PC Permanently restarting | Linus Tech Tips | Page 1

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:00 PM

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At first it was working fine for 2 weeks. Then it would restart whenever I launched a game. So I formatted it and it was working fine for 2 days. Then it would restart randomly even with just Firefox and discord on. Moments later it's restarting before it even gets to Windows and keeps restarting like that.

Specs:
Motherboard: NZXT N7 Z690
Processor: Intel i7 12700KF
Ram: Team Group T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4
GPU: Gigabyte vision OC RTX 3070
PSU: NZXT C750 750W Gold
Boot drive: Samsung EVO 980 Nvme 4.0

I'm thinking at this point it's hardware related but I don't know what it is or what to do. Any tips or instructions? Thank you for your time and sorry for the long text.

fast nymph Jan 2, 2023, 2:08 PM

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Primary Suggestion:
Unplug every connector inside the PC and plug it back in. Also take the RAM out and put it back in, the GPU also.

Just in case something just isn't sitting right, or there's a piece of dust in some connector, anything small and silly that should just take 20 minutes to fix.

Secondary would be:
While you're in there, how many screws did you put in the motherboard? If you take the back panel off the case, can you see where the standoffs are from that side? do the number of standoffs match the number of screws you put in the case? because a standoff scratching the back of your board can cause electrical weirdness

Tertiary:
Check your temperatures with a tool like hwmon, are they sane values? At the desktop I would assume most of the PC should be <45C If you're not gaming or anything. Any higher and you may need to review your thermal paste applications

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:12 PM

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Chances are it's more a power issue

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:13 PM

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fast nymph Primary Suggestion: Unplug every connector inside the PC and plug it back in. Al...

I will try unplugging everything then plugging them back in.

For the motherboard screws, I'm pretty positive that all the screws are in the right standoffs. I'll try to take a peek when I'm unplugging everything.

Regarding temperatures I'm 100% sure it's not from overheating. CPU is between 32 and 42 when idle or doing casual stuff then goes up to 51 when gaming.
GPU was between 47 and 55 when gaming as well.

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:13 PM

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fast nymph Primary Suggestion: Unplug every connector inside the PC and plug it back in. Al...

Thats not really relevant talking about the idle temps while 45 or less is good its unheard of for them to be higher.

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:13 PM

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pliant smelt Chances are it's more a power issue

I thought of it but I'm scared of buying a new PSU and still running in the same issue because it was a motherboard or cpu issue

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:13 PM

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pulsar roost I thought of it but I'm scared of buying a new PSU and still running in the same...

The best way to rule it out is go to a repair shop with the parts

fast nymph Jan 2, 2023, 2:14 PM

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I'm just checking things off the list before asking him to go find another computer to test parts with :p

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:14 PM

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It could also be a driver issue

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With the gpu

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:15 PM

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pliant smelt The best way to rule it out is go to a repair shop with the parts

I thought of that too but I don't have the right safety equipment to ship to mainstream repair shops. Most of what I found were old school / desk PC repair shops.

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:15 PM

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pulsar roost I thought of that too but I don't have the right safety equipment to ship to mai...

And they don't have replacement parts?

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To test with

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:15 PM

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pliant smelt It could also be a driver issue

That's the thing it could be so many things it's hard to pin point it

fast nymph Jan 2, 2023, 2:16 PM

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@pulsar roost I would say start with the unplugging and plugging back in... a not quite right seated connector or speck of dust happens more often than you'd think lol

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:16 PM

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pliant smelt And they don't have replacement parts?

I have no clue. I'll just have to go and ask them.

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:16 PM

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pulsar roost I have no clue. I'll just have to go and ask them.

Call them and ask instead of making the trek over

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:16 PM

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fast nymph <@456392605979377664> I would say start with the unplugging and plugging back in...

Yeah I guess. Although wouldn't it be weird that it was working fine then suddenly it starts breaking down slowly?

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:17 PM

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pliant smelt Call them and ask instead of making the trek over

Or that yeah. Right now it's 6 AM where I live so I'll do that later.

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:17 PM

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To be honest I know this is supposed to be an all white build but nzxt boards are not the best

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:17 PM

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pliant smelt To be honest I know this is supposed to be an all white build but nzxt boards ar...

Guilty as charged

fast nymph Jan 2, 2023, 2:17 PM

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It wouldn't be great but it's not impossible. If my car doesn't start I don't replace the alternator first I might try wiggling a few cables and poking around some first lol

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:18 PM

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Literally the reason I went for that motherboard. Cause the other big brand white ones are over my budget sadly.

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:18 PM

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fast nymph It wouldn't be great but it's not impossible. If my car doesn't start I don't re...

I highly doubt dust would do that now

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It should have happened almost immediately

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:19 PM

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fast nymph It wouldn't be great but it's not impossible. If my car doesn't start I don't re...

That sounds dangerous ahah
It wouldn't surprise me though that something isn't well connected or some parts got scratched / damaged in the building process.

It's my first self built PC and I did at 3 AM and i thought it didn't go well at all but it worked through the first boot and was working fine for two weeks

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:20 PM

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pliant smelt It should have happened almost immediately

Maybe some cables were slowly getting undone?

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Cause I have some really tightly connected ones

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:20 PM

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pulsar roost Maybe some cables were slowly getting undone?

That would assume you didn't put your cables in properly in the first place and would have had an issue then

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:21 PM

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Yeah well repair shop it is. I'll still do the unplugging since I have nothing to but wait for the shops to open anyway.

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:21 PM

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pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:22 PM

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My friend told me to take out the CMOS battery and leave it for 10 min then put it back in
But I don't think that would be a permanent solution.

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:22 PM

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Cmos reset is not a bad idea but let's start with photos first

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:23 PM

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pliant smelt

1 sec

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:23 PM

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You also don't need to leave it out for 10 minutes

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I can give you directions for the cmos reset

fast nymph Jan 2, 2023, 2:23 PM

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Unfortunately that might not do anything anymore, CMOS is usually on a tiny piece of flash memory now instead of EEPROM, you have to use the reset jumpers that I think Thor is about to give you isntructions for

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anyways, it's non-volatile memory nowadays

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:24 PM

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The battery reset method still works

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Otherwise why still have it in the first place

fast nymph Jan 2, 2023, 2:24 PM

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To keep time when the system is off

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:24 PM

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The battery still has a lot of functionality

fast nymph Jan 2, 2023, 2:27 PM

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A lot of motherboards will clear the CMOS when the time reads 0 on boot to emulate the old EEPROM clearing, but, it's not a hard and fast rule anymore unfortunately

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:32 PM

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Okay I took the pictures sorry it took a while

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fast nymph Jan 2, 2023, 2:32 PM

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That motherboard 24-pin isn't seated correctly

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:33 PM

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Yeah I noticed as well after taking a look at the picture

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I took it off anyway so I could snap the ram cause the cooler was blocking off the other side

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:34 PM

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Ram is fine I would check the cpu connection 24 pin and the 6 pin on the gpu

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:35 PM

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The gpu pins are super slotted in there like it's harder to take them out then put them there

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Maybe it's on the other side? Like the cables not properly connected to the PSU ?

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:35 PM

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That 6 pin is not in fully

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:38 PM

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I tried putting it in properly but I think it's the cable tension not letting it bend well so it keeps titling it to the side

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:38 PM

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Maybe reroute it so it's got less tension

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Both 8 pin and 6 pin just because it will be easier

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Also is this from one pcie cable or two separate cables?

sonic quail Jan 2, 2023, 2:40 PM

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Looks like one of the cpu power cables isn't plugged in from that first picture

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:40 PM

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Yeah nater we covered that lol

sonic quail Jan 2, 2023, 2:41 PM

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Lol yeah casually browsing through the whole chat lol

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:41 PM

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This should be better right?

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:42 PM

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Much better

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:42 PM

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pulsar roost

Are you using two separate pcie cables for the gpu?

sonic quail Jan 2, 2023, 2:43 PM

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@pliant smelt just to be clear Thor you guys noticed this

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:43 PM

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pliant smelt Are you using two separate pcie cables for the gpu?

Nono it's the same one
So it starts off as one cable then becomes two cables: one with a 6 pin and a 2 pin separate then another with 8 pins

sonic quail Jan 2, 2023, 2:43 PM

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pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:43 PM

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Yes

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The extra 4 pin is not needed unless doing extreme overclocking

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And I did mention check the cpu connection

sonic quail Jan 2, 2023, 2:44 PM

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Okay well that's all I got you're on it 😉

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:45 PM

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pulsar roost Nono it's the same one So it starts off as one cable then becomes two cables: on...

It should be ok since it's a 8 and 6 pin but typically with 3080 and 3090 you wanna use more than one pcie power cable

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:45 PM

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sonic quail Okay well that's all I got you're on it 😉

Still thank you tho
All of you @fast nymph @pliant smelt really appreciate your time and help

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:45 PM

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pliant smelt It should be ok since it's a 8 and 6 pin but typically with 3080 and 3090 you wa...

Ohhhh

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Problem is I don't think I have a cable with only 8pins and another with only 6

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So I'll have a lot of dangling pins if I use the ones provided with the psu

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:46 PM

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The pcie cable should always be In a 6+2 config

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Never a solid 8

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Thats for the psu side

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:48 PM

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What if it's actually then two separate cables braided together? Cause one of them is already a 6+2 and the other is an 8

Or did you mean it should be a 6+2 and an 8 together as a cable?

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 2:49 PM

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What about the other pcie cables?

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 2:52 PM

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Oh wait no I get it sorry for my dumb comment earlier yeah they're both 6+2
I'm connecting one of them as a 6+2 and the other as 6 only

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And all my PCIe cables are two 6+2s

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With a solid 8 for the PSU like you said

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So I just checked my psu and just the 24 pin on the motherboard some cables were a little loose on the psu too

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They were surprisingly hard to plug in properly but I managed to get them near shutin

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I'm gonna give it a shot now

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 3:23 PM

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So far i've been able to get into windows

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I'm gonna download 3dmark and do some benchmarking to see if anything happens

pliant smelt Jan 2, 2023, 4:01 PM

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Ok

edgy zinc Jan 2, 2023, 4:15 PM

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pliant smelt Chances are it's more a power issue

Sounds a lot like it

pulsar roost Jan 2, 2023, 4:58 PM

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So far pc didn't get any system failures / restart

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I ran a benchmark test on 3dmark and it all went through with no hiccups although my time spy score wasn't the best lol.

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I can't say it's fixed for sure though seeing how it used to work fine before and out of nowhere started breaking down.

#PC Permanently restarting