# PC keep restarting. Do I need power stabilizer?



## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

Which will be good stabilizer for my PC?

Hi...

My PC keep restarting in every 5 - 10 minutes. I tried to troubleshoot everything including disabling "auto restrat" option and formatting my PC and doing clean install. Still the problem is there.
Then I suspected power fluctuation issue. So I tried to connect my whole PC system in my neighbor's house and same problem happened.

Later I connected my PC at my uncle's house in another area and it doesn't restart. So temporarily I came to conclusion that it is may be because of power fluctuations in my area.

The issue just started since last 2 months. Complained to electricity officials but you know how these organizations work in India.

Below are my PC configuration.

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate

Intel i7 6700k
Asus Z170 Maximus VIII Ranger
32 GB G-skill Ripjaws (8GBx4)
240 GB Kingston SSD
4 TB WD HDD (1TB x 4)
4 GB Asus GTX 960 DDR 5 Graphics Card
Heatsink liquid Seidon 120m
LG DVD Writer
600W Cooler Master SMPS

22" Dell S2216H LED (2 Monitors)
Creative SBS A-355 2.1 Speaker
Wacom Pen Tablet
APC BR 1100CJ-IN UPS
Keyboard Mouse

My UPS is in great condition and in power failures, give 20 minutes of backup. But it can't prevent restart. Also I keep all my drivers up to date.

The total power consumption of my PC comes around 1200W I guess. Do you think I need a voltage stabilizer? If Yes, then which is best? My budget is around 8K INR.


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## meetdilip (Dec 4, 2017)

Do you get any indications while restart ? UPS beeps, light fluctuations. It could be something related to your hardware as well. If there is power line issue, switch on the lights and look for some flashes, blinking etc. Otherwise, something might be wrong in your motherboard or similar.


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## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

meetdilip said:


> Do you get any indications while restart ? UPS beeps, light fluctuations. It could be something related to your hardware as well. If there is power line issue, switch on the lights and look for some flashes, blinking etc. Otherwise, something might be wrong in your motherboard or similar.


Thanks for the reply. But same PC doesn't restart when I shifted it to another area in my city for testing. Yeah there are light flashes at different time in my house. Whenever the PC restarts it doesn't give any indication. It just restarts like someone switched off and then switched it on.


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## gta5 (Dec 4, 2017)

1) which cooler master PSU  model no ?  and how old it is ?

2) did you have voltage fluctuations in the past as well ? and no restarts back then , or are they occurring now only  ?

3) restarts happening at idle as well or during gaming only


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## meetdilip (Dec 4, 2017)

crius.black said:


> But same PC doesn't restart when I shifted it to another area in my city for testing.



Were you using the same UPS ? How long did you test ?


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## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

gta5 said:


> 1) which cooler master PSU  model no ?  and how old it is ?
> 
> 2) did you have voltage fluctuations in the past as well ? and no restarts back then , or are they occurring now only  ?
> 
> 3) restarts happening at idle as well or during gaming only



1. Cooler Master RS-600-ACAB-B1
2. Yes, Voltage fluctuations were in the past too. But no restart then. It started just since last 2 months.
3. It happens every time. Whether it is idle or I am working on it.


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## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

meetdilip said:


> Were you using the same UPS ? How long did you test ?


No. In other area I connected the PC directly to the power supply. Not UPS. But, in my home I tried disconnecting UPS and connecting it directly to the power supply and it restarted then too.


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## whitestar_999 (Dec 4, 2017)

If the same PC does not restart in another area with same ups then a probable reason might be some issue in changeover time of either ups or smps which is not able to keep up with fluctuations in your area but would work fine with a constant electric supply.


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## meetdilip (Dec 4, 2017)

crius.black said:


> No. In other area I connected the PC directly to the power supply. Not UPS. But, in my home I tried disconnecting UPS and connecting it directly to the power supply and it restarted then too.



Did you check your power point ? Get an electrical guy to have it mentored.


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## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> If the same PC does not restart in another area with same ups then a probable reason might be some issue in changeover time of either ups or smps which is not able to keep up with fluctuations in your area but would work fine with a constant electric supply.


Another Area:
No UPS. Direct power supply. No Restart.
My Home:
With UPS. Restart.
No UPS. Still Restart.

Checked Power supply. Tried to connect in another power supply in my home. Still restart.


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## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

meetdilip said:


> Did you check your power point ? Get an electrical guy to have it mentored.


Power point is fine. Tried connecting same setup at another power point in my house. Still restart.
Also in my neighbor's house, it restarts.


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## gta5 (Dec 4, 2017)

> 1. Cooler Master RS-600-ACAB-B1
> 2. Yes, Voltage fluctuations were in the past too. But no restart then. It started just since last 2 months.
> 3. It happens every time. Whether it is idle or I am working on it.



from the description i am 70-80 % sure that this is because of PSU .. your model Cooler master B600 uses a Capxon primary cap  ( bad quality ) 
Cooler Master B600 ver.2 review door -The_Mask-

, although you didn't mention how old it is , i am guessing it is 2-3+ years old already , it has probably degraded and lost it's capacitance now and isn't able to provide a long enough hold up time to keep your PC working while your UPS takes time in switching and adjusts  when there is voltage fluctuation .. while previously it was fine.. your PSU also takes input from 200-240v only

This is common issue with Corsair VS as well from what i have read..

in another area where it didn't restart , voltage is constant and above 200 v , so hold up time doesn't come into play...

does it restarts everytime there is a voltage fluctuation ? or it sometime does and sometimes not when there is voltage fluctuations ? i mean does it keeps on working sometimes when there is voltage fluctuation..

to confirm before making an expenditure can you arrange a different non faulty power supply or UPS from friend somewhere for testing ?


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## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

gta5 said:


> from the description i am 70-80 % sure that this is because of PSU .. your model Cooler master B600 uses a Capxon primary cap  ( bad quality ) , although you didn't mention how old it is , i am guessing it is 2-3+ years old already , it has probably degraded and lost it's capacitance now and isn't able to provide a long enough hold up time to keep your PC working while your UPS takes time in switching and adjusts  when there is voltage fluctuation .. while previously it was fine
> 
> This is common issue with Corsair VS as well from what i have read..
> 
> ...



1. The whole build is 1.5 years old.
2. Sometimes, occasionally it holds up till 25-30 minutes.
3. I called APC (UPS guys). The technician came and checked the UPS and found it perfectly working.
4. I have uploaded my restart/shutdown log file obtained from You can see how frequently it restarts. Due to it, PC remains idle since last few days.


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## gta5 (Dec 4, 2017)

crius.black said:


> 1. The whole build is 1.5 years old.
> 2. Sometimes, occasionally it holds up till 25-30 minutes.
> 3. I called APC (UPS guys). The technician came and checked the UPS and found it perfectly working.
> 4. I have uploaded my restart/shutdown log file obtained from You can see how frequently it restarts. Due to it, PC remains idle since last few days.



PSU seems to be the culprit , if you can arrange somebody else's PSU then that would be good  .. RMA this PSU , say it restarts PC on power cut with UPS , and previously it used to work fine for 1.5 years and never had issues

in the meantime try removing all the 4 hard disks and GPU from PC . run it bare minimum on iGPU , at stock , only connect PSU wire to UPS and no other components like monitor, speakers etc .. and see if it is able to decrease the frequency of restarts..

 you can try repeatedly switch on and off your main AC switch to which UPS is connected ,  10 times .. see how many times it restarts then out of 10

The PSU is poor quality anyways and not good for your system for long term , better change it


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## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

gta5 said:


> PSU seems to be the culprit , if you can arrange somebody else's PSU then that would be good  .. RMA this PSU , say it restarts PC on power cut with UPS , and previously it used to work fine for 1.5 years and never had issues
> 
> in the meantime try removing all the 4 hard disks and GPU from PC . run it bare minimum on iGPU , at stock , only connect PSU wire to UPS and no other components like monitor, speakers etc .. and see if it is able to decrease the frequency of restarts..
> 
> ...


Thank you sir.  I will do the same and let you know my results.


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## crius.black (Dec 4, 2017)

Also if you can suggest me the suitable PSU for my system, it will be really helpful.


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## gta5 (Dec 5, 2017)

crius.black said:


> Also if you can suggest me the suitable PSU for my system, it will be really helpful.



don't call me sir  bro 

if you can spend around 8k , then Corsair RM 650X .. it has 10 years warranty ( though confirm once from corsair india if it's 7 or 10 years in india).. so it's worth the price , buy once and forget about PSU for next 7-10 years..

otherwise Corsair TXM if your budget is tight and you are ok with it being loud...

but before buying first please check your system with somebody else's PSU , just in case if problem is something else other than PSU


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## crius.black (Dec 5, 2017)

gta5 said:


> don't call me sir  bro
> 
> if you can spend around 8k , then Corsair RM 650X .. it has 10 years warranty ( though confirm once from corsair india if it's 7 or 10 years in india).. so it's worth the price , buy once and forget about PSU for next 7-10 years..
> 
> ...


Thank you.  Sure. I'll check it first and let you know here.


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## sling-shot (Mar 7, 2018)

What happened man? We are all curious to know.


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## crius.black (Mar 7, 2018)

Hey... Sorry guys. I was very much busy with some heavy edit vfx work. The issue is resolved. The culprit was PSU. I changed it and upgraded to 850 watt PSU. EVerything works butter smooth now.
Thanks to all the members and specially gta5 who took their time to discuss it here. Cheers !


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## sling-shot (Mar 7, 2018)

Great. All is well that ends well and a good lesson learnt for me too.


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## whitestar_999 (Mar 7, 2018)

crius.black said:


> Hey... Sorry guys. I was very much busy with some heavy edit vfx work. The issue is resolved. The culprit was PSU. I changed it and upgraded to 850 watt PSU. EVerything works butter smooth now.
> Thanks to all the members and specially gta5 who took their time to discuss it here. Cheers !


I hope you got a good series psu this time(like corsair RMx or TXM).


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## gta5 (Mar 8, 2018)

crius.black said:


> Hey... Sorry guys. I was very much busy with some heavy edit vfx work. The issue is resolved. The culprit was PSU. I changed it and upgraded to 850 watt PSU. EVerything works butter smooth now.
> Thanks to all the members and specially gta5 who took their time to discuss it here. Cheers !



congrats 

but why 850 watts ??  ,  like whitestar mentioned i just hope  you went for a good series..


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## crius.black (Mar 8, 2018)

Actually I tried 450W and another 650W PSUs. But still my PC restarted. Also I had lot of work piled up. Later I tested it with 850 and it worked fine just as before. So my PC supplier figured out the issue was of low power supply.  This time I went with *Antec 850w* as lot of people here locally suggested me to use it.


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## gta5 (Mar 8, 2018)

650w restarting , were they by any chance generic PSUs ???  and not from well known brands like Corsair , seasonic,  Antec, ,cooler master ?

how much did you pay ?


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## crius.black (Mar 8, 2018)

Tried with another 600W Cooler Master and 450 one was also i guess Cooler Master one.
For this Antec one I paid 11,000.


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## SaiyanGoku (Mar 8, 2018)

crius.black said:


> Tried with another 600W Cooler Master and 450 one was also i guess Cooler Master one.
> For this Antec one I paid 11,000.


Why would you buy an Antec 850W PSU for 11k when you need a 500-600W PSU?


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## sling-shot (Mar 8, 2018)

Didn't he say he wanted it urgently for some work or something? Because the lesser capacity ones did not work out and this was the only one that was stable for him.


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## SaiyanGoku (Mar 8, 2018)

sling-shot said:


> Didn't he say he wanted it urgently for some work or something? Because the lesser capacity ones did not work out and this was the only one that was stable for him.


Even then a Corsair RMx or Seasonic M series 850W PSU would've been a better option.

Edit: System Builder - Core i7-6700K 4GHz Quad-Core, GeForce GTX 960 4GB - PCPartPicker

This list states he needs 408W at peak load (non-OC).


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## gta5 (Mar 9, 2018)

crius.black said:


> Tried with another 600W Cooler Master and 450 one was also i guess Cooler Master one.
> For this Antec one I paid 11,000.



then it is likely that those models were old and weren't good models , with weak primary caps , that they weren't able to give a hold up time of even 10-11ms with your load... a high quality 650 watt unit with a big bulk cap would have been enough

is this your PSU ?

ANTEC SMPS HCG-850M - 850 WATT 80 PLUS BRONZE CERTIFICATION FULLY MODULAR PSU WITH ACTIVE PFC

it is a good PSU  manufactured by seasonic , but expensive .

anyways it was urgent.. atleast the problem is solved 

and thank you for  updating the thread..

Enjoy.. hopefully it lasts you 10 years+


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## icebags (Mar 9, 2018)

gta5 said:


> then it is likely that those models were old and weren't good models , with weak primary caps , that they weren't able to give a hold up time of even 10-11ms with your load... a high quality 650 watt unit with a big bulk cap would have been enough
> 
> is this your PSU ?
> 
> ...



psu doesn't last 10+ years, unless it's very lightly loaded. like 20-30% of its maximum wattage max.


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## gta5 (Mar 9, 2018)

icebags said:


> psu doesn't last 10+ years, unless it's very lightly loaded. like 20-30-may be 40% of its maximum wattage.



high quality PSUs can easily last 10 years +   .. why do you think Corsair and Seasonic offers 10 years / 12 years warranty if it isn't the case   ? 


40% usage is nothing for a "good high quality" unit.. at that usage level you can even run it at ""24x7"" and it will still  last 7 years probably

however for a bad unit with bad caps , it may die within a year even with less usage


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## crius.black (Mar 9, 2018)

gta5 said:


> then it is likely that those models were old and weren't good models , with weak primary caps , that they weren't able to give a hold up time of even 10-11ms with your load... a high quality 650 watt unit with a big bulk cap would have been enough
> 
> is this your PSU ?
> 
> ...


Yes. That's my PSU. Yeah I too hope so.  Thanks.


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## icebags (Mar 10, 2018)

gta5 said:


> high quality PSUs can easily last 10 years +   .. why do you think Corsair and Seasonic offers 10 years / 12 years warranty if it isn't the case   ?
> 
> 
> 40% usage is nothing for a "good high quality" unit.. at that usage level you can even run it at ""24x7"" and it will still  last 7 years probably
> ...



may be those extra high qualities do, but in general even for good psu, they will degrade much after 6 years. if they are under heavy gaming load, then it's more bad.

that psu he bought, shows 5yrs warranty.


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## gta5 (Mar 10, 2018)

icebags said:


> may be those extra high qualities do, but in general even for good psu, they will degrade much after 6 years. if they are under heavy gaming load, then it's more bad.
> 
> that psu he bought, shows 5yrs warranty.



yes definitely gaming puts more load   , from what i know , 6 years i think is too short for even a cheap well designed cooled PSU with all jap caps, in general as long as you don't exceed 70-75 % ( not 24x7 ) , i think they should be fine for 8 years or so .. good PSUs are generally overbuilt

 even the  cheapest good PSUs with all jap caps at Rs 5500-6000 are now coming with 7 year warranty..  you can buy Rm 650x at 8k or so and it comes with 10 year warranty

yeah the antec model he bought is an old model that comes with 5 year warranty , ..


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## icebags (Mar 11, 2018)

^ i had a cooler master psu, that went kaput after 4 years on a dual core + a 8800gt, and it probably took the 8800gt along with it, cause it also went kaput around the same time. it was more than 5 years ago, the psus may have improved since then may be.

then i decided to buy a higher rated 600w corsair gaming psu to minimize loads. i prefer not to strain the psu more than 50% even when gaming on full loads.


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## gta5 (Mar 11, 2018)

Which models ? Do you remember it ? The ones I am talking about with 9-10 year life that I  call "good or high quality" are the ones that comes with all Japanese caps.. Anything else is "almost" guaranteed it will not last this long with a few exceptions.. Depending upon which brand caps does the PSU use  it may last anywhere between 2 to 6 years in general with gaming builds .. No 1 failure in PSU is capacitors , then fan , if psu design and OEM ,quality control is good then other failures are not that common generally  afaik


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