Failing power supply

Cash091

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Jul 29, 2009
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Hello,

I think I have a failing power supply but would like some other opinions before I shell out hard earned cash. My issues started about a month ago with my computer boot looping. It would pass post and the bios screen then restart after that. I realized after a few cycles there was a disc in the DVD drive that was bad(I couldn't read info on the disc and left it in the drive). When I removed the disc the looping stopped. Note that my DVD drive is NOT part of my boot order, so I thought it was weird that it was causing a loop. Then a few weeks later the boot loop started again... I noticed that it usually happens when I have a few things plugged into my USB ports that require power(phone, controller, headset, ect). Occasionally my mouse will suddenly power down which was weird because it is wired. When the mouse does power down changing USB ports does not help, it comes back when it comes back. Most recently though, I have been getting some clicking from my HDD and Windows is telling me that SMART is reporting a failure in the drive. The strange thing is chkdsk reports no errors. The disc is my storage drive with the OS saved on my SSD.

Like I said, I think it is the PSU not powering everything. But, I have EasyTune6 from Gigabyte monitoring the voltages and the only thing that varies is the vcore. That changes when the speed of the CPU goes up. I do have my CPU OC'd to 4.2.

Brief specs(let me know if more are needed):


Mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P
CPU: Intel i5 2500k @ 4.2
RAM: G.Skill Ares 8GB 1866 9-10-9
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower TR2-850W
HDD: Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SataIII

 
Hi. If you are hearing clicks from your Hdd, it is time to back up what you want to keep, if you haven't already, It is on the way out. Probably why you are getting the "Looping". You should never have anything in yorur USB ports when you are booting up, unless you are booting from a flash drive. Chkdsk will tel you if you have sector issues and write problems, that sort of thing, but not if you have a hardware issue as far as I know.
 

Cash091

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You think that would be causing the problem even though it is not the boot drive? I was thinking the clicking was coming because the drive isnt getting enough power. The clicking is sporadic.
Edit: TBH I would LOVE IT if it were just the HDD! That is still in its 2 yr warranty. Where as the PSU has seen a GTX 260, 2x GTX 460's and now 2 GTX 660ti's! Plus my case is a Phantom with 1m of blue LED.
 

Cash091

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Update:
Just got a BSOD for nvlddmkm.sys which seems to be tied to graphics cards. Another reason to lead me to the PSU as the odds of everything failing at once are slim. These are new cards with no OC and newest drivers.
 
The Hdd has an arm in there that moves across the disk and that is what you hear clicking. Shouldn't be doing that. AS for the Thermaltake PSU, I am not a fan of those those things. The wattage is fine, but you only have 30a on the +12v rail and with 2 GTX 660s in sli, I think you may really be pushing it. I'm not sure that 30a on the rail is enough for one of those cards.