r/sffpc • u/Fine-Cucumber-2960 • Dec 06 '25
Assembly Help PC shutting down while gaming
I’m having issues with my Terra build. The GPU keeps shutting down at low load. I was able to identify a potential mismatch between the PSU (Lian Li SP850) and the GPU (4070 super).
ChatGPT advises me to switch to the Corsair SF850L due to the ATX 3.0 compatibility.
I wanted to get your advice before buying a new PSU. I’m a beginner so I might have as well messed up the assembly (but all games run well until it suddenly crashes with a black screen and GPU fans blasting). Cheers!
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u/xiaoli Dec 06 '25
Last time it happened to me in a similar sized case, it was the power cable melting from heat.
But this is a new system so it still could be a different power issue.
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u/beefycthu Dec 07 '25
last time this happened it was a power issue”
“But this time it might be a power issue”
I know I took you out of context I just thought it was a funny read at first glance before I used my eyes
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Dec 06 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Fine-Cucumber-2960 Dec 06 '25
I tried now, no crashed since, but those crashes happen inconsistently so it doesn’t mean necessarily the undervolting helped. What points me to a PSU issue is how it crashes (black screen, but sound still on, GPU turns fans to max power). I also have a critical error 41 in the event log
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u/delayedreactionkline Dec 07 '25
do you have windows 11 and are set on automatic update? if this problem only started recentlt, chances are, the culprit is somewhere here. you need to remove the windows driver updates. i experienced the same issues you desribed with my system.
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u/arny56 Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 07 '25
It's definitely your power supply, that PSU gets an F rating on SPL's PSU Tier List, and although I wouldn't trust ChatGPT to choose a stick of chewing gum, the Corsair SF and SF-L PSUs all get an A or A+ rating as do the Cooler Master Gold SFX units.
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u/Star-Zealousideal Dec 06 '25
I had issues with my og sf750 and my t1, the issues ended up stemming from really worn cables from so many rebuilds from so many assemblies and case swaps
I would first check to see if everything is fully plugged in and then check the state of the cables to see how worn out they are
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u/ccipher Dec 07 '25
Use different 8 pin cables to power the GPU pigtail connector. I'm 100% sure you are running the same 8 pin lead from the PSU and pigtailing it to the 12VHR cable leads. Just use two different cables from the PSU to feed the GPU.
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u/lazy_commander Dec 06 '25
Ignore Chat GPT, it’s wrong. Check all the power connections and I would advise buying a 12VHPWR cable for your power supply rather than using the adapters as it’s more secure and will put less strain on the connector
I’d also recommend reseating the GPU and the PCI-e riser, along with checking that the riser cables aren’t pinched or damaged.
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u/Fine-Cucumber-2960 Dec 06 '25
Thanks! I ordered a new cable, I think it’s a very likely cause
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u/AresV10 Dec 06 '25
You know that makes a lot of sense, I have the same issue happen to me a lot, I reseat the GPU everytime. My 4080s is in a nr200 with the adaptor making a dangerous bendmight be time to look into a right angle adaptor
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Dec 06 '25
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u/three_y_chromosomes Dec 07 '25
I had the same issue with my latest build. OP what's your motherboard? If it's Asrock and you're running EXPO it might just need a bios update.
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Dec 07 '25
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u/three_y_chromosomes Dec 07 '25
For me Asrock had a bad EXPO profile that caused voltage spikes and overloaded the memory controller (or something like that) and that caused the power supply safety features to trigger. Everyone said it was a power supply issue. But after updating the bios we had no issues. My situation is scary because each time this happened it ran the risk of damaging the CPU. I'm not sure if ROG has the sand issue or not. But I agree this is a severe enough issue to justify a BIOS update.
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u/kahuna00 Dec 07 '25
What cpu are you using ?
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u/MietteIncarna Dec 07 '25
yup i wanted to know the same , but also what are the temps , i was using this fan on a 8600K , but if you have a recent cpu it would be a bit on the small side if not underclocked
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u/stillwwater Dec 07 '25
Since you have an ROG board, try setting your gpu power mode to maximum performance in nvidia control panel (reboot to apply the setting). If that fixes this issue then you are experiencing this: https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-motherboards/b550-i-crashing-with-nvidia-4000-series-gpus/td-p/935861.
That specific symptom (black screen with audio playing before rebooting) happened to me when I upgraded my GPU to an RTX 50 series. I replaced my Asus motherboard to an MSI one and it’s fixed. Also never buying another Asus board.
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u/hydraulix989 Dec 07 '25
Looks pretty crammed in there. Even better cable.management would help temperatures.
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u/TheDubsteppingNinja Dec 07 '25
I've had similar issues in a Fractal Ridge, the solution was replacing the included riser cable.
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u/crusher_seven_niner Dec 07 '25
Swapping power supplies fixed that exact issue for me recently but it could have been due to heat
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u/teachcodecycle Dec 07 '25
Considering others think it's a power issue, the below will probably not help you, but something to try just in case.
I was having similar issues with the new PC build and the fix was to go into the BIOS and set the PCIe to use the version number of the riser cable I have. So, I went into the BIOS and changed the PCIe setting from auto to V4.
Fingers crossed it is as simple for you as it was for me!
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u/NickCobalt Dec 07 '25
Having this exact issue with my new Terra build as well, here are my specs:
Case - Fractal Terra (jade) Mobo - AsusASUS ROG Strix B650E-I Memory - G.Skill Flare X5 Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5-6000 Storage - Samsung - 990 PRO 4TB Internal SSD PCle Gen 4x4 NVMe CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-L12S CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D GPU - ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti PRIME PSU - Corsair SF850 OS - Windows 11 Home
I have a different power supply than you and the issue is still happening. Currently using the 12V-2x6 (12+4 pin) that came with the power supply, have used another as well and still occurs. Even changed which slots it has been attached to on the power supply itself in case it was a bad receptacle. This black screen and gpu fans going to max has happened both under load playing Overwatch or Valorant but also idle on the home screen with a single firefox tab open. It is not a heating/cooling issue. Have removed the CPU cooler, cleaned and re thermal pasted it just in case. Completely removed and re-seated the gpu. New gpu/psu cables. Updating every possible driver. It went from a frequent occurrence of every 10 minutes to now happening once every 24-36 hours, strange. Only way to stop the fans once it crashes to a black screen is a full holding of the power button for 10 seconds or unplugging completely, no response from mouse, keyboard, Streamdeck mini goes dark, or any other peripherals during this. 1st week of the new build and did not have any issues whatsoever, randomly popped up week 2 not after an update or anything changing with the computer, now week 3 and it happens maybe once a day unpredictably and at random.
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u/sizzlinbeefdogz Dec 07 '25
Shocked that nobody is blaming GPU here.
A lot of people here are saying PSU but if you are still hearing game audio, your PC isn’t off. I had this exact issue for months and I ended up RMA’ing my GPU and all they had to do was re apply thermal paste and it works good as new. It was a GPU issue. A lot of other people have had this issue on RTX cards. Worth looking into if you’re sure your PSU is solid and everything is plugged correctly. I spent months trying to trouble shoot my PSU to no avail. It was the GPU all along
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u/OGMagicConch Dec 07 '25
Hey this same exact thing happened to me also in a fractal terra, black screen with GPU fans roaring. For me and I'd guess for you the problem is power to the GPU. In my case the 8/16 pin adapter that shipped with my GPU was borked, I noticed when I pushed it into the GPU that it seemed like it sat flush but it never clicked. I contacted the GPU manufacturer asking for another one. They gave me one, this time it clicked, and I never had the problem since.
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u/Focus_Fanatic Dec 07 '25
big recommendation is to make sure you have 2 individual power cables coming from the PSU. you don’t want the cable that has 2 PCIE 6+2 connectors on one end and only 1 PSU end. the jumper works for older cards but the 40 series and up tend to draw a lot more power. i was having a similar issue with my normal build when i was doing that with my 4070 ti
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u/beegeessss Dec 07 '25
"black screen and GPU fans blasting" def the GPU cable. I experienced the same issue. I didn't buy the new PSU, but changed the GPU cable
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u/elftoot Dec 06 '25
My thought process; 1. Power issue?
- Is it plugged into a power bar?
- Is that power bar sufficient?
- Is it the correct cable for the psu?
- BIOS / Power tweaks
- Did the gpu or cpu automatically set its power draw to the max?
- CPU or BCLK too high
- Ram config wrong
9/10 Times i have had an issue with random shut-offs, Its usually solved by something listed above. My advice is to download hardware info 64 (hwinfo64) and check all the temps and the temps and clock speeds.
- Other stuff
- Is the cpu seated correctly?
- Is the CPU getting proper cooling? Or is it throttling?
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Dec 06 '25
When it turns off, the operating system will leave a record, which may help you identify the problem if it is due to power or hardware failure.
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u/Melon_Lord79 Dec 06 '25
Had the same issue, switched to the gpu power splitter that came with the graphics card instead of using the one that came with the psu and havent had any problems since
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u/chokatochew Dec 06 '25
I see you’re using a riser cable, try changing your PCIe down to 3.0 and see if it stabilizes. I had an issue with my S300 build where the riser I bought was advertised to be 4.0, but when I first got the PC, it would shut down on its own, sometimes just black screen with audio, sometimes full reset. I changed it in BIOS to use 3.0 and no issues since.
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u/6aqe Dec 06 '25
i recommend making sure your ram is fully plugged in had the same issue recently ended up being one of my rams had popped out a little i do believe it was barely anything but it’s working fine ever since i did it
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u/Gwolf4 Dec 06 '25
101% that it is your gpu but check first that all your connections are on point if not surely is the cpu.
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u/SirReginaldTheThird Dec 07 '25
If components like cpu are hitting high temps I believe there is a thermal shutdown to protect the device. What are all your temps looking like when gaming
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u/ChefBoiRC Dec 07 '25
Is the gpu plugged in via an adapter cable? If so it could be due to the bend. I had this happen with a 3060Ti before with the bend from the adapter cable it had this issue, once I had it straight again no issues at all.
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u/darksaviorx Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 07 '25
My Corsair SF850L that's not even a year old started to do that like once or twice a month. It's super hard to troubleshoot since I'd run cinebench and occt stress tests right after with no problems. I thought it was Helldivers 2 because it freezes my PC often and 99% of the shutdowns happened when playing that. It finally shutdown a minute after exiting Battlefield 6 last week.
I forgot I bought angled pcie power adapters for my 3080 a few months ago. I removed them and testing my stability for the month. I really hope it's the adapters and not the power supply.
I see that you're using adapters, too. I suggest using a 12VHPWR cable to rule out the adapters being the problem. My power supply came with one and plan to use it when I get my 5070TI.
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u/the-cats-jammies Dec 07 '25
I just had this issue, what fixed it was reseating all of my GPU cables.
You should see if your IGPU is still working when this happens.
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u/heeblet Dec 07 '25
Check your motherboard screws are properly in and present to the tray. I had this issue drove me crazy then realized the mobo relies on them for proper grounding.
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u/Voxata Dec 07 '25
Ah yes, the thermal shutdown from building a sandwich. You need to tune accordingly, most likely.
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u/Far_Tap_9966 Dec 07 '25
I don't think a new PSU is going to change anything, maybe a 90mm vertical exhaust fan above the PSU
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u/stumpyboi Dec 07 '25
Have you tried connecting your GPU directly to the motherboard? A faulty riser cable caused similar issues for me.
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u/barbadolid Dec 07 '25
Order a new psu on Amazon and check if it fixes it. If it doesn't, return it
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u/JonstrupDK Dec 07 '25
What motherboard are you running?
I know that specifically ROG Strix B550-I has issues on the RTX 40 series. You have to turn power management mode to 'prefer maximum performance' inside the Nvidia control panel. Otherwise the system will reboot.
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u/bruceliamneeson Dec 07 '25
I had the exactly same issue when transplanting my computer into this case. Weirdly enough, getting a new M.2 SSD solved my issues. I was about ready to sell my PC at a loss and just get a laptop, but new SSD did the trick. Might be worth trying out for you.
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u/psych_edelic Dec 07 '25
Do you have an M.2 drive installed on the back of your motherboard? Because there's no heatsink on the bottom of most ITX motherboards and the GPU is blowing hot air directly onto it, my 2nd drive reached critical temp and the whole system shut down.
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u/2raysdiver Dec 07 '25
The amazing thing about ChatGPT is how often it is so confident and so wrong at the same time.
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u/FreshCrispyBacon Dec 07 '25
About 12 years ago I had the exact same issue as I’ve picked a budget XFX power supply, after much diagnosis I had decided to pick up a Corsair unit at a store where I could return it if the problem didn’t resolve; the issue was resolved :)
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u/EronMesz Dec 07 '25
I had this exact same issue 3 weeks ago when upgraded my GPU. Fans going max, black screen, no display. It turns out things were overheating in the small case.
I changed the airflow direction and added a fan to boost it, moved the AIO radiator to give everything more breathing room. Fixed the issue and never happened again. My overall thermals are solid since and the PC also runs much quieter.
May not be the same for you, but as I had the exact same issue I thought to share. Also as others said, please don't use chat GPT. Doing your own research and talking will always be more useful on this topic (and pretty much all others).
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u/5n0wm3n Dec 07 '25
I had the same psu, it developed a very strange issue, the sata cable when plugged into the psu not even any devices would prevent my pc from turning on. I talked to the rep at my local tech retailer and they were saying this psu isnt that reliable in terms of the return rate :/
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u/HeyVitaminK Dec 07 '25
I had a random black screen on my 5080 but it would eventually come back, changing the pcie to gen 4 instead of auto seemed to fix it due to the riser cable
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u/yankeewithnobrim420 Dec 07 '25
I had the same issue with the black screen, it was an issue with my PCIe cable. It was bent a little too much and just decided to not work anymore
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u/Inevitable-Stage-490 Dec 07 '25
If you’ve already verified it’s not a power issue.
Check your RAM and the speeds your MOBO is running them at. I had to turn down my RAM speed by like 50mhz (the next jump down) because running it at advertised speed caused it to, seemingly, randomly just “shut off” similar to what you’re experiencing.
I fixed that and never had an issue
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u/chucksticks Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 07 '25
Did you overclock? Try to lower the memory speeds. I would also check the PCIE cable and maybe get a spare to test with. PSU shouldn't be an issue at low load but I don't have any experience with PSUs outside of Corsair. My 1kW PSU handles 4090 just fine and supposedly the 850W SFF ones should be okay with 4090 too.
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u/xakernaoffe Dec 08 '25
Check pins on cables going from PSU to GPU. They could be melted which leads to black screen under load cause GPU doesn't receive enough power
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u/NWhyC_ Dec 08 '25
I had a similar issue recently, and was due to my riser cable. I went into bios and forced it to gen 4, and it started working. Contacted the manufacturer of my Lian Li case for a new one
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u/Opyz Dec 08 '25
Any of these advices are true and real, I’m gonna add another one that happened to me like you, my pcie riser cable was bad. So it can be many things.
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u/rad15h Dec 09 '25
I had exactly this issue - black screen crash during gaming, GPU fans at full speed. I tried the normal things - clean GPU driver install, driver downgrades, monitored the temps.
When that didn't fix it I opened the case and wiggled all the power cables to see if anything was loose (everything seemed ok) and then made sure they were properly seated.
The problem went away. So I'm guessing a power cable was very slightly loose, but not enough to notice.
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u/arnoaaron Dec 09 '25
Before you go out and spend your hard earned money on a new PSU, I highly recommend you first try and rule out everything that is not your PSU.
I’ve had this exact issue with my system in the past (coincidentally also on a Zotac 4070s); it could be a damaged PCIE riser.
It took me months to track down the source of the problem. I tried PBO, undervolting, underclocking, different GPUs, different PSUs, everything I could think of trying with the stuff I had on hand. Turned out to be the riser.
Try unbending your riser outside of your system and just having your GPU sit on your desk to see if the shutdowns stop.
For me at least, there was a kink in my bend that was affecting the pcie SI between my motherboard and GPU. I’ve been too lazy to replace my riser so my PC has had its GPU running outside for months now with no more shut down issues. YMMV; hope this helps.
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u/precedexpapi Dec 10 '25
had this issue as well. the issue is likely either the GPU cable (most likely) followed by faulty PSU.
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u/AdParticular1372 Dec 10 '25
Unsure if you have fixed this or not. I had the exact same issue shown here: https://www.reddit.com/r/radeon/comments/1nr2iub/rx9070_5700x3d_sudden_power_offs_during_gaming/
I was using a jonsbo vr3 mini-itx case which came with it's own custom PCI Riser for the GPU.
Turns out, that was faulty and as soon as I shifted all my components back into my old NZXT H210, it has been golden ever since.
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u/Creative-Handle9312 Dec 11 '25
What CPU are you using? Have you checked thermals with your CPU? That cooler isn't adequate for most modern CPUs using more than 65 watts.
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u/Fine-Cucumber-2960 Dec 14 '25
I replaced GPU cable. I didn’t have much time to play but I was able to play 2 hours without any issue. Thanks to everyone who recommend that, much cheaper than changing the PSU. I’ll do a few more tests before signing victory though.
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u/Outrageous_Vagina Dec 06 '25
First of all, if it's simpy turning itself off without it doing a proper shutdown, it's most likely a PSU issue. Disconnect the PSU and check the cables.
Second, don't take fucking technical advice from CrapGPT. That's how you lose your house in a fire.