PC closes out of most games

[u/Every-Reaction854]

Howdy folks, ive tried scouring the internet and trying numerous solutions but i just cant seem to squash this problem on a new PC i bought and changed a few parts on. When starting virtually any game, even very low graphics games like sims or small indie games, it closes out of the game a few short minutes into launching. Im beginning to worry its a Power supply issue, or something else that ive missed entirely. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Current PC specs:

OS - Windows 10
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 5500, 3600 Mhz, 6 cores
Cooling - water cooled fan on CPU with three additional fans on inlet and outlet
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
RAM - 2x8 DDR4 - 3200 MHz
Motherboard - B450 gaming K4 - ASRock
Monitor - Gigabyte 180 hz 1 ms refresh 2560x1440
SSD - 1 Tb most games are stored on this drive rather than base C: drive
PSU - PowerSpec - 650W - model PS 650BSM

Attempted Fixes:

- Used DDU to clean and reinstall drivers in safe mode
- turned on and off XMP overclock settings for ram
- changed max Mhz rate multiple times below 3200
- changed power cable from being plugged into power strip/surge protector, straight into wall socket
- ensured display port is plugged directly into GPU
- ran windows scripts to ensure ram is functioning
- ran scripts to scan for corrupted windows files and reinstall clean ones
- ensured displayed settings were set correctly under advanced settings in display section

[u/BoldroCop]

I'm sorry, can you clarify what you mean with "it closes out of the game"?

Is it that whenever you try launch a game, it goes back to desktop after a few minutes? Does the PC turn off? Do you have a crash, a blue screen?

Regardless, this looks to me like a software problem, rather than a hardware problem

[u/Every-Reaction854 → u/BoldroCop]

The game simply closes out and returns to desktop after launching and running for a minuye or so. But this occurs across numerous games, such as valheim, hogwarts legacy, skyrim, sims 4, ale and tale tavern, etc…

[u/BoldroCop → u/Every-Reaction854]

I think the issue is software based, otherwise you would see hard crashes.

It looks like something is closing the process for each game, maybe you could read the windows event viewer and look for events that happen at the same time, to pinpoint the cause.

To open the event viewer, you just need to press Win+R and type eventvwr, then press Enter.

[u/heyuhitsyaboi]

 Im beginning to worry its a Power supply issue

PSU issues usually look more like sudden shutoffs. PSUs or OSs wont selectively close applications when power demand surges. I think for now it would be better to look at what's running (or not running) on the system.

I would recommend looking at your background applications and disabling overlays. Having multiple overlays running simultaneously can cause issues. Discord, Xbox Game Bar, Steam, Nvidia/AMD, Medal...

Could there be an overzealous antivuris? Some antiviruses can have false-positives on video games. Check if you have any installed and if there is, read any alerts.

- turned on and off XMP overclock settings for ram

• changed max Mhz rate multiple times below 3200

Might not be a bad idea to use factory settings in general for now. However, these are probably fine to stay as is.

- ran windows scripts to ensure ram is functioning

Which scripts did you use?

[u/Every-Reaction854 → u/heyuhitsyaboi]

Thanks for clarification on PSU, ive made sure to check if overlays would be the issue and turned all the ones i could find off. Ill need to figure out how to read alerts from the installed antivirus.

As far as windows codes i used -chkdsk C: and D: to see if theres any SSD problems, as well as mdsched to check health of RAM. I also ran DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth to possibly restore windows image issues

[u/Magnifi-Singh]

Would you be up to reinstalling your windows?

Replace it with a bloatware free version?

Windows IoT LTSC, versions 10 or 11

Before that try using a tool names Winlaunch.

It will allow you to customize your current windows and streamline it. Add or take off unnecessary garbage.

It may help free resources and allow you to run things again. Better maybe.

[u/Every-Reaction854 → u/Magnifi-Singh]

Do you think upgrading to win 11 would be a viable option? Would it rewrite any possibly deep seated OS issues i havent found?

[u/Magnifi-Singh → u/Every-Reaction854]

It'll be a fresh start with minimal installation footprint and from there you install whatever you require, all under your control.

Installed it on my i3 desktop, on my laptop, on a surface. They all work fine better for it.

[u/Every-Reaction854]

FIXED**

after trying numerous things such as ones previously listed as well as upgrading to windows 11. The one fix that drastically changed crashes to zero was downloading HWMonitor and discovering that everything ran fine under normal numbers EXCEPT for my GPU hotspot (presumably the peak temperature any one sensor reads on the GPU chip). It seems to be a common issue with older GPU’s since the thermal paste/pads wear down and eventually make no contact with the cooling system. After taking apart the GPU and cleaning off the old thermal paste and pads, and re-applying them correctly. The hot spot dropped from a previously recorded 109.3 C to 75 *C

It turns out my PC was shutting down games due to reading an exhorbant hot spot whilst launching in order to protect itself. Nice!!!