Launching Game Causes Computer Restart

Age of Empires II: DE Ask for Help
1

Hello all,

First post, made this account specifically to ask about an issue that has popped up recently, apologies if this is the wrong board.

I’m a casual player on Steam, in all I have about 67 hours in 2 years, so I go long stretches without playing. Recently I’ve felt the urge to play, so I grabbed all the missing DLC on sale and tried to fire the game up. Unfortunately, time and again the splash screen will display, then my whole PC will restart. I tried disabling Rise of Rome and was able to launch the game. Refunded Rise of Rome, and I spent a few hours yesterday happily playing Battle for Greece with no issue.

Today, however, the game is right back to causing restarts while loading. I’m at a loss. I’ve tried the normal stuff such as verifying files, but am stuck. I’d rather not keep subjecting my poor computer to random restarts, so I’m looking for help. My PC build is a couple years old, but reliably runs new games full blast without issue. If Cyberpunk with full path tracing isnt an issue, I’m doubtful this is hardware related.

Windows 10
AMD 5900X
NVIDIA 4080 Super
Game running off of an NVME SSD

Please help.

Thanks,

Ryan

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To update:

After posting, I conducted a full reinstall and was able to play without issue for a day or two. Today, the issue has returned.

Should I have posted this in Bug Reports instead?

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Hey @SpacemanRyan, was the full reinstall of your OS or of the game?

A couple Hardware related items I would check would be the following:

  1. Power Supply Unit (PSU) Check: Even though your PC handles demanding games like Cyberpunk, random restarts can sometimes point to a PSU issue. Ensure your PSU is delivering consistent power, especially since the NVIDIA 4080 Super can be power-hungry.
  2. Driver Updates: Double-check that your GPU drivers are up-to-date. Sometimes, specific games or DLCs can trigger issues if the drivers aren’t optimized.
  3. Windows Event Viewer: After a restart, check the Event Viewer logs for any error messages or warnings. This can provide clues about what’s causing the crash.
  4. Thermal Monitoring: Use software like MSI Afterburner to monitor CPU and GPU temperatures. Overheating could be a hidden culprit, even if it hasn’t been an issue with other games.

Generally, when your whole PC restarts it is indicative of a Hardware, not software related failure.