System instability ?
System instability ?
Hello everyone,
I'm a tech professional myself, so I've already performed several checks. I'm here seeking a second viewpoint on this matter.
About a couple of months ago, I began experiencing problems with my main system, which has been operating smoothly for over a year and a half:
Operating System: Windows 11
Processor: 13700K
Cooler: Rog Ryuo III 360
RAM: 64GB (2x32GB Gskill Trident Z5 Neo)
Motherboard: ROG Maximus Z790 Hero
GPU: MSI Suprim X 4080
Storage: Firecuda 530 1TB, Firecuda 530 4TB
Power Supply: Seasonic 1000w Prime PX Titanium
The issue appears randomly—no obvious cause like high load or other factors. The machine will shut down intermittently and then restart immediately.
I've run standard benchmarks and used HWINfo for monitoring. Power supply readings remain stable, within the expected range. Occasionally the system crashes during gaming or remains idle otherwise. Temperatures are normal.
The BIOS was recently updated (including the microcode eTVB fix), and Windows has been fully reinstalled. I previously disabled Speedstep/C-states for testing. The Event Viewer shows only an unexpected power loss without further details.
There don’t seem to be consistent triggers—this happened after a month without incident, then randomly again. It doesn’t appear connected to the tasks I’m performing on the machine.
Before replacing anything, I’d like to try narrowing down the cause. My initial hypotheses are:
1. Defective PSU or power cables
2. A fault in OCP or internal PSU components (though not currently suspected)
At first, I considered a surge-protected power brick, but other devices remain unaffected. I’ve ruled that out by testing with a different power adapter and then the whole power strip.
Another possibility is a voltage degradation issue from Intel’s 13th/14th generation chips—though I’m hesitant to replace without more proof.
In short, my plan is:
- Wait for the microcode update and see if it resolves the problem
- Replace PSU and cables if needed
- Swap CPU if necessary
- Replace motherboard if required
Your thoughts and suggestions would be invaluable. This situation is really frustrating. Any advice you can offer would mean a lot.
Do you believe the overvoltage problem is the cause? I’m a bit concerned since my PSU shuts down when there’s an issue. It might be trying to protect the CPU by cutting power, but could also be due to a microcode fix.
The person in the Reddit post thinks it could be that the PSU is detecting a short circuit. They suggest checking this first because they've had the CPU for a while. They also share their opinion on what actions to take, such as restricting single-core boost if the CPU is being remanufactured. They believe investigating this might be more useful than just applying a BIOS update.
I wouldn't believe the PSU is the problem. My reasoning is that if it were, you'd consistently face issues whether under heavy or light loads, not just intermittent problems with varying load. PSUs either function properly or fail completely. The point at which they perform normally usually aligns with when a defect causes them to fail. For example, at 400 watts the PSU would trigger an unexpected shutdown.
I didn't adjust any clocks or voltages, etc. I did have it running according to Asus specifications (multicore enhancement), not Intel. In fact, during summer periods I tend to lower the ratio to keep temperatures down a bit. It's been operating at 4.8 across all cores for some time now. Recently I realized that switching to an Intel spec has actually helped me avoid more than 10 degrees in temperature.
This matched my expectations. I expected a more consistent or predictable issue, but it's completely unpredictable—it can happen during gaming, minutes after stopping gaming and returning to browsing on desktop or YouTube.
It occurred twice in a row (just after switching to desktop), but the timing is so inconsistent that it's hard to pinpoint. I might experience it once or twice daily for a few days, then it could take weeks before it happens again.
It's quite strange, but my intuition says it's not related to the power supply unit. I think it's just responding to another fault and shutting down my machine.
I’d really really try to test another CPU before anything else. Sounds like it might be one of the faulty ones, just like my 13900k which I recently had an RMA from Intel.
What were the signs? Just out of interest, since I haven't seen much beyond the general feeling of "instability,"
I was experiencing random crashes to the desktop. Occasionally, the crashes were so severe that no game could run again until I reinstalled the nVidia drivers because they became corrupted. The event viewer would constantly display a lot of big red crosses (critical errors) and yellow exclamation marks at the same time during the crashes. In short, it was extremely flooded.