Troubleshooting Help

[Terzo]

I think either my video card (amd 6850) or power supply (seasonic x660) is on the way out, and I'm not sure which one.

Starting a little over a week ago i encountered a random shutdown of the computer. No blue screen or anything, just turned off. This has started happening more frequently, and is prefaced by loud intermittent noises which seem to be coming from the video card (pressing my finger against the video card fan shroud quiets the noise). Basic office work and web browsing works fine, the issue mainly pops up when playing games. But not always, sometimes I can play (~1 hour) without any issue, other times it just shuts down.

I think the issue might actually be with the video card, but I've spoken to someone else who said it sounds like the power supply doesn't have enough juice to power the video card during intensive applications. Has anyone here had similar experiences? Am I going to need to replace my power supply, video card, or even both? I *could* do with an upgrade but I was hoping to put it off until zen 2.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Could be either; could be both.

One way to tell, is to swap one or the other.

You may have missed out on some really good PSU sales lately. EVGA G1+, G2, G3, from EVGA_official at ebay, EVGA.com's online store, and newegg.com.

Newegg still has some Rosewill Capstone (Jpn. caps, 5-year warranty, 80Plus Gold) PSUs on sale for their "extended Cyber Week sale".

Check them out. I'll be back with links.


Edit:
650W Capstone $44.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182263&Description=Rosewill Capstone&cm_re=Rosewill_Capstone-_-17-182-263-_-Product

750W Capstone $49.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182264&Description=Rosewill Capstone&cm_re=Rosewill_Capstone-_-17-182-264-_-Product

850W Capstone $69.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182386&Description=Rosewill Capstone&cm_re=Rosewill_Capstone-_-17-182-386-_-Product

I bought a couple of the 650W models, haven't deployed them yet, they get somewhat decent reviews, although the EVGA G1+, G2, G3 are higher-rated (and have a 10+2 -year warranty.)

 

[UsandThem]

Based on what you described, I would lean towards the GPU being the issue.

From what I have seen, when the PSU is the issue, it will lock up or crash your PC with the power protections. However, the only sure way to know is to put another known good card in (or use another PSU), and see what happens.

 

[Terzo]

Thanks both. Unfortunately I don't have spare video cards or power supplies hanging around, so I'll have to get one to figure it out. And VirtualLarry, I was looking at downsizing to an sfx form factor so the silver lining is I probably wouldn't have been able to fit those psus anyways. Since I'd rather wait to buy a new video card (whatever I buy will definitely be bottlenecked by my cpu right now) I guess that means I start with swapping the psu.

 

[RLGL]

If the rig is 3 or 4 years old, bite the bullet and replace it all.

 

[Terzo]

I ended up pulling the trigger on a user rx 580 from ebay (I did my due diligence). It should arrive by end of the week. I'll update with results at that point.

If the rig is 3 or 4 years old, bite the bullet and replace it all.

Way over that but I stubbornly told myself I'll wait for zen 2. Going to due an essentially entirely new build. New case (cerberus), zen 2 processor, ram, sfx power supply, nvme ssd, etc.

 

[Terzo]

Knock on wood, the new video card appears to have resolved the issue. I haven't had the random shutdown since, though I haven't done a real stress test, just the same use cases as before. Someone recommended I do a benchmark to verify it's still working, which I'll probably do within the next week or so.