Bad PSU Making My PC Shut Down

[Sug]

I only have a 500w PSU which is causing my PC to shut down when playing some games, understandably Cyberpunk shuts down after 5 minutes or so but I have to wait a couple weeks before I buy a better PSU. Unfortunately the Witcher 3 shuts down even on medium graphics after and hour or two. Is there any way to limit power consumption or do I just have to wait to upgrade?

[Monk]

What components are you using? It shouldn't really be time based when it shuts down but when stuff tries to pull too much power, you could try limiting frame rates / under clocking / volting stuff.

[Sug]

Originally posted by Monk:

What components are you using? It shouldn't really be time based when it shuts down but when stuff tries to pull too much power, you could try limiting frame rates / under clocking / volting stuff.

64 gb of ram ddr4 (new),
A320-A PRO MAX motherboard,
Geforce 4060 graphics card (new),
AMD ryzen 3 3200G 3600 Mhz 4 Cores

The new graphics card and ram are defs taking alot more power so I will try underclock with MSI afterburner. Possibly could be the motherboard too, its a bit old. I'm slowly upgrading piece by piece.

[_I_]

psu brand/model/age?

[Sug]

Originally posted by _I_:

psu brand/model/age?

True apologies for leaving that out, its Antec VP500P Plus, its about 4 and a half years old.

[Monk]

Originally posted by Sug:

Originally posted by Monk:

What components are you using? It shouldn't really be time based when it shuts down but when stuff tries to pull too much power, you could try limiting frame rates / under clocking / volting stuff.

64 gb of ram ddr4 (new),
A320-A PRO MAX motherboard,
Geforce 4060 graphics card (new),
AMD ryzen 3 3200G 3600 Mhz 4 Cores

The new graphics card and ram are defs taking alot more power so I will try underclock with MSI afterburner. Possibly could be the motherboard too, its a bit old. I'm slowly upgrading piece by piece.

You aren't pulling anything close to 500w, double check everything is fully seated, chances are something isn't so it will occasionally drop power, really make sure the 12vhpwr is fully seated in the gpu.

[Sug]

Originally posted by Monk:

Originally posted by Sug:

64 gb of ram ddr4 (new),
A320-A PRO MAX motherboard,
Geforce 4060 graphics card (new),
AMD ryzen 3 3200G 3600 Mhz 4 Cores

The new graphics card and ram are defs taking alot more power so I will try underclock with MSI afterburner. Possibly could be the motherboard too, its a bit old. I'm slowly upgrading piece by piece.

You aren't pulling anything close to 500w, double check everything is fully seated, chances are something isn't so it will occasionally drop power, really make sure the 12vhpwr is fully seated in the gpu.

Is that the chord that plugs into my gpu? Sorry just upgraded from a 1650 so I am new to chords in GPUs.

[Monk]

Yes the 12vhpwr is the new power connector for nvidia gpu's, but go around and check everything is fully seated, had a similar issue once, id missed one of my cpu 8 pins wasn't quite in.

It might not fix the issue, but good to try.

[Sug]

Originally posted by Monk:

Yes the 12vhpwr is the new power connector for nvidia gpu's, but go around and check everything is fully seated, had a similar issue once, id missed one of my cpu 8 pins wasn't quite in.

It might not fix the issue, but good to try.

Sweet, I just underclocked my voltage so I will play the witcher for a while to see if this fixes the issue, if not my PC will shut off anyway and I will give that a look. Thank you for the help guys!

[Obsessive Power]

Originally posted by Sug:

Is that the chord that plugs into my gpu? Sorry just upgraded from a 1650 so I am new to chords in GPUs.

Yes, the power cable from the PSU to your 4060. Make sure it is seated fully.

[Illusion of Progress]

First things first, and clarify this, is it a shutdown or it it either a restart or freeze?

A shutdown more signifies a thermal or electrical issue.

A restart or freeze is more broad in what can cause it, but typically it's the PC running into a machine check exception situation (CPU catches something wrong that it can't recover from) and then restarting.

I have to agree with the others, you're probably not pulling 500W+ with that hardware, maybe half give or take, but it could still be the PSU for a variety of other reasons.

For now though, since the GPU and RAM and new, I'd start there. Once you can isolate that both of those are good, maybe I'd look at the PSU next.

What is the exact RAM? This may matter because you're running a first generation AM4 chipset, and the low end one, and with a Zen+ based APU. The older motherboards/older Ryzen IMCs didn't always handle heavier RAM configurations (meaning a combination of more DIMMs/more ranks/higher speeds) well. For DDR4, 64 GB is probably a pair of dual rank DIMMs or four single rank DIMMs? Or if it's older, like mine, it may even be both and it's four dual rank DIMMs (good luck with this one on an older Ryzen/first generation chipset). At what speeds? 3,200 MHz+?

I'd make sure this is set to JEDEC default (no profile speed like XMP, DOCP, or whatever your motherboard calls it). This will "lighten the load" and help rule that out. If it's using four DIMMs, you can try going down to two (again, it "lightens the load"). Better yet, try the new graphics card with your old RAM if you still have it available and see where that gets you (you can also do the inverse and try the new RAM with the old graphics card).

[[☥] - CJ -]

Just upgrade to something better, i wouldnt go for less than 650 to 750, taking into consideration any potential future upgrades.

But yeah, a full shutdown while gaming tends to be powersupply related, possibly over current kicking in.

I would also try it in a different room of your home, old/faulty power sockets can also cause it.

If you have anything high powered running like a space heater on the same circuit as your PC, that would also be a likely cause.

[Sug]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

First things first, and clarify this, is it a shutdown or it it either a restart or freeze?

A shutdown more signifies a thermal or electrical issue.

A restart or freeze is more broad in what can cause it, but typically it's the PC running into a machine check exception situation (CPU catches something wrong that it can't recover from) and then restarting.

I have to agree with the others, you're probably not pulling 500W+ with that hardware, maybe half give or take, but it could still be the PSU for a variety of other reasons.

For now though, since the GPU and RAM and new, I'd start there. Once you can isolate that both of those are good, maybe I'd look at the PSU next.

What is the exact RAM? This may matter because you're running a first generation AM4 chipset, and the low end one, and with a Zen+ based APU. The older motherboards/older Ryzen IMCs didn't always handle heavier RAM configurations (meaning a combination of more DIMMs/more ranks/higher speeds) well. For DDR4, 64 GB is probably a pair of dual rank DIMMs or four single rank DIMMs? Or if it's older, like mine, it may even be both and it's four dual rank DIMMs (good luck with this one on an older Ryzen/first generation chipset). At what speeds? 3,200 MHz+?

I'd make sure this is set to JEDEC default (no profile speed like XMP, DOCP, or whatever your motherboard calls it). This will "lighten the load" and help rule that out. If it's using four DIMMs, you can try going down to two (again, it "lightens the load"). Better yet, try the new graphics card with your old RAM if you still have it available and see where that gets you (you can also do the inverse and try the new RAM with the old graphics card).

Well my PC doesn't completely shut down or restart, my ram RGB and my hard drive light stays on, but my mouse, keyboard monitor etc. turn off and I have to switch off and on my power supply to turn my pc back on. I tried undervolting and it hasn't crashed after playing for like 3 hours straight.

[Illusion of Progress]

Originally posted by Sug:

Well my PC doesn't completely shut down or restart, my ram RGB and my hard drive light stays on, but my mouse, keyboard monitor etc. turn off and I have to switch off and on my power supply to turn my pc back on. I tried undervolting and it hasn't crashed after playing for like 3 hours straight.

That complicates it.

If the cause was with the PSU (such as lack of wattage or some limit being tripped) or if it was thermals, I would expect that it would more likely result in an immediate shutdown instead of a freeze or restart. So for now, I'd isolate your focus to the new parts (graphics card and RAM) and try to rule them out before assuming the PSU.

This sounds more like it may be a MCE. I'd guess there's a stability issue with your new RAM or graphics card. Either one of them is outright faulty, or at least not stable at the settings you were attempting before.

[Sug]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

Originally posted by Sug:

Well my PC doesn't completely shut down or restart, my ram RGB and my hard drive light stays on, but my mouse, keyboard monitor etc. turn off and I have to switch off and on my power supply to turn my pc back on. I tried undervolting and it hasn't crashed after playing for like 3 hours straight.

That complicates it.

If the cause was with the PSU (such as lack of wattage or some limit being tripped) or if it was thermals, I would expect that it would more likely result in an immediate shutdown instead of a freeze or restart. So for now, I'd isolate your focus to the new parts (graphics card and RAM) and try to rule them out before assuming the PSU.

This sounds more like it may be a MCE. I'd guess there's a stability issue with your new RAM or graphics card. Either one of them is outright faulty, or at least not stable at the settings you were attempting before.

I see, i'll have a look at it tomorrow. I have taken this damn thing apart so many times. Thanks again for the help everyone, it is very strange that the ram and hard drive light stays on.

[Sug]

Originally posted by Sug:

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

That complicates it.

If the cause was with the PSU (such as lack of wattage or some limit being tripped) or if it was thermals, I would expect that it would more likely result in an immediate shutdown instead of a freeze or restart. So for now, I'd isolate your focus to the new parts (graphics card and RAM) and try to rule them out before assuming the PSU.

This sounds more like it may be a MCE. I'd guess there's a stability issue with your new RAM or graphics card. Either one of them is outright faulty, or at least not stable at the settings you were attempting before.

I see, i'll have a look at it tomorrow. I have taken this damn thing apart so many times. Thanks again for the help everyone, it is very strange that the ram and hard drive light stays on.

I will also mention that before I was having problems, maybe a year or so ago the same thing would happen if I played Red Dead Redemption 2 for more than a couple of hours. (hardrive light staying on)