(Only) The PSU died ?

[Cosmin]

Hi . During a gaming session yesteday my pc suddenly turned-off/restarted by itself. I've checked after boot in even-viewer nothing special/relevant.

Entering again in the game.. after 1min the same scenario. Going back in even viewer - while trying to find out something interesting simply shuts down and.. gone. Won't boot at all - everything turned off.

The system : core i9 9900k + 16 GB RAM Corsair DDR4 + Asus Z390Pro Gaming + 2xSamsung Evo 970 SSD's + Asus Geforce RTX3060Ti + 1 Asus Wifi card + Seasonic 620W PSU.

What I should try first? I wish the PSU will be the only cause.. if it's the mobo or even more.. I'll be sad 😑

Thanks for any suggestion.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Might be the GPU too.

It's a 3060Ti so how likely is it going to be dusty and/or need new thermal paste?

Unfortunately you can't really know if it is the GPU or PSU without replacing both to test. If you can get a replacement PSU that is where I would start, if it still happens, could be the card.

[Cosmin]

I should have posted some info regarding the temperatures as well :

GPU - was about 60 degrees (in task manager)

CPU - nothing above 45.. with Noctua DH14.

 

The GPU itself it's the latest addition and quite new (in very good condition/not older than 1.5yrs).. could die for sure.. I can test without it, since the CPU comes with integrated video.

[hellowalkman Reporter]

If the issue was not happening before you added the graphics card, then it could well be the card, or could be the PCIe slot too, so try plugging the card into the second slot and see what happens. And also as @Steven P. suggested, try hooking up a different PSU.

Unfortunately there isn't much you can do here other than trial n error or taking it straight to a technician.

[Cosmin]

well.. the GPU was added 2 yrs ago.. went fine even yesterday in the same game (Commandos origins). I have to try.. one-by-one.

If it's the mobo.. I'll have to change the platform and even (the actual heathly psu).

[Som]

i would say that power supply isn't powerful enough for your setup , its on the edge anyways

[Cosmin]

if that should have been the cause.. it should have been happening at the beginning, not after 2 years of gaming etc. Or maybe the PSU does get old.. as politicians do naturally ? 😋

[Steven P. Administrators]

  On 14/04/2025 at 12:17, Cosmin said:

Or maybe the PSU does get old.. as politicians do naturally ? 😋

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Certainly a possibility.

Input all your stuff in here and it will tell you the minimum PSU you need https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-supply-calculator

You live in Europe, you could order a 650W PSU, hook it up and see if everything keeps working. If it cuts out again you know it isn't the PSU and you can return it  Amazon are quite good with return policy.

[Cosmin]

So here's the system :

Intel Core i9 9900k 

Asus Z390 Pro-Gaming motherboard

16 GB RAM Corsair

2 x SSD Samsung EVO 970 500gb.

Asus RTX 3060Ti 8Gb

Asus Wifi AX PCI-E Card

Noctua NH-D14 Cooler

Seasonic 620W ( I think it's S12II-620 Bronze ) PSU - actual. 

Phanteks Evolv ATX Case

 

Yes - I can order a new PSU for testing. Meanwhile I'll test without GPU.

Thanks for all your support!

 

[Cosmin]

Some news after I've removed the GPU from the system : the case LED lights up.. and remains on, similar like normal. The fans from case/cpu remain off & no sound from inside (ssd's doesn't make any). Could be a sign for.. something?

Yes.. the system was only connected to the power-supply.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

While it could be a failing PSU, it would still be a good idea to troubleshoot for other issues.  Have you had any power issues recently at your location (outages, lightning strikes, etc.)?

Do you have another video card you can temporarily install in the computer?  If so, does it behave any differently with that installed?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[Steven P. Administrators]

  On 14/04/2025 at 17:09, Cosmin said:

Some news after I've removed the GPU from the system : the case LED lights up.. and remains on, similar like normal. The fans from case/cpu remain off & no sound from inside (ssd's doesn't make any). Could be a sign for.. something?

Yes.. the system was only connected to the power-supply.

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You might need to add back the GPU and then check in the BIOS if you disabled the integrated GPU (iGPU).

If, long ago you decided to disable the iGPU, then it will not automatically enable when you remove the 3060Ti. You will have to add back the 3060Ti, go in BIOS and reenable the iGPU, then you can remove the 3060Ti again and test with the onboard GPU.

However, if this is not the case, and the iGPU is enabled, then I'm afraid you might have more issues, like a motherboard problem, because without the GPU, your PC is not putting any strain on the PSU  

[turinglives]

  On 14/04/2025 at 07:11, Cosmin said:

Hi . During a gaming session yesteday my pc suddenly turned-off/restarted by itself. I've checked after boot in even-viewer nothing special/relevant.

Entering again in the game.. after 1min the same scenario. Going back in even viewer - while trying to find out something interesting simply shuts down and.. gone. Won't boot at all - everything turned off.

The system : core i9 9900k + 16 GB RAM Corsair DDR4 + Asus Z390Pro Gaming + 2xSamsung Evo 970 SSD's + Asus Geforce RTX3060Ti + 1 Asus Wifi card + Seasonic 620W PSU.

What I should try first? I wish the PSU will be the only cause.. if it's the mobo or even more.. I'll be sad 😑

Thanks for any suggestion.

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In my experience, random restarts/shutdowns and BSODs are usually indications that the PSU is starting to go. Especially when the system is doing something resource-heavy (gaming, boot up, updating etc)

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

  On 15/04/2025 at 17:50, turinglives said:

In my experience, random restarts/shutdowns and BSODs are usually indications that the PSU is starting to go. Especially when the system is doing something resource-heavy (gaming, boot up, updating etc)

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Umm, totally, no. It could be your CPU/GPU overloading. Or the board simply failing. Or 1,000 other reasons. It's not always the PSU.

[turinglives]

  On 15/04/2025 at 23:21, Mindovermaster said:

Umm, totally, no. It could be your CPU/GPU overloading. Or the board simply failing. Or 1,000 other reasons. It's not always the PSU.

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Hence why I said "usually", not "always".

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

  On 16/04/2025 at 17:44, turinglives said:

Hence why I said "usually", not "always".

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While it's not "always", I've seen lots of problems not turning towards the PSU. I don't know if you know as much as me, but the way you said it, sounded that way.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Som]

  On 16/04/2025 at 18:19, Mindovermaster said:

While it's not "always", I've seen lots of problems not turning towards the PSU. I don't know if you know as much as me, but the way you said it, sounded that way.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Christ people can argue about anything can't they..

he said usually, and I agree with him. It may not be the cause but it was the first thing that came to mind.  Historically I've found that people who claim to know "the most" about computers know nothing. But what would I know,  I've only been repairing them for 25 years 🙄

[Cosmin]

Taking in consideration that these days I'll find out the real-answear (holidays for everybody) I'm taking in consideration also this list of components as.. replacement.

CPU : Processor Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 285K Arrow Lake, pana la 5.7GHz, 40MB, Socket LGA 1851, Intel Graphics . Do you think that i7 265k would be worth on long term ? It's temperatures are lower?

Mobo : ASUS PRIME Z890-P WIFI, Socket LGA1851 (haven't found many reviews here) - it's ok to go with Asus these days for such platform?

RAM : Corsair Vengeance, DDR5, 32GB, KIT 1x32GB, 5200MT/s, C40, 1.25V, XMP, VENGEANCE (I'd like one single 32GB module at the beginning) - hopefully won't touch the cooler with it's height.

PSU : Seasonic FOCUS GX ATX 3 (2024), 80 Plus Gold, 750W, 12VHPWR, ATX 3.1, Full Modular (it's ok going with ATX 3.1 ? I hope will be fine with the GPU as well : Asus RTX 3060TI 8GB

COOLER : I'll keep my actual Noctua NH-D15 if possible by using this kit : Noctua NM-i17xx-MP83 , support LGA 1700. Will be ok for keeping cold the 285k/265k 's ?

I hope my GPU is fine as well my 2 ssd's.

* no.. I don't overclock. I play a little as well as Adobe, Autodesk (Inventor/3Dsmax), learning.

* I wish to keep such platform >5yrs.

[Ixion]

Unless you're dead set on Intel I would avoid their latest generation of processors and swap the build to AMD on the AM5 platform, you'll get a cooler CPU with better performance for the same or less money, also that RAM is quite slow, I would look at 6000MT/s kits as being the current sweet spot for price to performance.

[Cosmin]

Almost dead set.. since I've had some bad experiences in the past with AMD's.. & yes, I'm focused on production where I've understood Intel excels.

In terms of RAM.. I'd be happy for any recommended Brands/Models.. & even for the Mobo as well - since I feel that the previous one could be the fault in all that story.

[Ixion]

I'm no Intel expert, my last two builds have both been AMD and indeed at work I've moved over to AMD workstations where the 7950x/9950x excel. Intel tend to throw platforms away after each generation with more new sockets than I care to keep up with, AMD support their platforms for considerably longer.

Although not strictly necessary with DDR5 I would always install DIMMS in pairs, I also like the Corsair Vengeance kits as they're low profile and typically just work, I went with this (64Gb Kit) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C5M7J967?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1 Paired with an AMD 9800X3D (I'm a gamer). To be honest coming from a 9900k any modern 8 core+ CPU will be quite noticeably faster, our office CAD machines which were Intel 9900k based were just upgraded to AMD 7950x based builds which doubled the cores increased the clockspeed and don't draw any more power.