- Sep 18, 2014
- 2
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- 4,510
I am currently having issues with a PC I built back in May 2014. Until recently there have been no problems with the PC. No new hardware or software was recently installed. The problems began on the 16th September. In the middle of playing World of Warcraft (WoW) my computer restarted without warning. I would describe it as a very brief power cut rather than a restart done by the OS. No BSOD came up. No other electrical items turned off leading me to believe the problem lies within the PC.
The problem happened twice again on the same day. On the third occurrence, the hard drive began making a noise that sounded like the "click of death". I thought the hard drive (used for non-OS data) was scrap but after waiting around 30 minutes the computer booted up fine. Thinking there was a drive issue I ran the chkdsk utility. I also ran a virus scan and sfc scannow to check for malware and corrupted system files. I also backed up my data.
The next day the computer booted up fine and worked as normal. Later the CPU fan briefly spun up to full speed for about a second or two before resuming normal operation. Because of this sudden change in fan speed I suspected overheating was causing the computer to shut down (all occurrences of restarting happened when playing WoW or having it running in the background when tabbed onto other applications). I monitored both GPU and CPU temperatures using SpeedFan and MSI Afterburner during a 1-hour session of WoW. Both temperatures maxed out at around 50 degrees C with no spikes. When the system was newly built I had stress tested the CPU and GPU using Prime 95 and MSI Kombustor; the maximum temperatures were around 60 degrees C for the CPU and 65 degrees C for the GPU if I recall correctly.
Later on the same day the computer reboots, again without warning. However the reboot was not successful. The drives could be heard spinning up, the GPU fans were spinning but the case fans and CPU fans were not. The computer was not going into BIOS, not giving a beep code, and not giving out a video signal. I disconnected all drives and the GPU and connected the display lead to the motherboard to run off the CPU iGPU. Again, the system would not boot into BIOS but I could hear the PSU going and the power on light was working. The power switches and reset switches were working fine. I cleared the CMOS by removing the motherboard battery for ½ an hour and shorting the CMOS jumpers. On replacing the battery the motherboard booted up into BIOS. I connected up all the components and the system booted fine.
Later the computer was running fine. Then about a few seconds after I tabbed into WoW from a browser window, the monitor no longer received a video signal and the GPU fans began running at max speed. The system was not restarting and I could still hear the drives spinning and see the case fans going. I had begun to suspect a faulty PSU because of the random restarts and three separate components (HDD, Motherboard then the GPU) sharing a common PSU were acting up. Also, tabbing into WoW would have meant the GPU would have demanded more power and perhaps, the PSU could not respond to the increased demand.
At this point I am unsure what to do. I do not have a known good PSU of adequate wattage to test the system and I am reluctant to use the system again in case the PSU catastrophically fails (if it is indeed the PSU) and takes other components with it. Any help and advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated as it seems anything could be wrong with my PC and I am not sure how to proceed. Here are my system specifications:
Motherboard: Gigabyte B85M-D2V Rev 1.1 F4 BIOS
CPU: Intel i5-4570
RAM: 8GB Patriot Black Mamba DDR3-1600MHz (2x4GB Set)
OS Drive: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
Data Drive: Samsung Spinpoint M8 500GB
PSU: XFX TS 550W 80 PLUS Gold
GPU: Single MSI Twin Frozr AMD Radeon R9 270
Case: Cooler Master N200 with 3 intake fans and 2 exhaust fans (all Arctic F12 PWM)
OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit
Optical Drive: LG CD/DVD RW I salvaged off my previous PC because it was still serviceable.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I do look forward to reading your comments and suggestions.
The problem happened twice again on the same day. On the third occurrence, the hard drive began making a noise that sounded like the "click of death". I thought the hard drive (used for non-OS data) was scrap but after waiting around 30 minutes the computer booted up fine. Thinking there was a drive issue I ran the chkdsk utility. I also ran a virus scan and sfc scannow to check for malware and corrupted system files. I also backed up my data.
The next day the computer booted up fine and worked as normal. Later the CPU fan briefly spun up to full speed for about a second or two before resuming normal operation. Because of this sudden change in fan speed I suspected overheating was causing the computer to shut down (all occurrences of restarting happened when playing WoW or having it running in the background when tabbed onto other applications). I monitored both GPU and CPU temperatures using SpeedFan and MSI Afterburner during a 1-hour session of WoW. Both temperatures maxed out at around 50 degrees C with no spikes. When the system was newly built I had stress tested the CPU and GPU using Prime 95 and MSI Kombustor; the maximum temperatures were around 60 degrees C for the CPU and 65 degrees C for the GPU if I recall correctly.
Later on the same day the computer reboots, again without warning. However the reboot was not successful. The drives could be heard spinning up, the GPU fans were spinning but the case fans and CPU fans were not. The computer was not going into BIOS, not giving a beep code, and not giving out a video signal. I disconnected all drives and the GPU and connected the display lead to the motherboard to run off the CPU iGPU. Again, the system would not boot into BIOS but I could hear the PSU going and the power on light was working. The power switches and reset switches were working fine. I cleared the CMOS by removing the motherboard battery for ½ an hour and shorting the CMOS jumpers. On replacing the battery the motherboard booted up into BIOS. I connected up all the components and the system booted fine.
Later the computer was running fine. Then about a few seconds after I tabbed into WoW from a browser window, the monitor no longer received a video signal and the GPU fans began running at max speed. The system was not restarting and I could still hear the drives spinning and see the case fans going. I had begun to suspect a faulty PSU because of the random restarts and three separate components (HDD, Motherboard then the GPU) sharing a common PSU were acting up. Also, tabbing into WoW would have meant the GPU would have demanded more power and perhaps, the PSU could not respond to the increased demand.
At this point I am unsure what to do. I do not have a known good PSU of adequate wattage to test the system and I am reluctant to use the system again in case the PSU catastrophically fails (if it is indeed the PSU) and takes other components with it. Any help and advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated as it seems anything could be wrong with my PC and I am not sure how to proceed. Here are my system specifications:
Motherboard: Gigabyte B85M-D2V Rev 1.1 F4 BIOS
CPU: Intel i5-4570
RAM: 8GB Patriot Black Mamba DDR3-1600MHz (2x4GB Set)
OS Drive: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB
Data Drive: Samsung Spinpoint M8 500GB
PSU: XFX TS 550W 80 PLUS Gold
GPU: Single MSI Twin Frozr AMD Radeon R9 270
Case: Cooler Master N200 with 3 intake fans and 2 exhaust fans (all Arctic F12 PWM)
OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit
Optical Drive: LG CD/DVD RW I salvaged off my previous PC because it was still serviceable.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I do look forward to reading your comments and suggestions.
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