My PC keeps Crashing

[BillPr]

So I believe this is a hardware issue with my PSU. When I say crash, I don't mean a Blue Screen and will shut down and then be able to restart coming up saying "whoa, your PC crashed, wanna see what the issue might've been?" it's more likely as if there's a power cut and everything goes dark (monitors, mouse, keyboard, PC itself [blue coloured fans]) and then a second later attempts to restart but it never can, it just powers all the fans up and then does not boot up with all the lights coming on and then the monitors etc.

Nothing.

And with this causes it to wait about 20+ minutes at least of me waiting around or if I try to switch it on to early it'll just not work for ages after each attempt. This generally happens when I'm playing a game that may be more resource heavy on the graphics card or HDD. Examples generally being Total War, H1Z1, Fallout 4 but wouldn't happen on Indie Games and I can play for hours, whereas as an example I attempted to just load Total War for the first time the other day and I couldn't get past the menu....

I decided to check the Event Viewer just to see if it managed to get something about it and it's the first time I started seeing Critical System Level errors saying Kernel-Power. This did occasionally before when I played H1Z1 for a while and it would do it or a couple times and I thought it was the CPU overheating initially so bought some fans and put them in. I've had it since since like December 2013 at this point and it's a Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply. Was just wondering if I should get a better one, I was considering getting a higher wattage one anyway possibly for a new PC in the future however didn't know if it would be a wise idea putting it in this current PC until I do?

 

[Cycloid Torus]

I have always regarded Event ID 41 as "the cow has left the barn".

First step to finding out why, I would turn off 'automatic restart'

"... change the restart behavior for the computer. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click Advanced system settings.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. In the Startup and Recovery section, click Settings.
5. Click to clear the Automatically restart check box." (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2028504)

This helps if the system notices the cow is heading toward the barn door.

Then I would explore the many possibilities.

• Disable any kind of overclocking. First and easiest step.

• Heat: Check whether the system is overheating by examining the internal temperature of the hardware (HWInfo is good utility). Remove any dust (including inside PSU - but be very careful of possible shock hazard from large capacitors.) Check ventilation paths. Confirm ALL fans work.

• Power Connections: Confirm solid contact by removing and reconnecting all connections including modular ones at the PSU. (especially if 'heat' not identified as an issue)

• Power supply - total up your energy budget - PSU should be 100 watts higher - and add 50 watts more since PSU is over a year old. Alternative is to use PSU calculator at MSI or NewEgg - both are cautious.

• Another Heat: Consider renewing thermal paste at CPU & GPU (many YouTube guides)

• Check the memory - memtest86 is good. Run many passes overnight.

• Defaults: Reset the system back to the system defaults to see whether the issues occur when the system is running in its default configuration.

 

[BillPr]

Thanks for the reply
I'll keep everything in mind. I checked the PSU and seems to be about right for what you've said being about 150W over. I'll do a test with HWMonitor (I'll run this while playing a game. On a side note when the PC is idle or with just chrome/discord running, temperature is between 30C-40C). I already had that installed and it seems pretty similar, however I may still install your suggestion as it seems to have a bit more diagnostics to it rather than the HWM.

I've cleared up all dust, checked the PSU for dust and seems to be relatively clear of it. If it continues to shut down I'll probs make sure to get inside it and check for dust properly. I also removed all the connections from it then placed it back.

I was considering getting thermal paste and I'll do that when I get the chance. All fans were spinning on boot so means about 5 fans not including the CPU fan. If worse comes to worst I'll reset the system to defaults. But if none of this solves it, what should I do then?

 

[Cycloid Torus]

After you have done everything and it is still failing the same way, I would say 'replace PSU'. The fact that it takes minutes to reset and it does not appear in Event Viewer or in a BSOD makes me think it is a thermal overload in the PSU. In your shoes, I would be shopping for a top flight PSU in the 600-700 watt category with a big 12v single rail.