Sudden Reboot during games

[Connor]

Hey guys.

So my dad has a pretty powerful machine. GTX970 with an I7 (One of the newer ones) yet he's having a persistent problem. During when he's playing games, such as Titan Fall, Planets vs Zombies Garden Warfare and World of Warships, his computer suddenly decides to switch of and reboot. Almost like you've switched the power off at the wall and then quickly put it back on. Does anyone have any ideas on what could cause this? Do you need to know any more information? If so I'll try and provide it.

Thanks.

Edit: Forgot to mention. We've tried several things.

1) We've tried turning off the integrated graphics to see if it's the 970 at fault. It still happens.

2) We've had reports that it could be the power supply yet the manufacture (When it was brought) said it's fine. 650Ws. Is there any way we can test this without buying a better power supply?

3) He's recently tried to install an update but it failed and won't ever reinstall.

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[Antonio]

Maybe the fan is not working properly, causing it to overheat and shut down to prevent damage?

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[Traxit]

1.Sounds like a PSU malfunction, higher temperatures would mean the fan would spin faster therefore more PWM(Pulse Width Modulation)requirement and that would mean more voltage being taken from the socket and passing through the PSU.

2.Or it could be the power cables being faulty.
Should be either option, if not then I don't really know, get a computer enthusiast to review the PC.

EDIT:

Maybe the fan is not working properly, causing it to overheat and shut down to prevent damage?

That can also be the source of problem, install SpeedFan and monitor the temperature to see if it goes ~90c or more.

EDIT2:

2) We've had reports that it could be the power supply yet the manufacture (When it was brought) said it's fine. 650Ws. Is there any way we can test this without buying a better power supply?

As I've said above, monitor the temperatures and see if the PC shuts down at a specific temperature, if it does, swap out the PSU and check again if the PC shuts down after reaching that specific temperature. Sadly that's probably the only way to know if a PSU is faulty(there might be some other way hidden somewhere deep in ye olde archives)

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[The Savage]

Check temperature with any available program. It sounds like something might be loose or clogged, making CPU rise up to 90 Celcius and eventually turn off as a fail-safe protocol. You should demount and flush inner parts with condensated air, just in case.

You may find a lot of dust between radiator and CPU.

[Mickk]

Do what Traxit said if possible.

Also, pop the case open and have a look around the CPU and heatsink.

Depending on how long you have had the computer or where it is, you may have a build up of dust, which will cause higher than normal temperatures, possibly high enough for the computer to force a shutdown to protect the CPU.

Compressed air is great for removing the dust, however, make sure you stop the fan from spinning with something like a toothpick, as the jet of air may cause the fan to spin too fast, possibly damaging the motor.

I have found that 'canned air' is next to useless, so if you have a proper compressor out the back, use that.

Failing that, a selection of soft brushes are useful, along with some lung power.

You don't need to remove anything in order to clean the heatsink.

Also check the air intakes for dust, especially the PSU, last time I cleaned my computer I took a 'carpet' of dust off of mine.

[Alestone]

First off, if it is overheating, the computer will not come back up immediately.

Secondly, right click on the My Computer/This PC icon in Windows Explorer and select Manage. (must be run with Admin rights)
Expand Event Viewer (you may also need to expand Windows Logs, varies by Windows version)
Select System
Look for Stop signs or exclamation points

Post here in detail (example below):

Level: Error

Source: Service Control Manager

Event ID: 7000

Double click the event to find out what is being referred to:

The Steam Client Service service failed to start due to the following error:

The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

[|nfrared]

Hmmmm. I had overheating problems on my old system and Chance is right, it'll shut down abruptly instead of restarting on its own. Another way you can check this is to turn it back on, and then press DEL to enter setup. There you will be able to see the chip probe temperature in one of the menus (but don't touch anything else).

Pretty sure my power supply is 800W, but it's hard to say if that's the problem and the only way to know is to go and buy one and try it, but it could be costly if that doesn't fix your issue. Could be a bad earth on the case possibly, as one other idea?

EDIT/Flashback - I had a machine nearly ten years ago that did this - it was a a burnt out pin on one of the power plugs inside the case causing the problem. Go through your case from the power supply, just unplug and replug one by one and see if anything is discolored or smells "melty".

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[Alley]

Definitely sounds like PSU issues. You can't be sure unless you test with another one though.

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Alley was right.

[evanz]

could also be ram failure

if hes got more than 1 stick,take one out and try

or swap them into different slots

or combinations of above

never know

[sindroms]

It can be anything, really.
Since you mentioned installing updates triggering the restart, can you please run a test of your HDD?

Use http://www.hdtune.com/

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