Bad Power Supply?

[Corvair_18]

Anytime I begin something that's both CPU and GPU intensive, such as games, there's a chance of my PC locking up; screen goes black, keyboard dead... power switch/reset switch don't work sometimes, in which case I have to flip the PSU on/off.

If I stress just the CPU (Prime95), everything's good; if I do the same for my GPU (Furmark), no issue. But run both at the same time, and it's a good chance the issue occurs. Thinking it's the power supply, I swap out with my brother's. His PSU worked great on mine, no issues at all. Now here's the conundrum... my PSU worked great on his machine... tried everything to get his computer to lock up, and it just wouldn't. Tossed my PSU back onto my machine, and locks ups reoccur.

My PSU: XFX TS550; His is a Thermaltake 600W. His machine also eats up a lot more power than mine, so my PSU MUST be putting out enough power to have run fine on his computer.

So is it safe to assume it's the PSU that's bad, or do I have some other issue I'm not seeing? I've got 3 years left on the warranty, and I'd like to RMA it. But since it worked great on his computer, I'm not sure if it's the culprit anymore. Last thing I want is to spend $ to ship it out, and then have to pay to get it back if nothing was wrong with it.

 

[BadActor]

First of all, what are your system specs and are you overclocking the CPU or GPU? Have you checked temperatures when stress testing the CPU and GPU?

 

[Corvair_18]

First of all, what are your system specs and are you overclocking the CPU or GPU? Have you checked temperatures when stress testing the CPU and GPU?

Nothing is overclocked, and haven't observed any overheating. Temps look good when stress testing; CPU hits upper 30s, GPU in the 60s (Celsius).

specs:
MOBO: biostar a760g m2+
CPU: Phenom II x2 555
RAM: 2x Patriot DDR2 2GB
GPU: GTX 750 Ti
PSU: XFX TS-550

 

[BadActor]

Check the voltages for the 3.3, 5.0, and 12v rails using HWMonitor while stress testing. Make sure they are within spec.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Supply (V) Tolerance Range, min. to max. (V) Ripple, p. to p., max. (mV)

+5 ±5% (±0.25 V) +4.75 V to +5.25 50
−5 ±10% (±0.50 V) −4.50 V to −5.50 50
+12 ±5% (±0.60 V) +11.40 V to +12.60 120
−12 ±10% (±1.20 V) −10.80 V to −13.20 120
+3.3 ±5% (±0.165 V) +3.135 V to +3.465 50
+5 standby±5% (±0.25 V) +4.75 V to +5.25 50

 

[Corvair_18]

Check the voltages for the 3.3, 5.0, and 12v rails using HWMonitor while stress testing. Make sure they are within spec.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Supply (V) Tolerance Range, min. to max. (V) Ripple, p. to p., max. (mV)

+5 ±5% (±0.25 V) +4.75 V to +5.25 50
−5 ±10% (±0.50 V) −4.50 V to −5.50 50
+12 ±5% (±0.60 V) +11.40 V to +12.60 120
−12 ±10% (±1.20 V) −10.80 V to −13.20 120
+3.3 ±5% (±0.165 V) +3.135 V to +3.465 50
+5 standby±5% (±0.25 V) +4.75 V to +5.25 50

+5... +4.95
-5... -4.86
+12... +12.29
-12... -7.7
+3.3 ... 3.33
+5 standby... 4.79

For the -12V, it was the same (-7.xx range) with a previous PSU I had a few years back, and also with the one I swapped out to test earlier.

 

[BadActor]

Well, I'm not convinced it's the PSU either. It is possible that your PSU has high ripple which your brothers motherboard is more tolerant of. May be money well spent to RMA it in case it does have high ripple, for the piece of mind and to potentially avoid damage to other components.

 

[Corvair_18]

Well, I'm not convinced it's the PSU either. It is possible that your PSU has high ripple which your brothers motherboard is more tolerant of. May be money well spent to RMA it in case it does have high ripple, for the piece of mind and to potentially avoid damage to other components.

Thanks for the help, BadActor, it's much appreciated!

I opened up a ticket with XFX, will see how that pans out and how much shipping comes to. The PSU itself cost me $30, which was a great price for it. A local store currently has an EVGA 600B going for $30. Not the same in terms of quality of the XFX, but if shipping ends up being higher than I like I may just pick that one up as a replacement.

 

[Corvair_18]

Thinking more about it, I noticed that no matter what PSU I throw in there, the -12V always reads ~-7.xxV. The same PSUs come up as -12.xxV on my brother's computer. Could this point to a possible issue with my motherboard as the cause of my problems?

 

[wildcard1978]

yep more then likely . there so many path ways in a main board and so many layer of circuitry they can get a thinier spot in a layeyer that don't show up during testing ect and wount cuase a issue till got enough use and could be grouding in the pcb layer itself . not saying that the exact issue but mother boards can always have more go wrong with it compared to a psu . monitors and power supplys have very basic cicuirtry and very basic main boards compared to a mother mord its actually supprising the amount of wireing is inside the pcb layer of a mother board ya can never see

 

[BadActor]

Thinking more about it, I noticed that no matter what PSU I throw in there, the -12V always reads ~-7.xxV. The same PSUs come up as -12.xxV on my brother's computer. Could this point to a possible issue with my motherboard as the cause of my problems?

I don't think the negative 5 and 12 volt rails are used any more in modern PC's and shouldn't be the cause of your issue.