PC resets when playing certain games.

Any time I run certain games my system just resets, it seems to be mainly graphics intensive games. Trying to play Shadow Warrior or the new Final Fantasy MMO, it resets pretty much as soon as the loading screen stops loading and it should show the game.

I don't think its a temperature problem, I tested and played WoW for a couple hours with all settings at their maximum and I had no restarts at all. I can run Shadow Warrior in "Safe Mode", in a tiny little window and that didn't reset my computer after about 10 minutes of play time, but I didn't play much longer because that sucks. I've been watching the temp of the GPU with MSI-Afterburner and I haven't seen it go above 40.

I'm leaning towards it being the PSU, but I was talking to someone on the phone who usually knows better than me and they said that it didn't sound like a PSU problem. It is the oldest piece of equipment in my computer besides the case.

Attempted fixes: I've done pretty much everything I can find on the internet without buying new hardware. I've run CHKDSK to see if there's any problems there. I've un-installed and reinstalled drivers for my graphics card. I've checked for crash logs in the minidump folder in C:/Windows and the computer is not generating any log there. I've looked at the event viewer to check for any system or application errors before a reset and there is nothing before the reset to indicate what is causing the problem. The only error in there is a generic error 41 from Kernal-Power after the reboot.

Recent changes: The most recent change is at the core of the problem, I purchased and installed a GeForce GTX 670 and that is when the problems began, everything still runs fine if I swap back in my old video card.

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Operating system: Windows 8.1

System specs:
Motherboard: MSI Z87M-G43
Processor: Intel Core i54670K 3.40GHz
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x4 GB
Video Card: EVGA GTX 670 FTW Edition
Power Supply: NZXT PP500 PSU

 

First, I would go to the NVIDIA website to check for the latest drivers. In some cases, updates or fixes are found on the chip mfr's website before they reach the card mfr's (EVGA) website.

If this doesn't work, I'd contact EVGA's tech support to see if they have a solution. If not, I would go for an exchange of the card under warranty.

While it's possibly a PSU issue, I doubt it. My experience has been that, if a PSU is failing, the system normally shuts off completely instead of restarting.

 

Drivers was one of the first things I made sure I had the latest.

Its not the PSU I put a brand new 600watt one in and it doesn't work, looks like it might be about time to return the card.

 

Yea that pretty much sounds like a bad card. EVGA is usually pretty good about RMAs though.

I would probably run a stress test like FurMark before returning it, but you basically diagnosed it by yourself.

The problem goes away when switching to a different video card, and the problem remains even when using a 600w power supply, which is more than enough for a 670.

Too bad.....I hate waiting for RMAs to go through.