Desktop Turning Itself Off – PSU?

I’m having a problem with a gaming desktop I built about 1.75 years ago. I am running Windows 10. Here are the hardware specs:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hpsZCJ

About a week ago it shut down suddenly while I was playing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! The power button would not turn the computer back on until after I cycled the power on the PSU. After that it turned on and everything seemed fine. I thought that my CPU or GPU had overheated and that caused the shut-down. So, I thoroughly cleaned the entire desktop and checked all the fans were functioning properly. It was fine for about a week after that.

Yesterday, it shut down while I was playing Borderlands again, but this time I had been monitoring temperatures in the background because of that earlier incident. Nothing had gone above 50°C. Now I reckoned that Gearbox was trying to kill my computer. But then, while I was looking at the temperature log it shut-down again (Oh, No!). And then shut down several more times before I decided to just leave it off. Sometimes it shuts off after being on for only a few minutes, sometimes after several hours.

So here are the facts: The computer shuts itself off. This is completely random as far as I can tell. Heat is not a factor. Programs I am running do not seem to be a factor. Surge protector and different electrical outlets do not seem to make any difference.

I think this has to be my PSU dying. But I wanted to post this up here and ask for second opinions. I have a PSU from an older desktop that should work in this one. I’ll try that tonight and update this thread with the results.

Anyone have any other suggestions for possible root causes? Thank you.

 

Most likely culprit is PSU, especially considering that it can take some time to turn back on or you have to cycle the PSU on and off. This would mean that some type of overload needs to reset.

The card specifies a minimum of 500 watts, and you have some additional components. I won't say for sure it's underpowered, but if you're overclocking I usually recommend about 150% of the minimum which would be 750 watts.

There could be other issues tripping the overload as well. In some rare instances I've seen an HDD shut a system down.

 

I have found PCPartPicker is pretty good at estimating power demands and it reports in your link 107W at idle to 431W when pushed. The eXtreme PSU Calculator comes up with 467W and recommends at least 517W. I think 600 - 650W from a quality maker is plenty. More does not hurt, but cost more too.

With your temps well under control, I agree this looks like a power issue. Ensuring good power is the first place to start when troubleshooting hardware anyway, so this is the first step. Keep us posted.

 

I installed that PSU from an older desktop last night. So far so good. But I've mostly been at work so it hasn't been on enough to give it a real test. This one is 650W. Actually it's the PSU I bought because of this problem oh so long ago:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=210609

I will put the suspect power supply in a desktop I don't care about and try to recreate the issue this weekend. That would really give me peace of mind.

I'll update here when I have what is hopefully final resolution.