Steam Causing My PC to Shut Down?

[Inkwright]

Lately I've been experiencing random shut downs while playing Steam games. I can play for thirty minutes at most.

My rig is as follows:
AMD Phenom II x4 910 - 2.6Ghz (Quad Core)
8 gigs of Ram
GeForce GTX 770
Windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit

And I know it isn't overheating because I've run all the core temps and GPU temps and absolutely everything runs cool. I have a large gamer tower with 2 x 120mm fan, 2 x 140 mm fans, and 2 x 230mm fans - so the air flow is absolutely fine. My CPU's never get over 33-35C.

It also doesn't seem to be a power supply issue.

I can play games through Origin or other independent games for hours on end with absolutely no issue. But as soon as I load up a Steam game, the PC just shuts off after 30 minutes of play. I have no warning, no indication - temps remain normal and never spike, always running cool. The PC just goes off. The only way to get it back on is to flip the power switch on the back of the computer (or sometimes unplug the power cord) and then turn it back on.

Games that I know trigger the problem:
Lego LotR
Skyrim
Bioshock Infinite

Games I play through Origin with no issue:
Battlefield 3 (now Battlefield 4)
Dead Space 3
Dragon Age
The Titanfall Beta

I can also play Elder Scrolls Online and Diablo 3 without crashes.

Basically, every game I have played independent of Steam has worked just fine. It's only Steam games so far that cause the shut down. It's incredibly frustrating because I have a lot of games I want to play on Steam but can't.

I can't pass a single level of Lego LotR now because it crashes and I have to start over.

If anyone has any advice or suggestions, please respond. But if you're going to suggest it's overheating or a PSU problem or something wrong with my Ram, don't waste your time or mine. Those things have all been tested and are operating perfectly normally.

Thanks!

[Astartes]

Use Event Viewer to try to determine the cause of the problem.

• Once your computer has restarted, login and open the Event Viewer (Start > type event > click Event Viewer)
  
• On the left, select Windows Logs > System
  
• Click the header of the Date and Time category and wait for it to sort the events.
  
• Scroll through the logs (or use Ctrl+F) to find the most recent instance of event ID 6009, immediately followed by 6005. This pair of events indicates restart and successful boot-up.
  
• Now look at the events that occurred before this pair of events. Are there any labeled as warning or error? If so, please post the source, event ID, and description.

[Inkwright]

Unfortunately, the only one I have is

Source: Kernel-Power, event ID 41, "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

Which I had explained to me only meant that it was logging my shut down and not telling me what the problem is.

Is that correct?

[Astartes]

Yeah, 41 only means forced shutdown or loss of power. This makes me think that the issue is power-related (as opposed to some critcal system error). I know you have already written it off, but I am just wondering why you believe is it not a power supply issue.

[Inkwright]

I would be more inclined to believe it were a power issue if it wasn't solely during Steam use. I run much more RAM + CPU intensive games/programs outside of Steam and I've never once had a shut down occur at any other time.

My PSU is a 750watt, which is, according to online guides and IT friends, overkill for my computer.

[Inkwright]

Anyone else have any ideas? I've reinstalled Steam, even tried moving it and my games library to a different harddrive and nothing works.

I've tried rolling back my nVidia drivers because I had read that the most recent ones were not compatible with Steam.

Has anyone had this problem that they've solved?
I can't play any of my games in more than half hour blocks. This is really enraging.

[Legendary old man]

For get it is just steam. That will lead you down the wrong path thing this is software related. If the temps are okay have you done a mem test using something like memtest88?

I repair computers and shutdowns like this are often caused by video card issues, overheating, PSU or Memory. Those are by far the most likely causes.

[Inkwright]

The video card is new. The temps are fine. I did a memory test but it came back with no errors so far. I don't really understand the memtest program all that well though (can't remember what it was called and I'm at work, so I can't check).

Since I have a quad core with 8 gbs of ram, it said I needed to run multiple versions of it all at once, but even following the directions, it only went up to 5.6 out of 8 being used, so I'm not sure that it tested anything really.

I'll find a new memtest program and try it later today when I'm at home again.

But do you really think it likely that my memory is bad when the computer ONLY crashes while I'm running Steam games? Why would it not crash on games I run independent of Steam? Why would it not shut down with Origin? Or memory hogs like Adobe programs?

That's the biggest mystery to me. I can run EVERYTHING outside of Steam with no crashes whatsoever. None. Not even any sign of fps loss or lagging or slow-loading programs -- nothing. But as soon as I start a Steam game, the computer shuts down after a brief use. This ONLY happens with Steam.

This is why I'm so frustrated. I've tested all the hardware and as many driver/software components as I can (and know how). My event viewer shows no errors, and my computer runs everything else perfectly. So how is it a hardware issue that only occurs if I open Steam?

I'd also like to add that I reinstalled Windows hoping that a clean install might fix it. It did not.
I set a timer and after 24 minutes, the pc shut off. It's like clockwork. I get a half-hour window with Steam before it shuts down.

[Inkwright]

Well, came home and set the drivers back to 314 with the modded .inf file. Tried to play and it still crashed over and over, consistently around the 30 minute mark.

So I gave up and went to play ESO instead, and then found out Steam had put out a client update. I decided to check it out, as my boyfriend told me it claimed to fix compatibility problems people were having with the Steam overlay.

I'm not holding my breath too long, but I just managed to play Bioshock Infinite for a little over an hour after updating, something I could not do on any day prior.

I'll test some more tomorrow, but I kind of have a feeling that their end fixed whatever was causing the problem.

I was always pretty sure it wasn't my hardware. I hope I several hours of testing in tomorrow, just so I can feel confident that the issue is resolved with Steam's last client update.

[Inkwright]

For anyone who followed this, or had similar crashing issues, I'd just like to update everyone.
The last Steam Client Update, I suppose on May 30th, has reverted my PC to unexpected crashes once more.

Steam is once again unplayable.

I am so fed-up.

Has anyone else experienced these random crashes since the last update?

I'm not even going to bother with it until they release another update. It's not my machine. After the update I mentioned in the previous post, my games played flawlessly up until this last one.

[Sirabot]

I'm having a similar issue. When steam is running my PC randomly shuts down and restarts. I have confirmed it is not a heating issue. It sends no error report to event viewer and it doesn't matter what I'm doing. 20 minutes to 2 hours on average and I can be watching a youtube video and it does it. it has been doing it for days. I suspected the beta drivers for Nvidia 700 series and even Nvidia Experience 2.0.1. Ruled them all out and just recently noticed it does Not happen if steam is not running. After about 10 hours I launched steam, 30 minutes later it happened as I was attempting to play warframe. It started just as the summersale update began.

[Inkwright]

I thought it was my hardware too, initially. I bought a new case, designed specially for cooling with multiple fans. I tested my power supply, I bought a new Nvidia graphics card, etc. etc. I went through everything.

Just don't go out and blow any money thinking it'll fix anything. If Steam ever puts out the right update, all the problems will stop. That's what happened to me and now with this update, it's undone it all.

I just don't know what it is or why it happens. I'm once again stuck playing only the games I have independently installed or through Origin. Which, honestly, isn't a lot because I've loaded up on Steam.

I'm really disappointed about this.

[Hempest]

Its not steam its your machine, but there is not much we can do to help as you clearly have little interest in finding the problem and rather blame steam.

[Crypto Carlos]

I really don't think it's an issue with Steam/GPU drivers as I was using the 314.22 drivers on my 660 with the latest steam beta with no issues playing steam games for longer periods and just yesterday upgraded to the latest WHQL drivers, again, no problems. Are the drivers for your motherboard's chipset/BIOS/Sata chipset etc. up to date? That might be the issue if a Steam update say changed the way background downloading/io is handled and your older SATA driver doesn't agree with it or something.

[Inkwright]

How is it my machine? Do tell.
Nothing else causes it to shut down aside from Steam. I've tested or replaced all of my hardware. ALL of my non-steam games will run for hours without a problem. My computer hasn't shut off once unless Steam was running.

I even did a format and fresh install of Windows, and that didn't help.
I have plenty of interest, but so far everyone's stuck on this notion of it being faulty hardware, and everything I've done leads to the answer that it isn't.

[Crypto Carlos]

It has to be some driver/piece of software/hardware issue local to your machine because if this were a widespread issue the millions strong Steam userbase would be up in arms and you'd see threads complaining about it all over the place, but I've only seen this one. The first thing I would do is make sure your chipset/SATA/audio drivers and BIOS are all up to date, then check what software you're running in the background and perhaps do a hard-drive scan while you're at it. It's unfortunate you're having this issue, but there must be some solution.