graphics card or psu problem?

[thatoneguy2014]

I apologize for the long post but I'd like to give the most information possible in my quest of figuring out what is wrong with my computer. For the past couple of weeks I have been suffering computer crashes (my monitors go blank and the audio is stuck in a loop). These crashes persist only when I play games. Its crashed during both Civ 5 and Skyrim. My computer works fine otherwise - in fact I just got finished rendering a 3000 frame scene without suffering any crashes at all. I carefully monitor my cpu and gpu temps and although my cpu gets pretty hot during rendering, its not an overheating problem (80 degrees for cpu under load and 55 degrees for gpu). During gaming though the cpu doesnt get near that hot. My Memory is fine, the most I've ever seen my computer use is 5 gb. I believe the culprit to be my graphics card but I can't tell if its because its not getting enough power it because it is faulty. This morning I took out my graphics card and played Civ for about 20 minutes without a crash. Can anyone give me any idea on which hardware component could be causing this issue and how I can get a better idea of whats going on?

In addition to the info I provided above, I would also like to mention that a couple of days before this started happening, my window blew in during a storm and it rained sideways into my room getting my computer (which was off during this) wet. I waited about a day before turning it on again, but didn't experience any problems until a day or two after. My computer didn't get drenched, I covered it with a towel, but it definitely got some rain on the case.

my computer specs:
OS: Windows 8 pro
CPU: intel i7 3770k
GPU: nvidia geforce gtx 670
Mobo: Asus sabertooth z77
PSU: corsair 750W
Memory: ripjaws x series 16GB DDR3

 

[IInuyasha74]

Did you play games like Civ 5 before the storm came and the two days after it?
If you did and did not have the problem it is a hardware problem, but if not then something has probably been damaged.
When this crash occurs does the entire computer freeze or just the game?
The PSU is not the problem assuming it is working properly. 750w should be more than enough to run all of that. The problem could be the GPU, but it could also be another issue. If the game crashes but not the entire system it could be an issue with the RAM.

 

[thatoneguy2014]

Did you play games like Civ 5 before the storm came and the two days after it?
If you did and did not have the problem it is a hardware problem, but if not then something has probably been damaged.
When this crash occurs does the entire computer freeze or just the game?
The PSU is not the problem assuming it is working properly. 750w should be more than enough to run all of that. The problem could be the GPU, but it could also be another issue. If the game crashes but not the entire system it could be an issue with the RAM.

I forgot to mention that I did a diagnostic on my ram and came up with no errors. This has never happened to me before the storm. The entire system crashes; when my screens go blank, I tried pressing the caps lock button on my keyboard and the light did not come up. I believe its hardware error, but my boss thinks it's a software error with the drivers in the GPU (I have an IT job). I uninstalled the previous drivers and then installed the most recent drivers from nvidia. I haven't gotten the chance to see if this fixed the issue yet, but hopefully will have time to test it later today. If I do I'll post again with an update.

 

[thatoneguy2014]

I believe I fixed the problem. The error was in fact a software issue, not a hardware error. Apparently windows 8 auto updates the graphics drivers by placing the newer version on top of the old which caused some weird bugs. Here is how I fixed the issue for those people who run into the same problem that I did.

1. Go to your control panel and uninstall all the nvidia drivers. Don't restart your computer just yet.
2. install driver fusion: http://treexy.com/ Driver fusion will completely remove your nvidia drivers.
3. download and save the most recent nvidia driver from their site. don't install it yet.
4. after installing driver fusion and downloading the nvidia drivers, restart your computer in safe mode. I recommend going to the advanced start up option in the general tab of the windows 8 pc settings. mashing shift+f8 didn't seem to work work for me when my computer booted up. the advanced startup will restart your computer and will have an option to start back in safe mode once its finished restarting.
5. now use driver fusion to completely remove all the nvidia drivers and files.
6. restart computer back in safe mode.
7. install the nvidia drivers you downloaded earlier.
8. restart your computer one more time and you should be good to go.