System freezes and restarts during gameplay. "Kernel Power 41" appears in Event Viewer logs.
System freezes and restarts during gameplay. "Kernel Power 41" appears in Event Viewer logs.
As the main point of contact, my computer suddenly shuts down during gameplay: everything freezes, a loud noise emanates from the speakers, and it restarts. When I open the Event Viewer to review logs, I only see a critical kernel error labeled Power 41. This occurs unexpectedly in certain games when running at resolutions higher than my monitor's capability, especially with VSR (AMD downscale technology) on a 1080p display. Restoring to 1080p resolves the problem. The issue doesn’t appear consistently across all titles and sometimes remains dormant for days, leading me to suspect a driver-related fault. Currently, I haven’t faced this in any other game, even when using VSR. I initially considered temperature or power supply concerns, but stress tests with Furmark and Cinebench show no instability or crashes. It seems the PC isn’t being excessively stressed before the crash. I’ve also pondered whether a UPS could help address electrical system problems, though I’m unsure if it would resolve the broader issue.
I noticed the failure only happens under specific in-game conditions. The most erratic one is BeamNG Drive. Other affected titles include the original Assassin's Creed series (Ezio trilogy), Oblivion, Brotherhood, and Revelations. In Brotherhood, it occurred mainly in menus; in Revelations during the "playable" loading screen; and in Oblivion during NPC dialogues.
My hardware includes: Windows 10 (latest update), MSI B450 GAMING PLUS MAX (latest BIOS), AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (Gaming OC enabled via MOBO, issue persists even disabled), Corsair VENGEANCELPX16GB (2x 8GB DDR4 3600, PC4-28800), C181.35V XFX RX 5700 DD Boost Up Ultra 8GB (stock), Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1 (boot drive), Toshiba P300 HDD 2TB (storage), Sharkoon WPM Gold Zero 750W Scythe Fuma 2.
Begin by opening Bios and turning off DOCP/XMP. Set memory to auto and save with F10. Run some games; if it functions, your memory stability is affected by the XMP profile. Instead, manually adjust DRAM voltage, frequency, and timing in BIOS first, then test at auto speeds (typically 2133MHz).
If the concern is valid, shouldn’t the issue appear during the stress tests I conduct with furmark and cinebench simultaneously? I’m able to run both at once for over an hour continuously.
You can't reach a final answer. The reason I recommend this approach is that I faced the same problem a few months ago. Through some trials, I discovered my RAM was faulty, running stock and XMP profiles. Since I didn’t verify each module individually, it would have left me with just 8GB of memory. By switching to a 32GB kit, everything has returned to normal.
I missed noting a detail that might matter. The crashes only occur under specific conditions on those games. BeamNG Drive stands out as the most erratic one. The other titles I've faced recently include the original Assassin's Creeds (Ezio trilogy) and Oblivion. In Ezio, the issues appeared a few times in Brotherhood, in Revelations during the "playable" loading screen, and in Oblivion during NPC dialogues. Up to now, I haven't encountered this problem in any other game, even with VSR enabled. I'll update the main post with this information.
Today the problem repeated in the menu section of AC Revelation, featuring identical video effects as the loading screen. I turned off both the "gaming OC" setting on my graphics card and the XMP profile, reverting everything to default or auto mode. The issue remains unchanged. Might it still be related to memory instability? Should I attempt testing with one stick at a time and see if one fails?
Based on severity and whether it's memory-related or PSU-related, this is typical.