Computer Shutting Down While Gaming

alumahai · 15 Feb 2014

A few hours ago, the power dropped throughout my house for a few seconds. When everything started back up, I jumped back into the game I was playing, and am think that the power short/surge/whatever may have damaged my computer.

Since then, while gaming, or my video card is otherwise under high load, my computer shuts itself down. At first, I was afraid that it was protecting itself from overheating, but after running a burn in test with 10 minute test with furmark, My gpu never went over 64C. I also ran prime95 with realtemp, and the cpu cores never went over 65C.

I am starting to think that my psu may have gone bad, an LSP750. According to PCPartPicker, my system should only be drawing 500 some watts.

I would greatly appreciate any help testing, or otherwise figuring out what is going on. Thank you.

richc46 · 15 Feb 2014

When a computer is shut down the wrong way, the most common damage is to the hard drive. A computer can shut down because of a bad hard drive.
Try to run a check disk. Check the second box which indicates correct any bad sectors.
Disk Check
Admittedly, per your description, it does not sound like the hard drive, but it should be checked anyway.

alumahai · 15 Feb 2014

The harddrives are brand new. I removed my 1tb for a 128gb ssd boot drive, and a 2tb storage drive last month. Ill give it a shot anyway though.

richc46 · 15 Feb 2014

It probably is not the hard drive, but age does not matter. An improper shutdown can cause damage. Lets see if that is the reason

alumahai · 15 Feb 2014

Nothing wrong with the ssd, but I cant seem to check the hdd. It isn't the primary, so it wont schedule a check on startup, but when I tell it to force unmount, explorer crashes, and the drive remains mounted.

Also, the computer will immediately shut down if I attempt to run the furmark benchmark. It seems to be fine on the burn in test.

richc46 · 15 Feb 2014

Does it shutdown in safe mode?

badger906 · 15 Feb 2014

as soon as I read the title I was going to say power supply, and tbe fact youve had a brief power issue would also suggest that a surge has damaged your powersupply.

the only way to be 100% is to try another power supply and see if the problem persists.

gaming is when your computer is drawing the most power, if its not a stable supply or doesnt give out the right amount it will cause crashing and random shutdowns.

Mellon Head · 15 Feb 2014

I agree with badger906. The PSU is the first thing in the chain when there is a power outage/surge and can be damaged by voltage spikes or surges on the power lines. When the power goes out, or droops, there is often a corresponding surge in power when it comes back. That's what damages most electronics.

If you haven't got a good surge protector on your computer, I would suggest that you invest in one. I actually turn off my power bar when I'm not using the computer. It's a little extra protection.