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[SOLVED] Graphics card or PSU problem?

2K views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  Tom1122 
#1 ·
Hi there, I was just wondering if anyone could help me.

Me PC for the last couple of days has been crashing (mostly while gaming) and I'm not sure if the problem is caused either by the Graphics card or PSU.

Here are my system specs (self-built):
PNY GeForce 9800 GX2
Unbranded (was pretty cheap) 850W psu
4GB RAM
Intel Q6600 processor
AsRock P45TS Mobo
1 DvD Drive
3 HDDs, including 1 added a week ago
6 case fans

The whole system is a 2 years and 3 months old.

I'm running Vista Ultimate 64 bit SP2

Now my PSU a while ago started making high pitched noises. When I first noticed this I checked the PSU and noticed the fan wasn't working. I promptly switched off and replaced the fan in the PSU. The high pitched noise persisted when in games and oddly seemed to be louder the brigher the thing on the screen. (This was about 3 months ago)

I had no other problems than a slightly annoying noise and mentally noted I needed a new PSU. However I sort of got used to the noise and forgot about it as the PC didn't seem to be affected at all.

This is up until a couple of days ago. I was playing Batman: Arkham asylum which is quite a demanding game on high settings. It seemed to be fine bar a few fps drops but I expected that. Then it froze.

I turned off the PC and rebooted. I then tried to play some counter strike source but after play for about 10 minutes the screen froze with red artifacts over it.

I rebooted again and tried to play again with EVGA presicion up to check the temps but it froze again with card only at 64 degrees centrigrade. I left the PC off for a while and then came back to it. I booted it up again and managed to use it and game on it for quite a while with no problems.

Then yesterday I'd been using it for a while with no issues until playing League of Legends (I like variety :p) when the screen went black and the game crashed but the screen came back with an error saying my display driver had stopped working but had recovered. I retryed playing and the same thing happened. On my third attempt it froze completely, no artifacts iirc but it was completely frozen.

I tried rebooting this time but it only got past the loading bar and then hung on a black screen.

I turned it off and went to bed. Then this morning I booted it up and it fully booted but however crashed after while I was watching a youtube video and then would not boot again.

I also noticed that after a while on the black screen after the loading bar a blue screen flashes up and then it reboots.

I can boot fine into safemode so I tried uninstalling the display drivers but that didn't help, I managed to boot after I left it a while but it still crashed in the same way.

My problem is I'm having trouble working out which component needs replacing. I'm not sure if my PSU had finally started dying on me (although I assumed this to be a more sudden end) or if maybe Batman pushed my Gfx card too hard and has damaged it permanently.

If anyone could shed some light on this I would be eternally grateful!
 
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#2 ·
Re: Graphics card or PSU problem?

Sounds like a power supply issue. Get yourself a quality (Seasonic, XFX, Corsair VX/TX/HX/AX series) power supply. Hopefully nothing has been damaged along with the PSU dying.

DO NOT repeat your previous move of opening up and operating on a power supply. The capacitors inside retain, for a good period of time, lots of power (enough to seriously injure, or even kill a person).
 
#3 ·
Re: Graphics card or PSU problem?

Ok, thanks very much for the reply.

I didn't personally replace the fan, a friend of mine who works with electronics did it and he discharged the capacitors with a high wattage resistor first. I wouldn't dream of doing it myself!

I'll definately go for a quality PSU this time, low quality components are just not worth the hassle down the line.
 
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