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haydenl24
Journeyman III

PC "shutting off" randomly, acting like it's in "Sleep" mode

Before I start with my problem, I'd like to give my PC's specs:

CPU: AMD FX-8350 (not overclocked)

CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 EVO

GPU: MSI Twin Frozr V GTX 970 (not overclocked)

RAM: 8gb DDR3

Mobo: MSI 970 Gaming

PSU: XFX TS-550w

Storage: 240gb Sandisk SSD; 1tb Western Digital HDD

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R w/ stock fans, no added fans

OS: Windows 10

Also, I built this computer in late 2015, so it is about 2 and a half years old. None of the components have been replaced since then, and the newest addition is my CPU cooler, installed last year because the stock cooler was really loud and still had my PC running hot. Anyway, on to my issue...

This started happening about a week ago while I was trying to install a game from Steam (Dark Souls 3). I started the install late at night, and left it installing while I went to sleep as it is a pretty large game. When I woke up in the morning, my PC's power button was flashing like it does when put in "Sleep" mode, but I noticed that all the fans were still running and my GPU lights were on. I tried pressing keys on my keyboard and shaking my mouse and got no response. I pressed the power button and nothing happened, then I held the power button for a while and still nothing happened. I tried pressing the "hard restart" button next to the power button and still nothing happened. I then just unplugged the computer from my surge protector, then waited a few minutes and plugged it back in. Everything seemed to go back to normal: there was a normal boot, Windows didn't say anything went wrong when it started up, and I even checked the event logs from the previous night and nothing suspicious had occurred.

I dismissed the problem and started playing the game, and, after about 40 minutes, my screen went black, the power button flashed, and my computer became unresponsive again. At this point, I thought that the problem might have something to do with the game since any issue like this had never happened before until I installed the game, so I looked up several possible solutions to minimize PC crashes while playing the game. While I believe these solutions made the amount of time I was able to play before a crash longer, the crashes still persisted. Again, I just thought that they had to do with the game, until one night a few days ago, I was done with my computer and was going to shut it off like I do every night, when the screen went to black and it crashed like before, with the power button flashing and fans and such still running. Keep in mind that the game was not running and hadn't been for a while at this point. It was then that I thought this was probably a hardware issue.

At first, I believed it was my GPU failing, so I updated the drivers and things seemed normal for a while, but the crashes still happened after a while of PC use. Most of the crashes occur after playing Dark Souls 3 for a while, but there have been 3 crashes where no game was running, 1 of those in which no programs (except background ones) were running at all. Whenever these crashes occur, the only thing that can get my PC working again is unplugging it and replugging it.

I posted about this issue on another forum and got some advice from a user there. He said that it might be caused by the VRMs on my motherboard getting overheated and failing and suggested that I try reapplying thermal paste to my CPU cooler. I did that today but I still had a crash after a few hours of having the PC on and running a few games. This problem has become very frustrating over the past week as I can't seem to be able to simply watch videos on YouTube without my PC crashing like this after a while. At this point, I believe it might be a PSU or a motherboard issue (like the user on the other forum said), but I'm not 100% sure. Has anyone experienced anything like this or know someone who has? If so, any possible solutions are very much appreciated.

Any further information regarding my PC/hardware can be provided if needed.

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2 Replies
leyvin
Miniboss

Flashing Power LED means that the PSU has been triggered into an S(uspended) State.

What is causing this., actually could be any number of things.

As a note, it won't be caused by any components overheating.

Instead that triggers a C4 Mode (which is System Lockout and Idle / Shutdown until Components return to Nominal, or you force a Power Cycle...)

Now what it *might* be is the current heatwave is affecting the Mains Power Supply.

Your PSU doesn't really support Current and Voltage Variance., only Protection; which typically comes in the form of triggering the S-States.

As such what you might want to do is get a Voltage / Current / Surge Protection Socket... Belkin BSV102af SurgeCube 1 Way/1 Plug Surge Protection Plug​ ​is effective and cheap.

That should resolve the issue., there's also a possibility (lower albeit) that the recent Windows 10 Update (Build 1809) might not be entirely compatible with your Motherboard BIOS or the Windows Bootloader itself has corrupted; which the Bootloader basically handles the Communication with the BIOS / Motherboard / Chipset Functions.

As such you can also try updating to the latest available BIOS for your Motherboard., and / or doing a Windows 10 Reset Recovery.

If it just chose to "Reset / Keep all my Files and Documents" it shouldn't take too long and just require reinstallation of your Apps; which typically also doesn't take too long either provided you have half-decent Internet.

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The graphics card itself requires a 500watt PS...how old is your power supply? Is it possible for you to try/borrow a more powerful/newer PS to see if that is causing the issue?

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