A strange power switch behaviour

Goes to sleep, meaning it's still powered on? I have experienced grounding issues where a computer would just shut down without warning, but if sleeping meaning it's still powered on, i do not know. Shutting down completely in a blink of an eye, could be a grounding issue.

But the other case could be an issue with the power supply unit.

Do you experience the same during longer non-gaming sessions?

I don't know if it's the motherboard specifically. It could be a grounding issue anywhere, or a faulty switch. They may have disassembled the whole system during the repair. The switch itself could be at fault. I had to just leave the reset switch on my case disconnected because after about a year, every time the case was bumped it would reset the machine. The fact that touching one part or another of the switch affects it may just be down to the way the circuit is closed when you touch it, since you touching the case may provide another path that prevents it working properly. It's almost certainly a refurbished motherboard that they installed in it anyway.

You said "afterwards" but you say it was repaired last year. How long ago is "last year"? How long has it been doing this? If it was immediately when you got it back, then it was a faulty repair you should have reported right away, and they didn't recognize the issue because they just tested that the machine booted up and didn't run it for a long period. If it's still under warranty, call it in. If not, you can try disassembling it and putting it back together again yourself just to make sure all the parts are properly connected, but with a switch integrated on the motherboard like that you don't really have many options for repair short of desoldering it and wiring up a replacement.

I've never seen a desktop PC large enough to hold a video card but designed where the power switch could also be directly on the motherboard.

kabirr879 said:

I think there is a serious hardware problem with it. If it goes to sleep or shut down during the gaming hours then I can be due to that your system is not fulfilling the minimum requirements to run such games.

I would recommend you to contact a technician who can point out or fix if there is any hardware issue with the device.

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What a generic response.

If it's a power switch issue, you could test it by changing what the button does on the power options page. You can change it from sleep to power off and see if it does shutdown, instead of just going to sleep. If it still goes to sleep, it might be something else (maybe drivers rather than anything hardware related).

First of all, we need some more system information. CPU model, or Thinkcentre model so that we can figure out what else is inside it. I have a feeling it's a power supply unit that isn't capable of handling the load, or something overheating.

When you say overheating, have you opened the case just after it went to sleep and checked if any components was in fact overheating? Is the power supply unit designed for the extra load with your RX6400? Have you heard the fans working hard when you game?

But to rule out anything, check your power settings as @reckless_sniper posted above, but make sure it's set to always on in all cases to rule out any software configuration at least.
After that, i would immediately open the case the next time it happened, checked also CPU temperatures. How does it behave when you are not gaming on it? Does it go to sleep then as well? If not, it's not the switch.

Prime95 is designed to really give your system a workout (without the RX6400) and it shouldn't take long to fail if it's something overheating. Monitor the cpu temperatures also while it's working: https://openhardwaremonitor.org/ and report back to us.

https://www.guru3d.com/download/prime95-download/

If it happens again, then remove the RX6400 and do it again, still monitoring.

Made in Hurry said:

First of all, we need some more system information. CPU model, or Thinkcentre model so that we can figure out what else is inside it. I have a feeling it's a power supply unit that isn't capable of handling the load, or something overheating.

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It's an OEM system that was previously (presumably) working just fine with the RX 6400 which doesn't require very much power at all, only 53W, well within the specs of the PCIe slot so any system with a slot that accepts the card should have enough power, so unless they changed out the power supply during the motherboard replacement with one that didn't meet the original specs, none of the comments about the design of the system are at all relevant. An overheating system wouldn't just be going to sleep, it would be crashing or throttling if it was the CPU or the GPU. It doesn't sound like it's limited to gaming, given that it goes back down within a few minutes of booting it up again. But running it without the GPU installed for a while is at least one easy way to verify that it's not the problem. But any sort of performance and power issues would not be causing it to just go to sleep. It would be either throttling or just shutting down unexpectedly.

You can open an elevated (run as administrator) command prompt and run the command: powercfg /sleepstudy
It should provide an output with information about the cause of recent power state changes (on, shutdown, hibernate, standby, etc.). That might be helpful. You can line up the times with your use and when you noticed issues.

Lord Evermore said:

What a generic response.

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I'm curious about these Indian posters who always type stuff like this.

I'm wondering if they've decided to commit to venturing further afield from answers.microsoft.com

senan79 said:

Is it due to the technician not installing the motherboard properly ? Any ideas on how to fix this?

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On topic, first thing to check is your BIOS version. If it's old, update it. (might be an idea to reset it to defaults as well in the process, then tweak it later) Then run it for a while.

First if there is a reset button on the case I'd swap the power switch and reset switch wires around and use the reset switch as the power switch.

Second given its an Lenovo Office Desktop there is probably an case intrusion switch wired up. I'd remove that switch cable and replace it with a jumper.

grstanford said:

First if there is a reset button on the case I'd swap the power switch and reset switch wires around and use the reset switch as the power switch.

Second given its an Lenovo Office Desktop there is probably an case intrusion switch wired up. I'd remove that switch cable and replace it with a jumper.

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He mentioned that the power button is integrated on the motherboard.

Lord Evermore said:

He mentioned that the power button is integrated on the motherboard.

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Or he could be confusing the case intrusion switch for the power switch.

grstanford said:

Or he could be confusing the case intrusion switch for the power switch.

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Maybe, but I've never seen that mounted on the motherboard either. And I'd assume he can tell whether the button on the board is anywhere near where the button on the outside of the case is located.

reckless_sniper said:

If it's a power switch issue, you could test it by changing what the button does on the power options page. You can change it from sleep to power off and see if it does shutdown, instead of just going to sleep. If it still goes to sleep, it might be something else (maybe drivers rather than anything hardware related).

Shut down, sleep, or hibernate your PC - Microsoft Support

Learn how to shut down, sleep, or hibernate your PC

support.microsoft.com

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This ++

My best guess given what you've said above...

senan79 said:

When the issue happened, KDE gave me a shutdown dialog

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..is that maybe you have a faulty power button that sometimes makes contact even if you didn't do anything. Windows registers it as a button press and does what the power button is set up to do, ie sleep. When you were running Linux, you got the same thing, except Linux usually defaults to what you saw, ie a dialog box where you can choose your action.

In Windows settings you can have the power button "Do Nothing" (in Windows 10 this setting is in the Control Panel rather than the normal "Settings" app).

Anyhow - I woudn't be surprised if, after you change the setting to "Do Nothing", you don't experience this issue anymore. And if you do, it tells you that it probably isn't a hardware issue.

senan79 said:

SystemSleepTransitionsToOn

4194305

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4.1 MILLION transitions from sleep?! That's a transition every 23 seconds if the system is 3 years old (and not accounting for time that it's just been turned off, or was away for repair, or you were running Linux).

I just checked my event log, and since my system doesn't sleep (power switch is set to Shutdown, or occasionally I'll Hibernate from the menu) mine shows 0 for this event.

Changing the button setting to Do Nothing will probably prevent this happening for you (you'd probably already have problems trying to force a shutdown by holding it down), but there's clearly one hardware failure already and you should at least have some money set aside for a replacement in case something else happens. Or maybe you can buy just a mainboard for it. It sounds like you're having trouble just turning it on so you'll have to decide if it's worth keeping it with that hassle.

senan79 said:

After two weeks of use, the solution worked. Nowadays crashing happens only if I try to game at very high settings for a long time causing overheating at 35C room. No more random crashes or sudden sleeping when browsing or normal gaming. That is good enough for me now.

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Good Lord, 35C? The system probably starts to throttle as soon as you turn it on! I wouldn't be able to concentrate on a game in that environment.

Yeah, maybe switch hobbies from gaming to baking?