PC shuts down unexpectedly after new graphics card install

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adamthekiwi

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Mar 1, 2017
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Hi folks,

I have a fairly old PC that I thought I would update a little in order to try some modern games, but it's just shutting down, no warning, when I start them up.

I've just added an EVGA GTX 970 (replacing 2 * 9800GT, SLI); mainboard is an Asus P8Z68V-Gen3, CPU is Core i5 2500k with 16GB (4x4GB - Corsair Vengeance 1600), not overclocked at the moment. PSU is an older NesteQ NA5201 - 520W. Other power requirements: Blu Ray writer, SATA HDD, 2 SSDs, 3 * 120mm fan and 140mm on CPU cooler, a small number of USBs, including a 7-port powered USB3 hub on PCI-e (although not heavily used yet).

I've *just* installed Steam for the first time, and downloaded Eve Online and ArcheAge (really, just to try out the system). Every time I've started either so far (well, 3 times as far as character customisation in Eve and the only time I tried connecting to ArcheAge) the PC has just stopped - no drama, no warning, just a hard power-down.

The new card should have a lower TDP than the 2 it replaced, which makes me wonder if it is something with the card (bought second-hand from ebay)? Having said that, I've not tried to stress the old cards with modern games... No other symptoms or problems. Drivers installed anew from EVGA support site.

New PSU? Duff card? Something else?

Thanks for any insights.

Adam...
 
Solution
DRagor
I think I did hear of situations where Steam overlay would cause some kind of software conflict with games, but that would end in crash of the game or comp freeze, not a power-down. However, might be worth checking. Try playing those Steam games with Steam overlay turned off.
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adamthekiwi

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Mar 1, 2017
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Thanks DRagor. Yeah, you're right - this is an old PSU (it pre-dates the mainboard/CPU combination by a few years). Unfortunately, I don't have another PSU, nor another PC to try the card in.

It would be good to know if this is a symptom of a duff card: that would save me buying a new PSU and then finding I have to replace the card anyway. I will uninstall and reinstall the drivers before I try anything else, though...
 
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adamthekiwi

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Mar 1, 2017
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Yeah - difficult one to diagnose without being able to do as you suggested - move the card or change the PSU. So, I've ordered a new, more powerful PSU anyway (SeaSonic 650W Prime) because, hey, my current one is old and I can find other uses for it.

I've installed NZXT Cam to monitor temperatures and fan speeds, and tried playing around with it again this morning. I started up ArcheAge and got much further through creating a character - I saw CPU and GPU loads and temperatures rising (as expected) but not to unreasonable levels: the GPU fans started up and stabilised the temperature at about 70degC, loads went up to 63%; CPU loads on all cores went very high, but temperatures remained in the 40s. And then it suddenly let go again... That's making me think it's a PSU issue - the card was obviously working OK for a while...

The one other thing maybe worth mentioning is that I deleted the drivers and re-downloaded them. On first installation attempt they reported that there was no suitable hardware. A reboot fixed that.

Anyway, thanks for the help so far. Any other insights would be gratefully received. I've opened a support ticket with EVGA and ordered a new PSU - I might try reinstalling the old cards to see if they can cope with the same conditions. Not sure there's much else to do for now.

 
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DRagor

DRagor

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Jan 23, 2017
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That actually would be bad sign for GPU. Or a PCIe slot. Could you try moving the card to second (white) PCIe slot for a test to rule out bad motherboard slot?
 
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adamthekiwi

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I hadn't thought of that - will try the second slot tonight. Thanks - will reply to this thread (in case anyone else is interested)...
 
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adamthekiwi

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Mar 1, 2017
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So, interestingly, I've tried a few more games - not Steam - and there is no problem running them. Playing the Halo Wars 2 demo, I get high GPU utilisation, and the fans hold the temperature steady around 69°C-71°C, all 4 CPU cores getting into the 80s% utilisation and temps holding in the mid-40s°C. This is much higher than when Steam games cause the PC to die...
 
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DRagor

DRagor

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Jan 23, 2017
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I think I did hear of situations where Steam overlay would cause some kind of software conflict with games, but that would end in crash of the game or comp freeze, not a power-down. However, might be worth checking. Try playing those Steam games with Steam overlay turned off.
 
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