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HELP! Do I need a new PSU?

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  • GPUs
  • Power Supplies
  • Computers
  • Components
Last response: in Components
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March 10, 2014 3:12:06 PM

I bought a new PC last year on Newegg and it has ran very well up until a few days ago. I got my taxes back and decided to finally upgrade my video card. The one that came with the computer was an Nvidia Geforce GT 610 and what I upgraded to was an Nvidia Geforce GTX 660. After installing it and the new drivers I went straight to league of legends and changed my graphics settings from low to ultra. Everything looked awesome and I went from 30 fps to 150 fps. After about a day my game froze and forced me to restart my computer. The computer freezes started to happen more frequently up to about 6-7 times a day. I decided to use a few utilities such as CPUID, Speccy, Crystaldiskinfo, and the built in windows memory tester to see what I could find. Everything seems to be running at good temps and there were no errors found in my RAM, GPU, HDD. I decided to switch my old GPU back in to see if maybe the new card was just bad some how but the computer freezes are still occuring. My psu is obviously crap and the wattage barely meets the 450w requirement found on the nvidia website for the 660. any help will be appreciated and sorry for the long story.

Here is a screen shot I took with the program utilities running.
http://i.imgur.com/rCDlFiw.jpg

My computer specs are:
OS: Windows 8
RAM : 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
GPU : 1023MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 (EVGA)
(New GPU : 2048MB Nvidia Geforce GTX 660 (MSI))
CPU : AMD FX-6100 six-core processor
PSU: Solid Gear SDGR 500w
Mobo: MS 7641

More about : psu

a b ) Power supply
March 10, 2014 3:19:06 PM

Do a clean uninstall of your drivers, then a fresh install.

Aside from that, yes, a new PSU is highly recommend, as your current PSU only supplies 26A to a 12V rail; which means it's only supplying about 312W.
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March 10, 2014 3:34:56 PM

I should add too that right before the computer freezes up my HDD makes a couple clicking noises. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid but I thought i'd throw it out there for the people more knowledgeable than I. It has always made clicking noises whenever is was reading/writing. I guess I never really noticed until the frequent freezes.
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a c 1218 ) Power supply
March 10, 2014 3:40:12 PM

The fact that the Solid Gear Basix SDGR-500BX didn't come with any PCI Express supplementary power connectors tells me that they didn't think the PSU was even capable of powering a graphics card that required them.

Solid Gear claims ATX 12V v2.3 and EPS 12V v2.91 compatibility but the use of PCI Express supplementary power connectors are part of those standards.

The voltages displayed in HWMonitor for the +12V rail is definitely wrong. Your system wouldn't even start up if the +12V rail was really operating at 9.152 Volts minimum to 9.504 Volts maximum. Try the freeware utility HWiNFO64. It can't be worse than HWMonitor.
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March 10, 2014 3:42:32 PM

It could be a problem with power as said. If it is trying to supply the new graphics card and the old parts It may not be able to supply everything sufficiently constantly. A new psu could really help. I would not throw out the harddrive without making a backup of windows first, and I would wait to throw it away.
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March 10, 2014 4:16:43 PM

ko888 said:
The fact that the Solid Gear Basix SDGR-500BX didn't come with any PCI Express supplementary power connectors tells me that they didn't think the PSU was even capable of powering a graphics card that required them.

Solid Gear claims ATX 12V v2.3 and EPS 12V v2.91 compatibility but the use of PCI Express supplementary power connectors are part of those standards.

The voltages displayed in HWMonitor for the +12V rail is definitely wrong. Your system wouldn't even start up if the +12V rail was really operating at 9.152 Volts minimum to 9.504 Volts maximum. Try the freeware utility HWiNFO64. It can't be worse than HWMonitor.


Here is a screen shot with that program that you linked running. http://imgur.com/2nCAYs2

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a c 1218 ) Power supply
March 10, 2014 4:25:15 PM

kiliens said:
Here is a screen shot with that program that you linked running. http://imgur.com/2nCAYs2



Have you used MSI Control Center? At least this utility should know how to interpret the motherboard sensor chip's output signals.

You can also try commercial utilities if you're willing to pay for them.

Most freeware utilities are lacking support for a lot of motherboards.
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March 10, 2014 4:26:08 PM

XxD34THxX said:
DEFINITELY GET A NEW PSU. If can barely even meet the requirements, Why are you using it? I'd say to get at least 550. Here is a great one with 650 Watts.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045L5LGI/ref=ox_sc_a...


Honestly I didnt even give it a thought when I was buying the new GPU. It only occured to me after the freezes started happening. I've already purchased a new certified PSU from newegg but I wanted to get some feedback from people to possibly pinpoint the problem. My initial thought was "failing PSU" but what I can't put my finger on is the issue with putting my old card back in but the freezes continue to happen. I had not a SINGLE hiccup with this rig until I installed the new video card. The PSU obviously couldn't handle the big and beasty new GPU but shouldn't it still work with the baby GT 610? Or did I manage to fry it partially? Its weird sometimes my computer only stays on for 20-30 minutes, and sometimes it can go 4-6 hours without any freezes.

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a c 1218 ) Power supply
March 10, 2014 4:30:53 PM

If you've stressed the Solid Gear Basix SDGR-500BX enough to deteriorate the components within the PSU even further then the instability problems will usually remain even when you revert back to a lower powered GPU.
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March 10, 2014 4:41:36 PM

ko888 said:
kiliens said:
Here is a screen shot with that program that you linked running. http://imgur.com/2nCAYs2



Have you used MSI Control Center? At least this utility should know how to interpret the motherboard sensor chip's output signals.

You can also try commercial utilities if you're willing to pay for them.

Most freeware utilities are lacking support for a lot of motherboards.


That's a cool little program there I had no clue existed. I updated my BIOS and chipset. Not sure it will do anything for the current problem but thanks none the less!
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March 10, 2014 4:43:20 PM

ko888 said:
If you've stressed the Solid Gear Basix SDGR-500BX enough to deteriorate the components within the PSU even further then the instability problems will usually remain even when you revert back to a lower powered GPU.


Yea that's what I figured, but again I always like to ask people who are vastly more knowledgeable first, like yourself, first.
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a b ) Power supply
March 13, 2014 5:50:12 PM

Your power supply is really a 350-375 watt unit.
I has what we call a liar label. It can do 500 watts for a few milliseconds at start up but can only output 350-375 max under constant load. It is heavy on the 3.3 and5v lines which are hardly used in new computers.
You probably damaged the cheap capicators by overheating it with the 660 running.
Now it can not even supply enough power for the 610 reliably..
A new power supply is recommended ,just don't buy another elcheapo like the one you have or you will wind up having the same problems again.
Make sure the power supply you are buying is in tier 3 or above on this list.
If yours new one is not listed post the brand and model number and we will advise if it is good or not.
Some makers have good and bad models so name is not always a good indicator of quality.
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
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