Extremely Frustrating Spontaneous Shutdown Issue (4 Months Of Troubleshooting)
Hello awesome tech people, I've been trying to diagnose an issue with my PC thats been bugging me since December. Sometimes, it seems like i've fixed it, but then eventually the issue rears its ugly head yet again. Seeking the help of you computer people smarter than myself!!
First, my hardware:
Intel Core i9-9900K @ 3.60GHz
Gigabyte Z370 HD3-CF
EVGA 750 GQ, 80+ GOLD 750W
MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 2070 8GB
Ballistix Sport LT 64GB Kit (16GBx4) DDR4 2666 MT/s
Windows 10 Home (fully updated)
Plus a few SSD's and HDD's.
The issue:
**When the computer is left idle, for between 3-6 minutes, it spontaneously powers off and reboots without warning.**
When you look up what happened in Event Viewer, you see Event 41, "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first," clear as day. However, the BugcheckCode and all other EventData parameters on the event are all `0`. This essentially means that as far as the computer knows, it was just ripped out of the wall. I have not been able to find any other valuable leads in Event Viewer.
Here are some things I've tried that did not work:
* Basic troubleshooting checks like the cmd commands that check integrity of system files, malware etc. Nada. * Updating drivers for all the hardware as far as I know how. * Turning off the computer's hibernation mode altogether. * Unplugging the GPU. Still happens without it. * Buying a UPS to eliminate the possibility of brown-outs causing failures. * Using Homer Simpson's Drinking Bird trick to hit a random key to preven idle indefinitely. * **I have even formatted the C drive and clean-reinstalled Windows. This actually worked for a few weeks, and I thought my prayers were answered. But now the issue has cropped back up. WTF??! How could that be? So frustrating.**
Here is some additional info (beware red herrings):
- It *never* happens if booted into safe mode. - Sometimes, when working in photoshop, or running a photoshop action, the PC will spontaneously shut down without warning. - When performing computationally demanding tasks like baking textures in Blender or exporting photos from Photoshop, the UPS will beep as if too much power is being drawn from it. Could that point to an issue with the processor? Its more likely just the cheap UPS not able to handle it.
Can anyone help me figure out what the HECK is going on here?!?!
Is it a PSU issue? If so, why did reinstalling windows fix it for a while? Why would the issue come back? I thought I had a pretty good PSU, it better not be broken!
Is it an issue where I have an over-powered processor or something?? Why would booting into safe mode take the problem away? Why would the issue go away and come back?
Is it truly a software issue then? Since re-installing windows, I have not installed any crazy bloatware or anything like that. I have not been able to deduce any sofware that could be causing issues in the background. The computer will shutdown after a clean boot, where no software has been opened.
Hardware replacement is expensive, risky, and these parts are only a year old... Really hoping someone can give me some new things to try here, or diagnose these symptoms.
Thanks a ton to all that have read this and considered my issue.