Crashing/Kernal 41 Error when playing games, PSU problem?

[Ritual]

Hi there, i've had my Pcspecialist rig for little over a year now. Recently, whenever i play a game (and only when playing games) my pc will randomly hang and freeze for a couple of seconds (and make a glitchy sound effect in my headphones) then it will shut down and automatically restart. No BSOD.

I've checked the logs, and it is always a Kernal power 41 error. This leads me to believe that it might be my PSU. I have a fairly decent powered Rig however my PSU is a Corsair VS 550. I did a bit of research and found out that this PSU is one tier above junk.

I'm thinking of sending my PC back in to pcspecialist to get the PSU upgraded to a Corsair TXM or RMX (these are the only ones that are options to me on the upgrade page) As i don't feel confident enough to change it myself.

Within the year i have had the PC, its done this very similar crash but VERY rarely. However now it is doing it quite often. It can happen anywhere from 30 minutes playing a game or after 1 hour 30 mins. Its random. I've just tried turning off the "faster start up" setting in power settings as i read this might help, but i have a feeling its my PSU.

Am i right in thinking this will solve my problems?

 

[Oussebon]

That's not a specific PSU-related error, it just means the system rebooted without shutting down properly first as far as I understand it.

The VS series is a decent enough PSU. It's budget level, but it's not junk, and any PSU can snuff it. I've had decent EVGA and Corsair ones develop faults. But it's not necessarily the PSU / the fact you bought a VS series.

Before going straight to dead PSU, rule out other causes first. If it happens during games, monitor CPU and GPU temps with something like HWinfo or Realtemp (or Ryzen Master if it's a Ryzen CPU).

If temps are fine, DDU the GPU drivers and perform a clean install of the latest version.

Those would be the first two on my list if getting random-but-gaming-related crashes. Especially as they're both pretty low effort.

 

[Ritual]

OK. I'll Try doing what you say first and if it still doesn't fix it , then would you say to upgrade the PSU?
Thank you for the advice

 

[Oussebon]

There are a lot of other things to try/check before concluding dead PSU. Others on here will doubtless be better placed to advise in detail and may be able to help you check the error logs, but those are the 2 lowest-hanging fruit.

It's easy to focus on the PSU because the event error says "power" but lots of things can cause the PC to shut down.

It could be a faulty PSU, but deciding that it is from the off is a bit like sticking a pin in a catalogue and hoping what you buy fits the need you have. You could end up with a car instead of the ironing board you needed for your shirts

 

[Oussebon]

As an example - I once was using an out of date user inferface addon in World of Warcraft that caused spontaneous shutdowns like you describe. Updated the addon, no more shut downs.

 

[Ritual]

Ok thank you. I've also JUST this second noticed my system's power plan has been running in "high performance mode" all this time. I will try changing it to Balanced and then i will try running the witcher 3 on ultra (this is the game that its been crashing on recently, but its done it on other games too). Im using HWmonitor, i will see what the temps for CPU and GPU are like.

 

[Oussebon]

You shouldn't need to change the power plan.

And changing several things at once without testing means if the problem goes away you won't know what fixed it. If the problems go away and you changed the power settings - did the crashes go away because of reduced power draw? lower temperatures? or what?

I'd suggest getting completely off the idea of "power" until doing some basic troubleshooting as above.

 

[Ritual]

I see what you mean. I've kept it as it is then. I've just played some Witcher 3 for about 20 minutes. Hasn't crashed yet (it usually happens after atleast an hour). My Max CPU Temperature Is 52c (intel i5 Six Core i5-8400 (2.8GHz) And my max GPU temp is 78c (Geforce 1070ti)

they seem OK? So i guess i'll try uninstalling the graphics driver and reinstalling?

 

[Oussebon]

Those temps seem fine, though the real question is what they're like when there is a problem.

You can certainly try DDUing the drivers and doing a clean driver install. And continue monitoring temps.

 

[Ritual]

Yeah, ill try clean driver install. If i still crash after that and my temps still seem fine, i guess i'll try changing the power settings and see if that stops it? The problem is though, there doesnt seem a way to log my temperatures after my PC crashes. I'll try playing for a good solid hour and if my pc hasnt crashed by then ill log the temps.

 

[ubuysa]

The Kernel Power 41 error is not the cause of your problem. As Oussebon says, all it tells you is that Windows didn't shut down properly. It is badly named by Microsoft because it has nothing to do with power.

Are you certain there are no other entries in the Event Log shortly before the time of the error 41 entry?

The first thing to always check are the drivers, driver errors don't always BSOD. Make sure they are all up to date.

I would then disconnect all external devices you don't absolutely need and stop all user processes that you don't need. The best way to do that is to use the StartUp tab of Task Manager and disable everything you can do without (temporarily) and then reboot.

You want to (temporarily) get the minimalist system you can from both a hardware and software point of view to eliminate as many potential causes as you can.

EDIT: One other thing its definitely worth checking is your RAM. I'm not suggesting that RAM is or even might be an issue but it's easy to test overnight with Memtest86 and it's then one less thing to worry about.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[Ritual]

The Kernel Power 41 error is not the cause of your problem. As Oussebon says, all it tells you is that Windows didn't shut down properly. It is badly named by Microsoft because it has nothing to do with power.

Are you certain there are no other entries in the Event Log shortly before the time of the error 41 entry?

The first thing to always check are the drivers, driver errors don't always BSOD. Make sure they are all up to date.

I would then disconnect all external devices you don't absolutely need and stop all user processes that you don't need. The best way to do that is to use the StartUp tab of Task Manager and disable everything you can do without (temporarily) and then reboot.

You want to (temporarily) get the minimalist system you can from both a hardware and software point of view to eliminate as many potential causes as you can.

EDIT: One other thing its definitely worth checking is your RAM. I'm not suggesting that RAM is or even might be an issue but it's easy to test overnight with Memtest86 and it's then one less thing to worry about.

Sent using Tapatalk

Hi, thanks for replying. I'm not sure. there are a few more errors that seem to have been logged at the same time as the crash, which ill link here:

idk if thats useful at all. i will still try reinstalling the driver for the GPU. Do you recommend trying to reinstall any other drivers? or just the GPU ones?