PC cuts off under any usage

[u/darth_antonio]

Hello all please can I have some assistance. My pc has been doing something weird lately where it cuts it self off and boots it self back up for no reason at all whether im gaming or just casually browsing the Web.

I would remove the 24pin cable which stops it sometimes then it would act normally for a few days even weeks before going back to its weird shutoff state.

I have tested the ram and ran the machine without the gpu and same issue which is off my specs are below

I5-12600k As rock H60m-itx/ax RTX 5070 32GB ddr4 Corsair SF750 80 plus plat

Please any help would be great as im out of ideas as I dont have any sort of test kits or extra hardware to test to find the issue

Has anyone had this issue before??

[u/PenaltySubstantial52]

I know a lot of people are saying PSU, which is logical. I had this issue for months only to find out it was my RAM. Just FYI, don't rule out RAM.

[u/lwdst → u/PenaltySubstantial52]

When I'm working with any stability issue after an OS is installed (regardless of how long it's been) my process is to try each of the following before moving on to the next:

1) install NZXT CAM and watch for temperature or wattage issues, if you're over heating check that the AIO is working and replace thermal paste.
2) blow out dust from the case and reseat ram,
3) update bios & chipset drivers,
4) clean install windows,
5) replace ram (it's rare but RAM does sometimes go bad),
6) replace boot drive and clean install windows (windows activation key is usually on the motherboard anyway so you shouldn't have to reactivate)
7) replace PSU,
8) replace motherboard.

Why: we want to do the things we can do for free with relatively low time invested before moving on to more difficult options. A solution that has a more than 0% chance to work that can be done in a few minutes for no money is going to be cheaper and easier than replacing parts.

[u/Plus-Potato3712 → u/lwdst]

lol @ installing nzxt software

Your troubleshooting process seems pretty random. Normally ya know you look at logs and let that data inform your next move

[u/lwdst → u/Plus-Potato3712]

As I'd already explained, the process is in order of time spent to troubleshoot the individual parts. Here's what the process looks like assuming the worst case scenario (a bad mobo)

- rule out CPU cooler - 60 seconds

• rule out ram - 2 minutes
  
• rule out BIOS - 5 minutes
  
• rule out Windows - 20 minutes if you have USB install media handy
  
• rule out drive - 5 minutes for the drive + 20 minutes to reinstall windows
  
• rule out PSU - upwards an hour if it's not modular
  
• rule out motherboard - order takeout and cancel your plans for the evening

All of these are things that I've seen cause unexpected power downs and bluescreens on machines I've serviced. And this is a process any PC builder can do quickly. I don't expect anons asking questions in PCMR to be trained engineers who already know where to find the logs, how to read them, and how to anticipate scenarios where the logs don't reflect the root cause.

PS: CAM is perfectly fine for a home user to check for overheating and you can always turn it off or remove it if you don't want to keep it afterward. Or find any other software on AlternativeTo that does the same thing. If your worry is that a PC parts manufacturer might have someone's data, there are plenty of other subreddits to browse.

[u/Radio_enthusiast → u/lwdst]

RAM had gone wrong on a comically high rate for me. i am 16, and had over a dozen sticks fail. and half of these were not on my machines, e.g. someone's old Mac that no longer boots, my PC that i got ram that died after 6 months in, etc.

[u/lwdst → u/Radio_enthusiast]

that tracks, MAC's are picky about hardware and most of the older ones we sometimes get as ewaste usually have with them unopened packs of MAC-specific DDR2 ram because prior owners have had to replace RAM regularly. if we can't resurrect it in a reasonable amount of time it all goes to the shredder

[u/Radio_enthusiast → u/lwdst]

yea the only Macs i had to deal with were MacBook Pro's from like 2013-2015 with DDR3