Troubleshooting Persistent PC Restarts During League of Legends Gameplay
Experiencing unexpected system restarts while gaming can be highly frustrating, especially when standard troubleshooting steps don’t resolve the issue. Recently, I encountered a persistent problem where my PC would spontaneously reboot whenever I launched League of Legends. Despite extensive efforts, the issue persisted. I want to share the steps I took to diagnose and address this problem in hopes of helping others facing similar challenges.
Initial Troubleshooting and Maintenance
To begin, I meticulously performed basic maintenance procedures:
- System Formatting: I reformatted the operating system to rule out software conflicts or corruption.
- Thermal Management: Applied fresh thermal paste and cleaned the entire internal components of the PC to ensure optimal cooling.
- Physical Cleaning: Used contact cleaner spray to eliminate dust and debris that could impair component performance.
- Hardware Upgrades: Replaced the RAM with new memory modules to eliminate potential memory faults.
- Enhanced Cooling: Added three additional case fans to improve airflow and maintain acceptable temperatures.
Analyzing the Symptoms and Gathering Clues
After these steps, the system continued to restart during gameplay. Notably, I observed that during a crash:
- The RGB lighting and case fans remained powered, indicating that the PC didn’t fully shut down, but rather entered a restart loop.
- Temperatures were within safe limits, and stress testing did not reveal overheating issues.
- The error messages hinted at a kernel error related to the anti-cheat system Vanguard, which is known to interfere with deep system processes.
Speculating on the Root Cause
Given these observations, I theorized that the restart might be linked to conflicts between the anti-cheat software and certain kernel-level operations. The fact that the system rebooted without complete shutdown, with fans and RGB staying active, suggests a possible software or driver conflict rather than a hardware power supply issue.
Next Steps and Recommendations
While I haven’t yet identified the definitive cause, here are some recommended steps to troubleshoot similar issues:
- Update Drivers and BIOS: Ensure all device drivers, especially graphics and motherboard firmware, are up to date.
- Check Event Viewer: Review Windows Event Logs around the time of crashes to identify specific error codes or warnings.
- Disable Anti-Cheat Temporarily: Test by temporarily disabling Vanguard to see if the restarts cease.
- Test Power Supply: Although the behavior suggests otherwise, testing with a different power supply unit can rule out power issues.
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