Unusual system failures occurred...
Unusual system failures occurred...
Your machine has been experiencing frequent shutdowns recently. It needs to be completely powered off, and the PSU must remain in the off position for at least an hour before it stops acting normally. This suggests a hardware problem is likely. The issue tends to start right after Steam finishes updating a game, while you’re browsing the web—this only happens about 80% of the time. Gaming or YouTube usage accounts for the remaining 20%. I changed my motherboard’s BIOS settings to help, which improved things for a week before daily crashes resumed. After resetting everything back to defaults and re-entering settings, it worked for three days. Cleaning the system helped temporarily, but the CPU AIO was very low on coolant, so I refilled it. That solution lasted two days. Now I’m still leaning toward the PSU failing. I’ve been working with PC repair for a while, mostly part-time, and this has never happened before, so any advice would be valuable.
I haven't had the chance to secure the updated PSU yet because of my extended absence from work due to health issues.
I might have identified the cause of the crashes. When I first needed to refill my GPU AIO, I took apart one of the quick disconnects to examine its construction. It turned out I had assembled it incorrectly, which was limiting flow significantly. I noticed this when the pump motor began making a squealing noise. After another disassembly, I reassembled it correctly this time (I also refilled the loop). GPU temperatures are now normal.
I realized my mistake and finally tackled the GPU AIO coldplate cleaning and repasting. It seems to have resolved a problem I'd been dealing with for more than a year—previously, the GPU would spike to near maximum temperature quickly, limiting performance, but now it stays around 103°C instead of 119°C, which is much better.
Ok, so I might have narrowed the primary triggering issue down somewhat. Any time I'm watching youtube, then manually trigger an update to a game in Steam, as soon as the update finishes, the system crashes. It fully completes the update without any errors, even finishing all writing to the drive, but instant system crash at completion. If this is a PSU issue, then it should be fixed sometime tomorrow when my new PSU arrives. (Be Quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000W)
No issues reported so far. Operated for roughly 11 hours, handling tasks that previously triggered crashes within 2 hours. It seems the power supply unit (PSU) was likely the culprit, which was my initial assumption when problems began. I was worried it might cost around $140 to replace, even though it had been running at 30-70% duty cycle for nearly ten years.