Elictrical breaker trips off while gaming

[Guest]

I have a custom built PC. I am running Win7 Home Premium. On an Asus M4A88T-M Mobo. An AMD 1045T x6 core 2.7 Ghz (O.C. to 3.0 Ghz). I have 8 Gb of Corsair XMS3 Ram. A Rosewill Hive Series 750 watt PSU. A Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 (Overclock edition). And also a Seagate Barracuda green 2 Tb HDD.

My problem is today while gaming , nothing new there, except my breaker box tripped twice while playing World of Tanks. I have been gaming with this equipment for a week or so, the PSU and Graphics card are new additions. I did have my AC running, nothing new there either. It did not trip the AC off when this happened to the PC.

I have a Cyberpower brand Surge protector to the outlet and plugged in to it are The PC, a Vizio 32 inch LCD for the monitor, a Netgear wireless router, a Motorola modem, and a Samsung DVD player/surround sound system which I use for the PC audio through a speaker jack to RCA (red/white) cable.

I guess what I am wondering is if the problem lies with the PC, the breaker box or what? Also could the temperatures be the culprit?

I do have a new case coming and a new CPU cooler. The case I have now is a Thermaltake V2, and a stock CPU cooler. The new case will have much better cooling as well as the CPU cooler to keep temperatures down.

So, hopefully can figure out what is going on. Thanks.

 

[mouse24]

IF it is indeed the breaker box tripping than all you have to do is run an extension cord from some other socket not on the same circuit, you are trying to pull to much wattage from that circuit.

 

[charels88]

You should make a list of everything that shut off when the breaker tripped to see if you have the circuit overloaded. You could try to use a Ammeter to check the current draw of your pc. If we assume your psu is 70-80% efficient and you were maxing it out that would require about 9A at 120VAC. Higher temps cause power supplies to be less efficient but that shouldn't be an issue. You could try moving the computer to a different room on a different breaker and see if it happens then you know its the pc. Or you could unplug every thing but the pc on that circuit and see if you have the problem.

 

[kelthic]

You say that your breaker box is tripping, which suggests the problem or cause is not with the computer itself, but the wiring in your house.

This could be as simple as an overloaded circuit (for example, when i purchased my house, the lighting and outlets for the west side of my house were all on the same 65 amp fuse circuit = not good at all). If this is the case, you could reduce the load on that particular circuit.

It could also be as bad as a shorted out wire somewhere in the wiring, or even that you need to get a higher amperage service into the house (and possibly rewire the house), which is what i ended up doing in my case. Very expensive option. Unfortunately, unless you are an electrician, there's not a very good chance we can diagnose the problem(s) with the wiring in your house.

All that said, it seems to me you've increased the amount of power you're drawing from that particular circuit, which is causing intermittant overdraw, so you might also try moving your computer to a different circuit as well.

 

[Guest]

check the breaker. if its an old and "tired" 15 amp it could trip @ 9 amps.

they are simple and easy to replace.

 

[erunion]

As has been said, circuit breaker exist to prevent you from drawing too much power over a circuit. If you overload a circuit, they will trip to stop you from damaging your electrical wires and potentially starting a fire.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the responses. Here's what I did. And by the way I live in an Apt building I believe that was built in the 70's. That being said. I talked to a friend upstairs from me who also does PC gaming. He says that his breaker trips off about twice a month in the "same" outlet I was using but in the other spot of the room he does not have any problems. So, I moved my room around and put the PC on one outlet, the "same one" he says that doesn't trip for him, it's by itself and the TV and modem on another outlet that hopefully is not the same circuit. Only time will tell.

I have not gamed on World of Tanks again yet. So I will find out when I do. I will try tomorrow after I get my new case and CPU cooler installed. Thanks for the input.

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by AntonBeif.

 

[The Kasafist]

You say that your breaker box is tripping, which suggests the problem or cause is not with the computer itself, but the wiring in your house.

This could be as simple as an overloaded circuit (for example, when i purchased my house, the lighting and outlets for the west side of my house were all on the same 65 amp fuse circuit = not good at all). If this is the case, you could reduce the load on that particular circuit.

It could also be as bad as a shorted out wire somewhere in the wiring, or even that you need to get a higher amperage service into the house (and possibly rewire the house), which is what i ended up doing in my case. Very expensive option. Unfortunately, unless you are an electrician, there's not a very good chance we can diagnose the problem(s) with the wiring in your house.

All that said, it seems to me you've increased the amount of power you're drawing from that particular circuit, which is causing intermittant overdraw, so you might also try moving your computer to a different circuit as well.

This is totally correct I agree I have the same exact issue right now and I got to replace that fauty circuit!