Random restarts of the PC occur frequently.
Random restarts of the PC occur frequently.
I registered a while back but haven’t logged in before. Since roughly September last year I’ve experienced unexpected restarts, I’m trying to understand what’s causing them. The machine shuts down and restarts immediately, without BSOD or errors in Event Viewer except for vague messages like “previous system shutdown unexpected.” This only occurs when playing a game—specifically Runescape 3—which accounts for about 90% of my usage. My PC isn’t very resource-heavy, and I usually multitask (watching YouTube, playing Civilization 6), but I haven’t noticed this issue during those games. It tends to happen once daily on average, sometimes more than once in quick succession.
System details: Ryzen 5950X with MSI MEG x570 Unify (current BIOS AL1, planning an update after the recent reboots). G.Skill F4-3200C14-16GTZ (32GB) RTX 2080Ti Corsiar RM750x SN850x 2TB (new, replaced a failing SX8200). Cooling setup includes a custom loop that needs cleaning; temperatures stay in the low to mid 70s on CPU and mid-high 50s on GPU hotspot. No overclocking—XMP is enabled but unused.
I’ve tried several fixes: changing power supply, disabling XMP, turning off XMP, removing C-states, adjusting memory settings, and even testing fTPM (which showed some errors). I also experimented with stress tests, mixed-load scenarios, and tools like Memtest86, TM5, OCCT, and F@H on GPU.
I’m running out of ideas and need help figuring this out.
You can verify Windows using: open cmd as administrator and execute DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (this may take some time) and sfc /scannow. You might need to reinstall Windows. Carefully reinsert or reconnect all components, including the PSU side. Restart your BIOS. Unfortunately, you don’t have an IGPU. Edited November 22, 2025 by leclod
Thanks for the feedback. I plan to reposition RAM and connectors tomorrow, realizing it should have been addressed sooner but it’s worth confirming. The PSU appears to be single-rail, so that shouldn’t pose a problem. SFC and DISM both came back normal. This issue has continued through several clean Windows installations across three different SSDs (two NVMe and one SATA). I’ll reset and update the BIOS tomorrow since a newer version is available. I’ll also try reinstalling my old R9 290 as I still have it. No WHEA events or other Event Viewer errors were reported before the restart.
Power would likely be the primary issue. The PSU, power cord, power strip (if present) or inconsistent wall power could be the cause.