Random freezes - PSU?

Richeh

Richeh

Richeh

Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2003
Posts
3,393
Location
South East Coast
Hello,
Spec in sig, running with a Super Flower 750w PSU bought last August.

No overclocks on anything. Computer has been running flawlessly since I built it last September however over the last 2-3 days i've had 3-4 random computer lockups. Initially whilst playing The Division but CPU/GFX temps were fine, required a power button to reset, then randomly whilst browsing via Chrome hard lock and again button reset, and just now again whilst playing The Division (temps still fine) but this time the computer rebooted itself. Just a hard lock with no error messages, Windows 10 memory test was done after first lock up with no problems, scanned SSD and no errors detected and as it happened whilst just randomly browsing the net as well as in games plus the latest PC restart I am beginning to think the PSU may be at fault.

Unfortunately, have zero other components to replace/test with but use my computer for work so need to get it sorted. Does anyone else think it may be the PSU or any other tests to recommend? Currently running Prime95 to stress the CPU/memory and then will do some kind of GPU stress but really not sure what else it could be as nothing has been changed since it was built and no temperature issues of any kind.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.
 
don't have sigs enabled - much cleaner forum that way :p

but looking at those, stand out for me would be the sound card...tbh
(looked at james' spec lol)
 
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tamzzy said:
yeah, looked at wrong poster's specs :X

in this order, i'd probably try:
1) try and see windows error logs
2) memtest86 - ram
3) prime95 - cpu
4) kombustor/furmark - gpu
Click to expand...

Windows Error Logs show nothing but Error 41 which is unexpected system shutdown.
memtest86 passed with no errors.
Prime95 ran for an hour without issues (temps got to around 50-55c)
Furmark currently been running for 30 mins with no freezes (max temp so far 72c)

I don't think the memory is the issue so haven't removed a stick due to the memtest result and as it happens very randomly including as stated the time it just froze with chrome and 2 tabs open I am still leaning towards the PSU. Any other ideas/suggestions?

Thanks.
 
hmm. not sure. my gut still tells me it's memory related. the random shutdowns is typical of being memory related.
it's less likely to be power related as these lockups also happen under low load.
of course it's not impossible, just improbable in comparison to a memory related issue.
as you've already passed memtest, it's unlikely to be a physical ram fault, but could be imc/voltage related, and memtest won't pick those up unfortunately.
could try running the ram at slightly slower speeds (eg 3000) or slightly more relaxed timings (15-15-15) and see if that resolves the issue :/

other things are that: prime should be run on torture, and furmark on stress test at your normal resolution on full screen mode

also: any new devices/drivers installed recently that could explain?
 
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Had a similar issue with a client's PC and was leaning towards a motherboard related issue because the PC could run stress tests for hours with no issue and then BSOD or shutdown randomly while sitting in Windows doing nothing. Replaced the PSU and everything went back to normal.
 
Depends if you're stress-testing the CPU, the GPU or the RAM - the power requirements will vary dramatically.

Simultaneous CPU/GPU tests will stress the PSU and better reflect real-world performance - again the PSU should be the first part you replace to see if the issues go away, you want one with dual 12v rails.
 
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