PSU Going Bad? Any way to test?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
P

pittguy578

Distinguished
Jul 19, 2010
37
0
18,530
My system has been randomly rebooting from time to time. It seems like it is mostly when I am loading BF4. It will crash at the loading screen right before the game is supposed to start. However, I have never had it actually crash in game. I was thinking maybe the start of the game may cause the power needed for the card to go up, but as I indicated above, it has never crashed when I am playing which I think would be more taxing to the PSU. It also seems like the crashes have correlated with Windows 8.1,,,but I am not 100% sure.

I am running Windows 8.1. I3770K not overclocked 16 GB Ram and a GTX660.
The power supply I have is a Corsair rated at 650 Watts. I got it around two years ago. I barely play games so I don't think I have ever taxed the PSU for very long. However, I guess things can just go bad. Any way to determine if it is PSU without switching it out?
 
Solution
R


I agree completely. My comments were...
Sort by date Sort by votes
Onus

Onus

Titan
Jan 27, 2006
37,037
12
89,965
Your PSU should be able to handle your system, no sweat. I'm more inclined to suspect RAM. Run some other demanding programs, such as benchmarks. Unigine Heaven will stress your graphics card pretty well. Prime95 will test your CPU and RAM. These will raise the power your system needs, at least as much as BF4. I have read that BF4 contains a lot of bugs, although I don't have it myself, so I can't confirm from personal experience.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
P

pittguy578

Distinguished
Jul 19, 2010
37
0
18,530
I did run Prime 95 last night with no issues. I will try to tax the graphics card later.
I was really hoping to do a refresh of Windows 8.1 to basically reset everything, but since I downloaded it without physical media it wouldn't let me do the system restore/refresh option. I didn't have time to burn a DVD with the ISO image to do that.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

ram1009

Distinguished
Jun 28, 2007
3,421
0
21,160
Your PSU can fail without being overloaded. I had a 630watt fail yesterday on a very lightly loaded machine. It produced some BSODs and error messages for a couple of weeks and then abruptly died completely. It had only been in service a couple of months. Unfortunately, there's no way outside of a laboratory environment to troubleshoot hardware problems except to replace suspected parts with known good ones. Good luck.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
rolli59

rolli59

Titan
Oct 27, 2007
47,790
283
130,890

Likely hood of failure is also brand based, 650 watt Corsair is quality but a 630watt PSU sounds like Raidmax or ThermalTake which both have high failure rates especially Raidmax. Explains their position here http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
P

pittguy578

Distinguished
Jul 19, 2010
37
0
18,530
I am going to Best Buy at lunch and getting a 750 W Corsair PSU just to have it. I did a system restore last night to the settings/progtams I had on 10/27/13, but it took so long I ended up falling asleep before it completed so I didn't have a chance to test it. If it crashes again I will just install it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

ram1009

Distinguished
Jun 28, 2007
3,421
0
21,160


I agree completely. My comments were intended to point out that an oversized PSU is no guarantee that it won't fail. BTW, that's a great list. Thanks for the link.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
Onus

Onus

Titan
Jan 27, 2006
37,037
12
89,965
No, it does not. Actually, leaving a system on all the time may actually lessen some stress on it. It won't be thermal-cycling, and inrush current when the power is switched on is one of the few stressors (however slightly) that affect electronics. This assumes, of course, that your mains electricity is stable and reliable, and that you use a decent surge suppressor or UPS.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Onus

Onus

Titan
Jan 27, 2006
37,037
12
89,965


Not so. Assuming the label is not a lie, a 650W PSU will provide up to 650W to attached components; that's not what it pulls from the wall. That is determined by its efficiency. A PSU that is only 70% efficient will need to pull almost 929W from the wall, but one that is 85% efficient will only need 765W to do the same thing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
P

pittguy578

Distinguished
Jul 19, 2010
37
0
18,530
Update as I indicated I had done a system restore to 10/27/13. I reinstalled all of the updates and the new NVIDIA drivers. I jumped in and out of 20 bf4 games trying to replicate the problem with no crashes.

I am not sure if it was caused by malware. Windows defender caught something , and then I ran spybot and it got 42 problems which were fixed.

I will try to stress it again tonight to make sure. Thanks for all of your replies
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom