Witcher 3 causes PC to restart randomly

Question

(Not sure if I am asking at the right site, as it might be software/hardware related and not exactly gaming. I guess I'll post this question on Arqade too.)

I have been having this problem since 2 days now. While playing the game, everything works fine, on ultra settings, with no overheating (max temp. 70). It has been working fine since the game as been released, and I have had no issues till recently. Nothing has changed on my PC since then.

Now, while playing the game, my PC just restarts. There are no errors, no lags, no game hang, etc. It just restarts as if some one pressed the hard restart button. Once the PC restarts, I start the game, and as soon as my previous save loads, the PC restarts again. (It restarts as soon as I enter play mode, has no problems while its showing the cut-scene while loading the game). I have tried starting and loading the game for 7 times now, my PC restarts as soon as it loads, every single time.

This happens only with Witcher 3 at the moment. It has rendered the game unplayable, as it restarts my PC immediately on starting to play. I do not think it is a hardware issue, as the game has been working flawlessly before the last 2 days. This PC restart problem is completely new, and pretty continuous in occurrence. I was thinking these sudden restarts might be because of the PSU, but I just got this PSU a month ago, and have been running Witcher 3 on it without any issues, till this happened.

My System Info:

CPU: i5 4690k

Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 5 (BIOS version 1.9)

GPU: MSI GTX 970 (NVIDIA Drivers: 353.06)

RAM: Kingston Hyper X 8GB RAM

PSU: Cooler Master V550w Gold Class

OS: Win 8.1 64 bit

This is what I have tried so far to look into the issue, with no luck in solving the issue unfortunately.

1. Detached and re-attached all cables from my PSU to the PC components, to ensure they are properly attached.
2. Tried other games to see if the problem persists (other games work fine)
3. Did a fresh clean installation of nvidia drivers, latest version (353.06)
4. Did a fresh clean installation of older nvidia drivers (Witcher 3 Game Ready Drivers)
5. Uninstalled and reinstalled the game
6. Used registry cleaner to check registry for any errors etc, cleaned if there were errors
7. Used System Restore to restore to a time when it was normally working (which is 2 days ago)
8. Turned of cutscene ubersampling in game visuals.ini file
9. Uninstalled MSI Afterburner and Riva Tuner (I was just using these to monitor and for OSD, no overclocking etc.)
10. Tried running the game on varying settings - Low, Med, High etc.
11. Tried running the 1.04 patch version, in case the issue was with patch 1.05
12. Tried running New Game instead of loading off a save, still had the same issue.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[EDIT]

On checking event logs on windows, I found out that at the exact moment my PC restarts, Critical Kernel Power (event ID 41) error.

Not sure if this gives more clues about the error.

Also, when I am playing, my GPU TDP is around 98-99%. I just started measuring TDP. Is that normal?

Solution 1

Applications shouldn't make the PC restart randomly at any circumstance, clearly your problem is not related to the game. It's hardware or driver issue.

It's always challenging to determine a defect when it happens at random, unfortunately the only reliable way to find out is changing parts until you find what was causing the issue.

Generally, it's memory. But it's not necessarily defect, sometimes something as simple as inverting the slots can solve the problem.

In this particular case, analyzing your settings, I can also suggest your PSU is dangerously lacking for the graphics card you have, that can be an issue in potential.

If you don't have access to a more robust PSU, you can try and see if shutting down unecessary hardware solves the issue. Unplug the optical drive, secondary disks and any external device you don't require to play the game and see if it solves (or at least mitigates) the problem. If positive, you need a more powerful PSU to have all your stuff running together.

Solution 2

Since the game used to work fine, it suggests it's not hardware, as you already mention. Although it could still be, but I'll address that later.

Since other games work fine and you've played with the settings (graphic settings/sound settings etc) coupled with the comments you made in your OP, the issue actually occurs when you load the game, suggesting one of two things is the issue:

1. The game file you are loading is corrupted
2. The game at this point is maxing your resources

If it's the first, then you can start a new game and see if the same issue persists. You may need to take a back up of the game file(s) if you need to restore them later (if possible).

If it's the second, I would suspect you'll see something in Event Viewer which will help you to debug it. I would suspect it's a power issue. Borrow a psu from some one to test it.

Solution 3

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions guys.

I finally found the issue, and it was indeed a faulty PSU.

I overlooked the option earlier as this PSU is very new, and very highly rated, gold class etc. Turns out it was a faulty piece. Because I tried with a much older PSU, 500w, and the problem disappeared.

Thanks for the suggestions and help again, every one.

Comments

[Universal Electricity]

Please avoid asking a question twice on 2 sites. Ask once, if it gets migrated, let it be and not having a dupe question.

[har00n86]

Thank you. I am trying to find out where it would be relevant for the above question. Could you advice? Based on that I will remove the question from one of the sites immediately. Thanks.

[Universal Electricity]

Don't delete it. Let the mods figure out which one is better and delete the other one. Just don't do it again

[Darius]

Check Event Viewer (I'm assuming this is a Windows machine) and see if there are any error just at the time of the shutdown?

[Dave]

Often the drivers you updated are not enough, also make sure that the chipset driver is also updated. +1 for a good clear question (although it probably deserves +10) :) Does the game offer settings before it loads, such as defining the graphic quality/sound quality etc. If so, make it as low as possible to test it and confirm if this still crashes?

[har00n86]

Thanks Dave. :) Yeah I am planning to re-update all my drivers, although I recently updated everything.

[har00n86]

Thanks for editing the question @Dave. Yeah, as mentioned, I have tried in various low-med graphic settings, but no luck.

[har00n86]

As soon as the game finishes loading. The manufacture logos, title screen etc., are all fine. I can stay on that screen forever and it wont have an issue. The PC reboots after I load game, after the loading is done and when I am about to start playing.

[Dave]

What happens if you start a new game?

[har00n86]

Same issue. Go into gameplay, walk around a bit and pc restarts

[Universal Electricity]

So this was the better site. The one on [gameing.SE] is now removed

[AStopher]

Power supply, 'nuff said.

[Ramhound]

Have tried starting a new game, to see if perhaps, the save file is just corrupted? I see you answered this question already. You need to update your question.

[Immortal Blue]

I have to admit, this does sound like a power supply issue. Borrow/ beg a known good off a mate. Expect hardware to fail shortly after purchase or after a few years.

[Ben Sampica]

What other games have you tested? Have you tried something as demanding as The Witcher 3? Try running some benchmarking software that really taxes your system. If it poofs, it's probably the power supply, as others have said.

[har00n86]

I have tested other taxing games like GTA V, COD: AW. However, this problem seems to be the most frequent only on Witcher 3. I am confused because the Witcher 3 has been working well for me till recently, and I have changed no settings in this time.

[AlanZ2223]

try to check the directories where the game is installed and see if there are any log dumps that could provide insight.

[har00n86]

Thank you for the reply. I thought it might be because of the save file, so I also loaded different save files, of previous points in game, and it restarts in all cases. Including new game.

[David says Reinstate Monica]

They shouldn't, doesn't mean they don't. Things happen, I've made some pretty crazy bugs here and there.

[Havenard]

@DavidGrinberg You can do any bug you want, if the system reboots because of it its system, driver or hardware fault. No exceptions. The MS-DOS era has been over for decades, modern systems control the hardware, not the application you are running.

[Havenard]

@Dave Just because it used to work doesn't automatically discard hardware fault, things break. Some high address memory sector can have gone bad, all work fine until you load something big enough (the game) to require mapping that area, and when you do, the system crash.

[David says Reinstate Monica]

Except for all the exceptions where this is incorrect. Its not common, and it probably (but not definitely) isnt the case here, but bugs are bugs, and the more code you write more you have (and modern systems have a lot more code).

[Dave]

I didn't. I considered the OP can load other games which is likely to have similar strains. Hardware typically works or doesn't. The likely issue is psu but that doesn't mean hardware fault

[Havenard]

@DavidGrinberg I don't think you realize whats the whole purpose of an operating system. Putting in simple terms, if its not protecting the other applications from an unstable one its not doing its job.

[David says Reinstate Monica]

I don't think you understand that systems aren't perfect and bugs aren't on purpose

[Havenard]

@DavidGrinberg It doesn't come to the point, if an unstable application is crashing your entire system, its system, driver or hardware fault. Theres no such lame excuse as "crazy bugs happen". Everything happens for a reason, and when the reason is system or driver, the manufacturers have the responsability to release updates to fix all the problems they can find, urgently, as they are major security issues.

[Havenard]

@DavidGrinberg You still don't get it. If the systems and drivers were perfect, they would never malfunction. They malfunction because they are NOT perfect. The point is, if they malfunction, who's fault is that, the system / driver manufacturer, or the application that is just trying to use them? The answer is always the manufacturer, because the system and drivers are never supposed to allow an application to prejudice the entire system. Its one of their most fundamental jobs to prevent that.

[David says Reinstate Monica]

Please see my previous comment about your beliefs on the state of systems and moving it over to a chat.

[Havenard]

@DavidGrinberg As a computer technician and software developer with 17 years of experience with a degree on computer science, I don't see any reason to keep this discussion going. I know exactly what I'm talking about.

[David says Reinstate Monica]

This might be a shock, but you aren't the only software developer out there (see: me). If you do not wish to continue this discussion, stop responding to my comments.

[ganesh]

You can accept your own answer. That wil stop this question from getting bumped now and then,