PC Instant Shutdown

[Vicadre]

Hey folks, I've got a bit of an issue that I really need some help with.

 

So my pc is about five years old right now. It always worked great, until last Friday when it suddenly, instantly, shut itself down. It didn't restart, it didn't show a blue screen, it just went black, as if the power went out. I didn't think much of it at first, after all, the power really could've gone out for a second. So I started it again and launched GTA V, which was the game I was playing when it happened. Then, after about 20 min, it happened again. This was when I realized that I had something bad going on. So I tried again, launched another game (Fallout 4) and, after about 15 min, it happened again. I blamed my power supply, as it just seemed as if the thing stopped working for a second or so, maybe due to overheating or something like that. So I replaced it with another power supply I had lying around today. At first, things went fine. I was playing GTA V for about 2 hours, and then it happened again. This made me conclude that it is, as a matter of fact, not my power supply. But I have no idea what else it could be, or how to diagnose the problem. I've been monitoring the temperatures on my PC using CPUID, and everything seems normal.

 

I really hope somebody knows something, I really have no idea where to start. Thanks in advance!

 

System specs:

OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46

PSU: XFX Pro 650Watt

CPU: AMD FX 8150 Black Edition

CPU Cooler: Cryorig M9A

GPU: MSI GeForce 660 TI

Memory: Corsair Vengeance DDR3-18866 8GB

Storage: WD Caviar Black 1TB

              Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD

 

All fans seem to be working fine. I changed my CPU's thermal paste about 6 months ago, so that can't be the issue either.

 

[Phentos]

For curiosity's sake, what PSU did you use as a replacement? And how old is it?

[Vicadre]

3 minutes ago, Phentos said:

For curiosity's sake, what PSU did you use as a replacement? And how old is it?

It's a Tagan BZ series 850 Watt PSU. It's about... 7 years old I think

[Phentos]

1 minute ago, Vicadre said:

It's a Tagan BZ series 850 Watt PSU. It's about... 7 years old I think

There's your answer. That PSU is not only crap, but it's also ancient. PSU capacitors degrade when they sit around not energized for long periods of time.

 

So replace your PSU. Consult the LTT PSU Tier list.

[RileyTheFox]

3 minutes ago, Vicadre said:

It's a Tagan BZ series 850 Watt PSU. It's about... 7 years old I think

It's unlikely, but that PSU is probably failing too LOL

[Phentos]

1 minute ago, EvilCat70 said:

It's unlikely, but that PSU is probably failing too LOL

I can guarantee it.

[Vicadre]

3 minutes ago, Phentos said:

There's your answer. That PSU is not only crap, but it's also ancient. PSU capacitors degrade when they sit around not energized for long periods of time.

 

So replace your PSU. Consult the LTT PSU Tier list.

I stripped this PSU from another PC, that was still in use by my younger brother. He never had any problems with it. So while I do agree that it's ancient crap, I don't think it's the issue here.

 

3 minutes ago, EvilCat70 said:

It's unlikely, but that PSU is probably failing too LOL

Exactly what I was thinking

[Phentos]

2 minutes ago, Vicadre said:

It worked fine before, I only replaced it because I got a new pc. Besides, the PSU was still in use on another PC and it worked fine. 

And what kind of PC did you have it installed into? 

 

That Tagan PSU is ancient and the brand really isn't all that great to begin with. The XFX Pro is far from the best model from XFX as well.

[ArkTheYO]

6 minutes ago, Phentos said:

There's your answer. That PSU is not only crap, but it's also ancient. PSU capacitors degrade when they sit around not energized for long periods of time.

 

So replace your PSU. Consult the LTT PSU Tier list.

Technically its more of a blame on the inductors! 

[Vicadre]

2 minutes ago, Phentos said:

And what kind of PC did you have it installed into? 

 

That Tagan PSU is ancient and the brand really isn't all that great to begin with. The XFX Pro is far from the best model from XFX as well.

An older gaming PC. I agree that both PSU's aren't the best. But it would be too much of a coincidence for both of them to be broken. I highly doubt that is the case.

[Phentos]

1 minute ago, Vicadre said:

An older gaming PC. I agree that both PSU's aren't the best. But it would be too much of a coincidence for both of them to be broken. I highly doubt that is the case.

I had a really high tier PSU when I first built my Sandybridge rig back in 2011. Went bad after 4 years, one of which had to be spent in storage because I lived in college dorms.

 

My symptoms were exactly the same as what you are experiencing. Replacing my PSU with the excellent EVGA 850 P2 completely solved that problem.

[Vicadre]

3 minutes ago, Phentos said:

I had a really high tier PSU when I first built my Sandybridge rig back in 2011. Went bad after 4 years, one of which had to be spent in storage because I lived in college dorms.

 

My symptoms were exactly the same as what you are experiencing. Replacing my PSU with the excellent EVGA 850 P2 completely solved that problem.

Hm, I can see where you are coming from. The FXF PSU is currently being shipped to the store I bought it from (still had warranty on it) so I guess I should just wait a while then. But I still think it's way too much of a coincidence for both PSU's, one of which was working fine before I put it in my PC, to be broken. 

 

Thanks for your help so far, by the way:)

[paddy-stone]

The PSU needent be actually "broken" for it not to work on your PC while working "fine" on your brother's PC... different specs, different power draw etc. I'm not saying it's definitely the problem, or not, but just because replacing the PSU didn't fix your PC, doesn't automatically mean that it was a different problem and that your PSU is fine. Welcome to the world of PC troubleshooting, only experience and knowledge coupled with spare parts to "diagnose" the defective part(s) will be a quick "fix" for the problem(s).

[Vicadre]

Allright, it has been a while and I've done a lot of fixing. And the problem still persists. Maybe you guys know anything, because I simply don't know what it could be.

 

So I bought a new PSU, the NZXT Hale82 V2 700W. It's a good power supply, not the best, but it'll do the job. However, the problem still persisted, so my thoughts shifted to this being a heat related issue. 

 

My CPU was the first suspect on my list. So I downloaded CPUID, and Prime95 in order to give it a stress test. Prima95 brought it all the way up to 200 degrees celsius, I left it there less then a minute before I quickly shut down Prime95, becuase this insane temprature would fry the CPU. Anyway, everything was still working fine, so it wasn't the CPU.

 

Then I decided to run GTA V windowed, with CPUID and taskmanager on the side to see how high my temps would get, and how much everything was being used. My motherboard was stable around 50 degrees, my CPU was stable around 78 degrees and my GPU was stable around 80 degrees. My CPU was about 50% used according to task manager. Then it shut down, instantly, same issue again. Everything looked normal, no weird temps, no weird usage numbers. As far as I could see, everything was working fine. This is such a weird issue.

 

So, does anyone have an idea what this could be?