Random shutdowns & black screens

[leegroves86]

2 problems: Random restarts & Black screens (loss of video feed)

The restarts seem to happen whenever & not tied to anything specific. for example, it restarts in the middle of powerpoint & WoW. No BSOD or clicks, just blank screen and then the comp restarts instantly. It usually does one or the other ever day or every other day.

At other times my monitor (samsung 940B) will just go completely black. It will switch between analog & digital trying to find a signal and when it can't the monitor goes into sleep mode. the computer is stil running but no video! THis happend last night in Oblivion, I could stil hear Sound & everything.

I'm assuming these incidences are related but I don't know. Computer has been doing for a week or 2 now, just seemed to start out of blue, I guess the restarts happened first & then the blank screens. Last hardware change was switching a 6600gt out for a eVGA 7800GT. That was about a month or so ago.

I have the latest nvidia drivers & bios and all that good stuff. Antivirus installed & no problems with malware.

Only thing i can think of is possible Power Supply? Its a Tt 480 Watt 20 pin PSU. Its a bit old because A) its not 24 pin and B) it doesn't have PCIe power adapter (I'm using the molex conecter adapter). Now, I have had this PSU for about 2 years and no problems what soever. If you'll say its my PSU then I'm looking to buy this <Ahref=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194003">PSU</A>

If its not the PSU the please give me ideas or tips! Thanx!

Asus A8n-e
3000+ venice
1 gig corsair
7800gt
7200.9 HDD

 

[BadThad]

First thing to try is the power supply, the 7800 sucks a TON of juice. I'd go for a Seasonic well before that Enermax, about the same price and a LOT better.

 

[leegroves86]

If everyone says its the PSu then i'll get a new one, however taht is $110 so unless i need it then i dont' want to have to buy it. if it was teh PSU then why would it work 98% of the time and then randomly crap out? i wonder software maybe?

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: leegroves86
If everyone says its the PSu then i'll get a new one, however taht is $110 so unless i need it then i dont' want to have to buy it. if it was teh PSU then why would it work 98% of the time and then randomly crap out? i wonder software maybe?

Quite normal, do a search of these forums for "randon reboot" and you'll see the majority of the time it was the power supply. If you want, post a hijackthis log for us to look over.

 

[Steaksauce]

Another vote for PSU. You have a 20 pin PSU for a 24-pin mobo and to top it off, a 7900GT, which sucks a lot of power and would need that extra 4 pins through the ATX connector.

 

[leegroves86]

^Its a 7800gt btw. Ok, so I'll give you the restarts are to be blamed on PSU. anything see anything wrong with the Enermax I posted above? Modular cableing is a must.
NOW, explain to me the blank screens. Why does the monitor lose video all of a sudden? My gpu tops out at 50C during oblivion so its good. Ideas?

 

[leegroves86]

bump for the answer