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PSU failing? Driver problem? I'm not sure what to do.

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  • Crash
  • Components
  • psu
Last response: in Components
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July 16, 2013 12:45:27 PM

Hello guys, I've decided to ask you for your help cause I am not sure what to think anymore.

So, recently my PC has begun crashing while playing video games or under any other stress related activities (such as rendering etc). The crash results in a sudden blacksreen and then shutdown of the PC, then it reboots itself. Most of the times the reboot is reaaaaaally slow, one time it was corrupted in some way (windows could not read my profile). Today I got a BSOD, so I decided to run a memtest, but everything with the memory is fine.

The PC crashes only under stress, I don't believe it's due to overheating (I've been monitoring the temps and they're fine, both CPU and VGA). I bought this PC (used) a year ago, everything was fine with it, but the guy said that the PSU is a little old and may begin to malfunction in the future.

Here are my specs:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA770-ud3 AMD 770

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto

Memory: Kingstorn HyperX DDR2 2x2gb

GPU: Geforce GT240 1gb

I am running Microsoft Windows 7 (6.1) Ultimate Edition 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601).

I updated my VGA drivers 3 days ago, but the problem occured yesterday.

Also, I have no idea what brand my PSU is, tried looking at it but I gathered no information whatsoever, so shitty no-name I believe.

I've been monitoring the wattage using HWmonitor and Speedfan. The voltage on +12 vary between 12,02 and 11,10 (once it dropped to 5 and crashed while I was playing). Same with +3.3.




http://www.sendspace.com/file/zltb5m <--- Here's the link to the crashdump file after the BSOD.

I've already ordered a new PSU, hopefully it is the case.

Halp.

More about : psu failing driver problem

July 16, 2013 1:07:33 PM

I believe you are on the right path to correct the problem. Those 12V low readings will crash the PC.
The question becomes; did anything else get damaged?
You won't know until you hook up your new PSU.

2d question: What PSU did you buy?
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July 16, 2013 1:15:00 PM

nostall said:
I believe you are on the right path to correct the problem. Those 12V low readings will crash the PC.
The question becomes; did anything else get damaged?
You won't know until you hook up your new PSU.

2d question: What PSU did you buy?


Hey man, thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it.

1:Well, I'm writing from the very same PC, it runs well, even the games run the same as before. So everything is fine I guess. They just randomly make my PC crash. Sometimes, these are the games crashing and sometimes they take the entire PC with them.

2nd question: I've bought OCZ CoreXStream Series 500W. I have read it's decent, maybe not top-notch stuff but it should be better than what I've got installed right now.
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July 16, 2013 1:36:44 PM

Sounds like the equipment is o.k. That's good news.
But if that PSU is acting up, I would shut it down until the new PSU arrives.

The PSU you ordered will probably work all right with your system. It is manufactured by HEC. It is only rated to 30degreesC, so if you are gaming etc. and the temps go up above that (in side the case and PSU) it will probably not give you full power BUT your system will probably never need all 500watts. It is not 80Plus certified, but that may not matter in this case.

Nvidia recommends a 300 Watt minimum PSU with min. 18amps on the 12V rail; your new OCZ is rated at 34 (combined); Nvidia also says that the max. wattage of that card is 69 watts.

Hope all this has helped. When you have it installed and running repost and let the forum know if that cures the system.
Don't forget to eventually select a Best Answer so that the forum can recognize the thread as closed/solved.
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July 16, 2013 1:49:32 PM

nostall said:
Sounds like the equipment is o.k. That's good news.
But if that PSU is acting up, I would shut it down until the new PSU arrives.

The PSU you ordered will probably work all right with your system. It is manufactured by HEC. It is only rated to 30degreesC, so if you are gaming etc. and the temps go up above that (in side the case and PSU) it will probably not give you full power BUT your system will probably never need all 500watts. It is not 80Plus certified, but that may not matter in this case.

Nvidia recommends a 300 Watt minimum PSU with min. 18amps on the 12V rail; your new OCZ is rated at 34 (combined); Nvidia also says that the max. wattage of that card is 69 watts.

Hope all this has helped. When you have it installed and running repost and let the forum know if that cures the system.
Don't forget to eventually select a Best Answer so that the forum can recognize the thread as closed/solved.


Thank you for the answer!

Thanks for the info. Now I'm pretty sure that the new PSU will positively affect my rig.
I know people use the PSU I ordered even with more demanding configurations and it runs well, so I guess it should run fine.

I will update the thread in 1-2 days time, the PSU should be here after tomorrow. I'm pretty confident it will help though you can never be 100% sure with electronics. BTW, I hate when people don't tell if the advice actually helped :D 
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July 17, 2013 10:16:18 AM

Hello guys, I'm back. Today I received the new PSU, replaced the old one and everything seems to be alright. Temperatures went down a bit. Compared to the previous PSU this one is reaaaaaally quiet. I mean, the older one just went buzzing so loud that I usually had a hard time putting up with it. Previously I was having problems playing games (no matter which ones, it always resulted with a shutdown) from 10 to 20 minutes, then it would shutdown randomly. Just right now I've been playing Borderlands 2 for 90 minutes straight and no crashes whatsoever.

Also I managed to figure out what the faulty PSU was, it was a "Take Me 400w". I also noticed that it has been tinkered with. I'm not even angry, just glad no other component went down with it :D .


tl;dr: it was the PSU
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July 17, 2013 10:24:26 AM

Great! Game on, enjoy the quiet, stay healthy!
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