Asus Mobo - Crash, then 1 long and 3 short beeps

[exzachtly1]

Hey all, I have a new build that I've been using as a gaming PC for the basement. Here is the link to it: http://pcpartpicker.com/b/Krk

It has been performing flawlessly for about 3 weeks now; I just finished a play through of Far Cry 3 (about 30 hours) with no issues. However, just last night I started playing Metro 2033 and after about a half hour, the computer crashed and the motherboard started emitting a beep code. Seemed to be one long, followed by 3 short beeps and it kept repeating.

I looked this up and it -seems- to be an issue with the video card and/or the PSU not supplying enough power. I think my video card is probably OK given that it did a play through of Far Cry 3 with no issues... so I'm thinking the power supply may not be up to snuff (especially based on this thread that is referring to basically the same setup as mine: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/327151-30-long-beep-short-beeps-asus-m5a78l)

Is it possible that Metro 2033 is just a more demanding game, therefore putting a higher load on the R9 270 and demanding more power than the PSU can handle? Or should I be investigating whether there is a problem with the GPU? How can I test that the GPU is functional - is there a memory test or something I can run to diagnose? I have a few more days left to be able to return / RMA things, after that I'll probably end up having to warranty if something is truly wrong.

Thanks a lot!

 

[alexoiu]

Hi, Either the card, or the power supply I'd say. If not having the possibility to test them in a different PC, then RMA them both.

 

[exzachtly1]

Hi, Either the card, or the power supply I'd say. If not having the possibility to test them in a different PC, then RMA them both.

Well, I just spent around an hour and half playing Metro 2033 with no issue. Used MSI afterburner to monitor temps while I was playing, and the GPU temp peaked out at around 80c. I thought maybe the initial error was due to overheating, but 80c is an acceptable maximum, is it not?

I'm a bit perplexed. If there was an issue with the GPU, would it have worked for this long at max load with no issues? Wouldn't it have crashed at some point? Normally I would probably just go ahead and RMA but there are 2 issues - one being that I don't have all the original packaging and the other being that the card is out of stock where I bought it (newegg). Don't want to wait forever on an exchange unless I absolutely have to.

I also ran a memtest and all clear. Is there some utility that can test the GPU memory?

Maybe the PSU is performing unreliably?

I don't know, I'm just hesitant to start returning things until I can reliably reproduce the issue...

 

[alexoiu]

Hard to say what's wrong. Try clearing the CMOS and running the components at default settings. See if the error will occur again.