The PC keeps restarting repeatedly—could the power supply be faulty?
The PC keeps restarting repeatedly—could the power supply be faulty?
My computer keeps restarting repeatedly after trying to wake from sleep. Holding the power button while off temporarily resolves the problem. The issue appears and disappears. I initially suspected a motherboard problem because the BIOS sometimes restarts back to an older version, but now I believe it’s related to the power supply. I’ve replaced internal PSU cables and even unplugged and plugged them in again, just to gather more advice before making a change. It’s a Corsair AX760 760 watt PSU—no overclocking, 9900k, 3070, ASRock Z390 Taichi.
Never encountered a system turning itself on again. Yes, resetting is possible, no flashback needed. I don’t use desktop sleep settings, especially with fast NVMe drives. Would it help to restart properly? Have you tried reinstalling Windows? Not sure if this issue is common.
It’s an ASRock feature. Not a Bios flashback, sorry—it pulls backup from the BIOS on the board. It’s a safety measure from ASRock. It comes from a BIOS backup stored inside the chip, not from a USB drive. I believe it activates when the system tries to restart too many times. This seems like the power shutting down repeatedly while it attempts to boot. Pressing the power button while the machine is powered off from the PSU resolves the issue. The BIOS backup then takes over, suggesting the power cut was the trigger. It doesn’t happen every time; it only does so after repeated failures. The random shutdowns occurred specifically when the BIOS screen was active, not related to sleep cycles. Thinking about it, this has happened during games before, so it’s probably unrelated to waking from sleep.
Additional details are coming in. I’m facing driver crashes on both the graphics card and the desktop window manager. I’ve been working on that separately for a long time. It seems the power supply unit might be contributing too. It appears there’s a common cause behind all my issues. The person who sold me the graphics card mentioned no problems, but I experienced a restart problem before upgrading.
It’s unusual for the PSU to toggle on and off unpredictably during startup or when idle. Such behavior is typically linked to BIOS, RAM, or Windows problems. Reset the CMOS, upgrade the BIOS, and if the issue persists, consider a clean Windows installation.
I’ve already attempted a software update. I’ve reset the CMOS too. Just changed two RAM modules, then another pair. The issue started in the BIOS screen before Windows even launched. It’s probably not a software problem—it’s likely hardware-related, possibly the motherboard or power supply unit. I’m left with just two options now.
Have you attempted to share without a connected drive? You can then verify if it restarts and confirm that UEFI or any drive-related software isn’t causing issues.
This situation suggests a possible electrical issue rather than a clean shutdown. Testing different BIOS versions didn’t reveal the cause, and the reboots seem to occur randomly without warning. They happen after power loss, trying to restart repeatedly while already running. It doesn’t appear to be related to temperature or ambient conditions. Running diagnostic tools didn’t uncover any problems. The recurring nature points toward a hardware fault, likely involving the power supply or internal components.