gave up and just installed a fresh copy of windows. However I still have the same issue, only now sometimes instead of BSOD it just shuts off and turns back on. I'm not really sure whats wrong. Seems like its tripping a PSU protection.

 

Heres the parts list: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/7Bhw74

EDIT: Swapping the PSU fixed it

[esCaPade1]

Hi. It could be heat, faulty RAM, or the PSU.

RAM is easy to check - get memtest 86 and run it twice, at least.

Heat too - keep an eye on your temps with CPUID's Hardware Monitor.

PSU is less easy - leave it till last.

[Thunderkhoac4213]

Did you ever catch any of the BSOD error codes?

[sytez]

On 1/27/2025 at 7:06 PM, esCaPade1 said:

Hi. It could be heat, faulty RAM, or the PSU.

RAM is easy to check - get memtest 86 and run it twice, at least.

Heat too - keep an eye on your temps with CPUID's Hardware Monitor.

PSU is less easy - leave it till last.

Can't seem to boot into memtest. Whenever I try I just get a black screen or its stuck on the Asus page but it won't let me go into the bios.

 

On 1/27/2025 at 8:38 PM, Thunderkhoac4213 said:

Did you ever catch any of the BSOD error codes?

I don't have the BSOD codes from when it was crashing when launching games but now it seems I can barely boot as when its signing into windows it BSODs. I get "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED" and "KERNAL DATA INPAGE ERROR".

[Bjoolz]

21 minutes ago, sytez said:

I don't have the BSOD codes from when it was crashing when launching games but now it seems I can barely boot as when its signing into windows it BSODs. I get "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED" and "KERNAL DATA INPAGE ERROR".

Critical_Process_Died means an error in kernel files' memory, very often from corrupted files. This doesn't strongly indicate a storage issue, but this crash is often seen when you have a storage issue. Kernel_Data_Inpage_Error means that the page file is corrupting and is a big red flag for faulty storage.

 

Re-seat the storage if it's M.2. It's quite common for it to not be seated properly, especially after moving the PC.

 

If you have lots of drives, it's likely the OS drive because of the Critical_Process_Died crashes, but those could be from memory errors. You are getting corrupted page file errors and the page file is basically treated like extra RAM. So storage can give memory errors. We can check which drive has the page file, if that is also the OS drive (It usually is), then you can be more certain that it's the drive with issues. If you only have one drive, this test is not necessary.

 

Use this command in Powershell:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PageFileUsage -Property *

We are only interested in the location here, nothing else. So if it says "C:\pagefile.sys", it's on C:. So the drive that has C: is the main suspect.

 

 

[sytez]

42 minutes ago, Bjoolz said:

Critical_Process_Died means an error in kernel files' memory, very often from corrupted files. This doesn't strongly indicate a storage issue, but this crash is often seen when you have a storage issue. Kernel_Data_Inpage_Error means that the page file is corrupting and is a big red flag for faulty storage.

 

Re-seat the storage if it's M.2. It's quite common for it to not be seated properly, especially after moving the PC.

 

If you have lots of drives, it's likely the OS drive because of the Critical_Process_Died crashes, but those could be from memory errors. You are getting corrupted page file errors and the page file is basically treated like extra RAM. So storage can give memory errors. We can check which drive has the page file, if that is also the OS drive (It usually is), then you can be more certain that it's the drive with issues. If you only have one drive, this test is not necessary.

 

Use this command in Powershell:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PageFileUsage -Property *

We are only interested in the location here, nothing else. So if it says "C:\pagefile.sys", it's on C:. So the drive that has C: is the main suspect.

 

 

I only have 2 drives and after running the command it says its on the C drive. I reseated both m.2's and it seems like the BSODs are gone but it still seems to shut off whenever I play a game.
I was able to see these errors

[Bjoolz]

The pak file errors in CS2 are file corruption, but the other errors are memory errors. You might gotten severe file corruption if the drives weren't properly seated and you might have to reinstall. Perhaps even the entire OS.

 

That shouldn't cause shutdowns though. We can check if you are getting any hardware errors. In Event Viewer → Windows Logs → System, find Filter Current Log on the right hand side. In the window that pops up, click the dropdown menu under Event Sources and select "WHEA-logger". If you have any WHEA events highlight them, right click and save. Upload the .evtx file here. 

[sytez]

33 minutes ago, Bjoolz said:

The pak file errors in CS2 are file corruption, but the other errors are memory errors. You might gotten severe file corruption if the drives weren't properly seated and you might have to reinstall. Perhaps even the entire OS.

 

That shouldn't cause shutdowns though. We can check if you are getting any hardware errors. In Event Viewer → Windows Logs → System, find Filter Current Log on the right hand side. In the window that pops up, click the dropdown menu under Event Sources and select "WHEA-logger". If you have any WHEA events highlight them, right click and save. Upload the .evtx file here. 

Seems like there are no WHEA events

Should I reinstall windows? 

[Bjoolz]

21 hours ago, sytez said:

Seems like there are no WHEA events

Should I reinstall windows? 

Worth a shot, but the continued shutdowns bug me. I hate it when I propose that someone has two separate issues at the same time because it's unlikely, but I can't think of a connection between the two issues. 

 

The only thing I can think of is that the storage was improperly seated and that the shutdowns are completely unrelated to that issue. 

[esCaPade1]

Test your RAM. Try turning secure boot off if you can't boot memtest 86.