Computer Restarts Unexpectedly

[Gashon]

I built my computer about a year ago but recently it has been shutting down unexpectatly. I can play games for hours before it shuts down, or only a few minutes. I can browse the interent for hours or only a few minutes before it shuts down. Or it could be idling at the desktop and it will shut down. There does not seem to be a pattern to it. It is not temperature or dust related and I used a power supply tester and it was fine. I thought it might have been overclock settings but even with everything at default settings it still shuts down. 

I am running Windows 7 64 bit. 

Cpu: I5-4690K
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 2X4 DDR3-1600
Storage: Samsung 850 Evo 120GB SSD
         WD Blue 1TB
Video: MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2Gb
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2
Power Supply: Seasonic 450W 80+ Gold Semi-Modular
BIOS: 2012

 

Is it possible I damaged something while overclocking? What other reasons could cause shut downs? 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Gashon said:

I built my computer about a year ago but recently it has been shutting down unexpectatly. I can play games for hours before it shuts down, or only a few minutes. I can browse the interent for hours or only a few minutes before it shuts down. Or it could be idling at the desktop and it will shut down. There does not seem to be a pattern to it. It is not temperature or dust related and I used a power supply tester and it was fine. I thought it might have been overclock settings but even with everything at default settings it still shuts down. 

I am running Windows 7 64 bit. 

Cpu: I5-4690K
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A
Ram: Corsair Vengeance 2X4 DDR3-1600
Storage: Samsung 850 Evo 120GB SSD
         WD Blue 1TB
Video: MSI GTX 960 Gaming 2Gb
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2
Power Supply: Seasonic 450W 80+ Gold Semi-Modular
BIOS: 2012

 

Is it possible I damaged something while overclocking? What other reasons could cause shut downs? 

Did the shutting down start to occur after you started overclocking or was it doing it before all that?

[Timothy11]

Is there anything in the error log?

[Gashon]

It did not start shutting down until after I started overclocking about a month ago. 

[Gashon]

2 minutes ago, Timothy11 said:

Is there anything in the error log?

What would I be looking for? 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Gashon said:

It did not start shutting down until after I started overclocking about a month ago. 

You said you ruled out temps and the PSU so I'm not gonna say you haven't, but this is almost stereotypical to those kinds of issues. Are you sure everything checked out okay? 

[Gashon]

2 minutes ago, Stylized_Violence said:

You said you ruled out temps and the PSU so I'm not gonna say you haven't, but this is almost stereotypical to those kinds of issues. Are you sure everything checked out okay? 

On stock settings CPU Temps are about 50 and GPU are about 60 under gaming load. Stress testing is about 60 and 65 respectively. The tester showed all the voltages were where they should be. 

[fdwboy]

Your PSU is close to the recommended 450W for the 960, and overclocking would have pushed the system even closer. Stylized_Violence has the right idea.

 

The problem with a tester is that it doesn't show the PSU under load (for most basic testers anyway) so any problems you're having wouldn't show up.

[Gashon]

1 hour ago, fdwboy said:

Your PSU is close to the recommended 450W for the 960, and overclocking would have pushed the system even closer. Stylized_Violence has the right idea.

 

The problem with a tester is that it doesn't show the PSU under load (for most basic testers anyway) so any problems you're having wouldn't show up.

Interesting. PCpartpicker says the system should only need about 330 W, so I guess this assumes running at stock. However I have a meter that says even under load it is only pulling about 280 W when overclocked from the wall. I guess there was a spike that damaged it, preventing it from being stable even at stock settings. I am in the process of RMA so I will give an update later. Would a 550 W power supply be enough? 

[ServerSide_Drew]

Sounds like a underpowered PSU to me. I recommend trying a higher powered PSU and see if you have the same issues

[fdwboy]

8 hours ago, Gashon said:

Interesting. PCpartpicker says the system should only need about 330 W, so I guess this assumes running at stock. However I have a meter that says even under load it is only pulling about 280 W when overclocked from the wall. I guess there was a spike that damaged it, preventing it from being stable even at stock settings. I am in the process of RMA so I will give an update later. Would a 550 W power supply be enough? 

My bad, that was just based on the specs for your GPU and from Outer Vision's PSU Calculator, which recommends around 400W for a stock setup and the GPU in Game Mode. Huh that's well within what that PSU should be able to handle since it's a gold, and that's a lot lower power draw than I would have expected. Maybe it's not the PSU? 

 

A few questions:

1. Did you have the computer on a surge protector or preferably a UPS?
2. Have you looked at the Reliability Monitor to see if there are any events listed?
3. Have you updated your drivers using something like SlimDrivers (watch for it trying to install SlimCleaner, and remove when done)? 
4. Have you considered updating the UEFI? I had RAM related problems on a Z87 motherboard that were fixed by a UEFI update. 
5. Are you using XMP? I had similar issues with my Z87 motherboard with four sticks of RAM that went away when XMP was disabled.
6. Have you run Memtest86+ or the Windows Memory Diagnostic? 

Hopefully you can find something to point us in the right direction! 

[Gashon]

5 hours ago, fdwboy said:

My bad, that was just based on the specs for your GPU and from Outer Vision's PSU Calculator, which recommends around 400W for a stock setup and the GPU in Game Mode. Huh that's well within what that PSU should be able to handle since it's a gold, and that's a lot lower power draw than I would have expected. Maybe it's not the PSU? 

 

A few questions:

1. Did you have the computer on a surge protector or preferably a UPS?
2. Have you looked at the Reliability Monitor to see if there are any events listed?
3. Have you updated your drivers using something like SlimDrivers (watch for it trying to install SlimCleaner, and remove when done)? 
4. Have you considered updating the UEFI? I had RAM related problems on a Z87 motherboard that were fixed by a UEFI update. 
5. Are you using XMP? I had similar issues with my Z87 motherboard with four sticks of RAM that went away when XMP was disabled.
6. Have you run Memtest86+ or the Windows Memory Diagnostic? 

Hopefully you can find something to point us in the right direction! 

XMP was off, Memtest86+ and Windows Memory Diagnostic found no errors. I updated the BIOS and it seems to be stable. I did not know an outdated BIOS could cause shutdowns. I will report back after a few hours of stressing. 

[Gashon]

10 hours ago, Gashon said:

XMP was off, Memtest86+ and Windows Memory Diagnostic found no errors. I updated the BIOS and it seems to be stable. I did not know an outdated BIOS could cause shutdowns. I will report back after a few hours of stressing. 

It shut down after about 2 hours of gaming.