My computer has been starting to go downhill lately, and I'm having a tough time tracking down the problem. My best guess is the power supply, but I'd like to hear what you all think before I replace anything.
A month or two ago I replaced a 8500gt graphics card with a 240gt. There were a bunch of small issues with card, and it took me 2 days to get it working correctly. The problems started about that time, but I am pretty sure that the problems I am having now are not directly the cards fault, especially because the problems persisted when I put the 8500gt back in. But I thought I'd put that out there. Here are some of the things it has been doing:
Temporary hangs: These occur somewhat frequently, and usually during a graphic intensive game or video, where the sound will continue on but the visual is frozen for anywhere from 5 seconds to 30 seconds. Sometimes the graphics drivers crash*(see below)
Complete freezes: Requires a hard boot. These happen more frequently than the hangs, but seem more random. Sometimes its during a game, sometimes browsing the web, sometimes its from the desktop with absolutely nothing running. I'm pretty sure this has been happening more and more often since it started, and it still baffles me that it doesn't require the computer to be doing anything intensive to happen most of the time.
Crashes: No BSoDs, just shuts off. But I think it's only when I plug a USB device in. I don't think I'm overloading the USB ports though, because I've only got 2-3 things plugged in. This is what made me think it was my PSU.
*This may be unrelated, but once and awhile, when my drivers crash, explore.exe will also crash, along with any java, adobe, monitoring software, printer services, ect that are running in the background, and they will try to restart, and then crash again, over and over until I restart the computer.
I also monitor my temps, and they are still fine under heavy loads, so nothing is overheating.
I've had people suggest memory problems, a dying psu, a bad motherboard, and the graphics card.
The PC still runs great between problems, I play BC2 on high settings with no hiccups most of the time.
Here are the system specs
Liteon stock 300W PSU (It is terrible, and is another reason why I think it's the PSU, but the symptoms are still strange, and I don't want to jump to conclusions too fast and buy something I don't need)
AMD Phenom 9600 quad core
GT240 graphics
3GB DDR2 RAM
Nettle3-GL8E motherboard
Is it possible that loading the GT240 for the first time was too much for the PSU, and permanently damaged it? Please let me know what you think!
A month or two ago I replaced a 8500gt graphics card with a 240gt. There were a bunch of small issues with card, and it took me 2 days to get it working correctly. The problems started about that time, but I am pretty sure that the problems I am having now are not directly the cards fault, especially because the problems persisted when I put the 8500gt back in. But I thought I'd put that out there. Here are some of the things it has been doing:
Temporary hangs: These occur somewhat frequently, and usually during a graphic intensive game or video, where the sound will continue on but the visual is frozen for anywhere from 5 seconds to 30 seconds. Sometimes the graphics drivers crash*(see below)
Complete freezes: Requires a hard boot. These happen more frequently than the hangs, but seem more random. Sometimes its during a game, sometimes browsing the web, sometimes its from the desktop with absolutely nothing running. I'm pretty sure this has been happening more and more often since it started, and it still baffles me that it doesn't require the computer to be doing anything intensive to happen most of the time.
Crashes: No BSoDs, just shuts off. But I think it's only when I plug a USB device in. I don't think I'm overloading the USB ports though, because I've only got 2-3 things plugged in. This is what made me think it was my PSU.
*This may be unrelated, but once and awhile, when my drivers crash, explore.exe will also crash, along with any java, adobe, monitoring software, printer services, ect that are running in the background, and they will try to restart, and then crash again, over and over until I restart the computer.
I also monitor my temps, and they are still fine under heavy loads, so nothing is overheating.
I've had people suggest memory problems, a dying psu, a bad motherboard, and the graphics card.
The PC still runs great between problems, I play BC2 on high settings with no hiccups most of the time.
Here are the system specs
Liteon stock 300W PSU (It is terrible, and is another reason why I think it's the PSU, but the symptoms are still strange, and I don't want to jump to conclusions too fast and buy something I don't need)
AMD Phenom 9600 quad core
GT240 graphics
3GB DDR2 RAM
Nettle3-GL8E motherboard
Is it possible that loading the GT240 for the first time was too much for the PSU, and permanently damaged it? Please let me know what you think!
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