Vote: Is my PSU or Video Card causing rebooting?

[Adam8281]

In October I built the rig in my signature. Most parts were new, but I recycled the Sapphire HD 6950 video card and the OCZ Power Supply from my previous machine. The Video Card is approximately 2 years old. The Power Supply is approximately 4-5 years old.

My new system ran great until around January. Since some time in January I can't game for more than 10 minutes with out a hard reboot. What I mean by "hard reboot" is that the system shuts off INSTANTLY. There is no quick flash of blue screen, no error codes, nothing; just one second I'm in the middle of Battlefield 3, the next moment the computer has shut off and is automatically rebooting.

I have tested the RAM using memtest, and the CPU using Intel Burn test, and both were fine. I have run error checking on my hard drives, and that has been fine. One of the hard drives I game on is very old, so I thought maybe it was crapping out. But then I installed a game on m SSD, and found the problem remained.

My guess is that either the PSU or Video Card is going bad. My question to you is: Do you have a best guess of which it most likely is (or do you think there's another more likely culprit)? Additionally, can you suggest a good testing method to isolate whether it is the video card or the PSU that is causing my woes? Thanks.

 

[nboy22]

The best test is to borrow a card or PSU from a friend or get a card from a store like Fry's electronics with a great return policy on anything. If none of those are an option maybe you can take it to a local PC shop and they can help you out for a small fee.

I would try taking out everything you don't need, such as extra hard drives and things that would draw extra power from the PSU. Disable your sound card in your device manager and try to play again.

I've had weird crashes like that due to a sound card issue and will never rely on onboard sound again for gaming. I bought a cheap ASUS Xonar DS and it solved my issues. Not saying it is your issue by any means, but just an oddball example of what could be wrong.

My bet is on the PSU since I've seen machines die gradually from issues like that.

 

[Bubbaleone]

You've stated what the problem is: "The Power Supply is approximately 4-5 years old."

 

[gandya]

You've stated what the problem is: "The Power Supply is approximately 4-5 years old."

witch is bad for new system(no matter what), I shell agree.
but, i am not sure at all that this is the halt reason here.

 

[gandya]

In October I built the rig in my signature. Most parts were new, but I recycled the Sapphire HD 6950 video card and the OCZ Power Supply from my previous machine. The Video Card is approximately 2 years old. The Power Supply is approximately 4-5 years old.

My new system ran great until around January. Since some time in January I can't game for more than 10 minutes with out a hard reboot. What I mean by "hard reboot" is that the system shuts off INSTANTLY. There is no quick flash of blue screen, no error codes, nothing; just one second I'm in the middle of Battlefield 3, the next moment the computer has shut off and is automatically rebooting.

I have tested the RAM using memtest, and the CPU using Intel Burn test, and both were fine. I have run error checking on my hard drives, and that has been fine. One of the hard drives I game on is very old, so I thought maybe it was crapping out. But then I installed a game on m SSD, and found the problem remained.

My guess is that either the PSU or Video Card is going bad. My question to you is: Do you have a best guess of which it most likely is (or do you think there's another more likely culprit)? Additionally, can you suggest a good testing method to isolate whether it is the video card or the PSU that is causing my woes? Thanks.

it could be none of the two.
first thing i would do, is checking the gpu temp.

 

[denis280]

Bad psu.or high temp.

 

[Steltek]

You've stated what the problem is: "The Power Supply is approximately 4-5 years old."

Actually, you should have said "The OCZ power supply is 4-5 years old". The OCZ Stealthstream 500 was a questionable quality power supply on the day it manufactured much less 4 years later (it is an OEM'd FSP "Epsilon" platform power supply, which was never better than unreliable at best).

Were it my system, I would start troubleshooting by swapping out the power supply for a good quality brand (i.e. Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, XFX, etc). If that doesn't resolve the problem, next would be to blow out any dust with compressed air (do a close check CPU heatsink and also of the video card shroud to ensure no dust accumulation has occurred in either place). The best way to test the video card is to try it in another system. If you don't have any monitoring software installed, install HWMonitor or Speedfan to monitor the CPU and GPU temps while you game to see if the shutoff is heat related.

 

[Matt1970]

Instant shut offs like that are typically the power supply.

 

[monosabio]

Instant shut offs like that are typically the power supply.

It seems that I have the same issue with my computer that is less than 6 month old, it's brand new. Since a few days I've notice that watching full screen videos resets (shutdowns) my computer instantly, this happens when viewing a full screen video on youtube (hd) or by watching a hd movie (mkv) for example. This is not related to software or drivers, as it happens on Windows 7 x64 and on Ubuntu 12.10 x64 (dual boot).
If I remove the GeForce GTX 570 (GV-N570OC-13I) Video Card from my system and use the internal video card (Intel HD) a have no issues at all, so first suspected that something was wrong with the GeForce GTX 570 Video Card.
I've tested the video card on another computer, and it didn't present any issue.
So now I'm thinking it's due to the Power Supply Unit. I'm using a Tagan ITZ 1300W PSU that is some years old.

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H BIOS Version: F15q
RAM: 2x8Gb G Skill (F3-12800CL10-8GBXL)
OS: Win 7 64-bit SP : 1

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I'd check temps first then maybe try the swaps. But a 5yr psu OCZ even is prob the culprit.

 

[meeshu]

The PSU is the most likely cause of the problem.

Swap out the PSU with another good PSU and see what happens.

If there are still problems, swap out the video card with another good one.

Still got problems? Then the motherboard may be faulty.

 

[monosabio]

I've changed the PSU using a 750W Thermaltake TR2 RX , and now all issues disappeared.
As meeshu said, it was the power supply making noise.

Thanks

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I've changed the PSU using a 750W Thermaltake TR2 RX , and now all issues disappeared.
As meeshu said, it was the power supply making noise.

Thanks

Take that PSU back and exchange it for a quality 500W unit. Any Corsair, Antec, or Seasonic would be a better choice.

 

[Adam8281]

Thanks guys. I have confirmed that thermals are just fine on CPU and video card. I'm jumping on the Newegg deal for the Seasonic 660W 80 Plus Platinum PSU tonight, and will install it in a few days. Will report back to confirm if that wolved my issues, for the curious.

 

[Adam8281]

As promised, I'm here for the final update. It was the PSU. I swapped out the 5 year old OCZ for a 660W 80 Plus Platinum Seasonic PSU, and haven't had a crash since (in this amount of time with the old PSU, I would have had probably 20 crashes). Thanks for everyone's input.