GPU problems, or PSU?

[Josh3467]

hello every one,
i have just built a new system, the first few times i booted my Asus motherboard told me there were power surges. i was a little worried, but after further research i discovered Asus support recommends to just shut it off. so no worrys there, installed xp and all drivers. Used the computer for a good 2 days, Played a decent amount of GTA4. it was running great. so i decided to try windows 7 out on it, after installing the VGA driver it would give me a BSOD at login every time. after more research, an apparent known problem (but not normally on boot) with that driver. after all this, i decided to ditch windows 7, stick with xp.
And this is where my problems started.it would just restart when i tryed booting xp, so i ended up just reinstalling windows xp on it. it worked fine untill, i try loading gta, it would restart... problem got worse after reinstalling windows again (thought maybe the drivers got messed up or something, cuz i couldnt get it out of 16bit mode, with dirvers) now it reboots when i go to the asus page to try to upgrade drivers, or when i try opening a picture... not wanting to deal with at the time being, i made it dual boot with Ubuntu. what also worked great at first. untill i installed the GPU driver for it.... after restarting, open the Nvida control panel thing, display goes all crazy, turns into patterns.. this is when i stiped using this computer. i dont want to break it.. its all brands new.
I'm worried it may be the PSU because of the MB telling me it was surging. when i check the volts in the bios, they seem to be pretty unsteady, but staying close to the +/- 5%. other times i checked it was stable as could be.
im worried it may be the GPU because of the restarting when opening GTA4, and having problems on 3 OS's after driver install. i just find it weird it worked fine before installing windows 7.
A friend told me to check the ram, i will be doing a memtest tonight.
a few more notes: i know its not over heating, good airflow, wire-management. A positive case pressure (3in:2out), good Cpu cooler, cold room temp. the power supply seems to be of low quality but,
heres a link to the PSU: http://www.xoxide.com/logisys-550w-pcix-clear.html
GPU:http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=o7FrMH9W00nDL1Ml
MB:http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=ef0qgvMIwOUagAVl
And ram:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

if u need any other stats/pics/whatever please ask.

Any and all help will be appreciated.

 

[Josh3467]

ok, so ram passes the mem test... any one ideas?

 

[T_T]

how long did you let MemTest86+ run?
Have you tried:
Verifying the correct RAM voltage and timing?
Booting with just one stick of RAM?
Clearing CMOS?
Using a different PSU?

in fact, just for the heck of it, take a look here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems

Just go through it all to double check. Don't skip on anything, and then come back with the results of the checklist.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

If your getting wavering voltage messages, that's a bad thing.

Download OCCT and run the CPU / Memory / GPU and PSU torture tests.....if voltages on graphs at end are not flat, get rid of the PSU.

 

[Josh3467]

i have verified ram voltages. they are at 1.9, but as for timing, i could not figure out how to check/change. bios only game me three options for timing. in fact i dont even know what ram timing is, ill have to wiki it later. i have cleared the cmos multiple times, and do not have another psu. MemTest86+ ran for 10 passes. and for that list, step 21. If you have integrated video and a video card, try the integrated video port. i was planning on trying this shortly too..

OCCT is a nice tool. it seem to run pretty steady in the program. however i witnessed my vcore voltage drop to .05 for about 1.5 seconds. only once in like 3 hours of testing, and it was in an idle stage. shortly after it froze and restarted.

EDIT: i pulled out the video card. and everything works fine.. but i was doing some more stress testing, and witnessed my vcore surge to 3.0 volts! during the same tests i also witnessed my 12V rail dropping to below acceptable limits. along with the 5V rail.... so obviously i need a better power supply. i shouldn't have cheeped out. but overall i have had no crashing using the On-board video. so does this mean, that both are bad?