Computer unexpectedly shuts off, then restarts

[Fgtfv567]

Starting yesterday, my computer has been shutting off, and then restarting itself. 

 

The issue initially starts when I play a game. After an hour or so, my computer will shut off and immediately restart. Then it'll continue to loop, even as I try to stumble into the desktop. It'll loop a few times, about 3 today, and then crash if I try to restart a game.

 

My monitor lights don't shut off as far as I'm aware, so I don't think it's a problem with my surge protector nor my house. I am currently doing a quick scan with MSE as I type this and nothing's popped up. I haven't dusted out my PC in a while, so I have a suspicion it could be that.

 

Specs can be seen on my profile.

 

Edit: Resumed Rainbow 6, had MSI Afterburner up, and looked at CPU usage and temps. It shut off, restarted about 5-6 times until desktop. I predict if I go back to a game, it'll do this again.

 

Temps: Mid 60s ish, normal for my small PC and weak cooling.

 

Usage: It crashed at about 50 ish percent while playing rainbow 6

 

Edit 2: It is now shutting off at the desktop after I punch in my passcode.

 

Edit 3: I have dusted out my PC a couple of days ago. My computer still crashes during gaming. During my time inside my PC, I did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

[ZackCodesAI]

I think, it's either unstable OC or high temperatures, check your computers temperature and if you have OC it, then tone it down a bit.

[prowlingvermillion]

sounds like motherboard issue too or bios

[Fgtfv567]

4 minutes ago, Zackbare said:

I think, it's either unstable OC or high temperatures, check your computers temperature and if you have OC it, then tone it down a bit.

My CPU's a locked 3770, so if you can OC this thing, I'd be impressed.

 

Yeah the temps go with the "I haven't dusted my PC" thing, so I'm going to try rainbow 6 again and monitor temps this time

[Fgtfv567]

Just now, prowlingvermillion said:

sounds like motherboard issue too or bios

I didn't have this problem before though. It started last night and I've never done anything to my motherboard nor my bios.

[prowlingvermillion]

8 minutes ago, Fgtfv567 said:

It'll loop a few times, about 3 today, and then crash if I try to restart a game.

still sounds like a mother issue, Jaytwo cents had the same problem with bios

[ZackCodesAI]

Just now, Fgtfv567 said:

..

Just keep a check on Temps and also, what I have seen is that RAM weird out sometimes, in my case I just unplug and plug it back in, it works fine.

[Enderman]

Go look at windows event viewer and find out why.

[prowlingvermillion]

 this should help

[scottyseng]

Is it like a sudden power off (Like someone pulled the power cable) or is it windows shutting off (software shut down).

 

Usually I'd say try to reset CMOS first, if that doesn't work, maybe the PSU is faulty? But yours seems to be a power brick (I had a fauly temp sensor in my AX860i). I don't think it's the same issue here though.

[Fgtfv567]

4 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Is it like a sudden power off (Like someone pulled the power cable) or is it windows shutting off (software shut down).

 

Usually I'd say try to reset CMOS first, if that doesn't work, maybe the PSU is faulty? But yours seems to be a power brick (I had a fauly temp sensor in my AX860i). I don't think it's the same issue here though.

It is a sudden shut off, like yanking the cable, and then rushing to hit the power button.

 

A faulty PSU is my second thought after it just needs to be dusted. However, if the PSU is going bad, that's a problem because it is a proprietary Dell PSU and the computer I have was discontinued a while ago, so I don't know if Dell will send me a new one, should they still have any or if my warranty is WAYY too long gone.

[scottyseng]

Just now, Fgtfv567 said:

-snip-

Yeah, to me it sounds like a faulty PSU...which sucks because I don't think you can get a replacement too easily...

 

My faulty AX860i was like a ticking time bomb as well (It would work for 10+ hours...or sometimes 10 min or less).

[Fgtfv567]

2 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Yeah, to me it sounds like a faulty PSU...which sucks because I don't think you can get a replacement too easily...

 

My faulty AX860i was like a ticking time bomb as well (It would work for 10+ hours...or sometimes 10 min or less).

The thing is, the problem temporarily goes away overnight. Today when I got home from school, it worked just fine as I was internet browsing on it for a couple of hours. It was only until I started playing rainbow 6 for an hour or so that the problems show up.

[Fgtfv567]

21 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Go look at windows event viewer and find out why.

What do I do in here? What specifically should I look at?

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, Fgtfv567 said:

What do I do in here? What specifically should I look at?

Look for the event that logged the shutdown and it will say the cause there.

The easiest way to find it is to know exactly what time the computer shut down and find the event logs caused at that time.

[scottyseng]

5 minutes ago, Fgtfv567 said:

The thing is, the problem temporarily goes away overnight. Today when I got home from school, it worked just fine as I was internet browsing on it for a couple of hours. It was only until I started playing rainbow 6 for an hour or so that the problems show up.

I was going to say, maybe it's fine up until a certain limit (browsing doesn't use much power at all vs gaming), but your original post makes it seem like the shutdown just happen randomly.

 

I still think it's the PSU, but I would also reset the BIOS just to see.

 

But yeah, in event viewer you'd look for EventID 41 Kernel-Power in System Event log if it was power loss.

[Fgtfv567]

9 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

but your original post makes it seem like the shutdown just happen randomly.

 

But yeah, in event viewer you'd look for EventID 41 Kernel-Power in System Event log if it was power loss.

I said in my original post that it starts when I start a game.

 

It's fucking here alright. 6 in the last hour, 7 in the last 24 hours, 11 in the past 7 days.

 

Does event viewer tell me WHY it's shutting off beyond "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."?

[scottyseng]

8 minutes ago, Fgtfv567 said:

Does event viewer tell me WHY it's shutting off beyond "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."?

Sadly no. But that's pretty much what I got with my faulty AX860i. Same when I force shutdown when something locks up windows server.

 

I think it's safe to you say you found your culprit. Maybe try plugging into different outlets (just to make sure it's not the surge protector).

[Fgtfv567]

22 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

I think it's safe to you say you found your culprit. Maybe try plugging into different outlets (just to make sure it's not the surge protector).

Not quite. When I get a chance, I'm going to open up my computer and make sure this shit isn't happening because of dust or anything like that.

[Fgtfv567]

On 3/21/2017 at 0:07 AM, scottyseng said:

Sadly no. But that's pretty much what I got with my faulty AX860i. Same when I force shutdown when something locks up windows server.

 

I think it's safe to you say you found your culprit. Maybe try plugging into different outlets (just to make sure it's not the surge protector).

So I dusted my PC out yesterday.

 

And it's still crashing, especially on Rainbow 6. Funnily enough, I expected it to crash while playing comp CSGO, but it didn't.

 

I'm going to call Alienware support tomorrow and see what they can do for me.

 

Do you think it's the power supply? Do you have any further advice for what I can do?