Question Could my PSU have damaged my motherboard?

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Nikzogg

Mar 24, 2024
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Hey all!

So a few months ago my PC started stuttering/hitching seemingly out of nowhere. I tried everything I could find online but nothing fixed it.

I have switched every component in my PC, including switching my old drives to new ones, and trying OS with 2 new drives. I also changed my motherboard which seemed to fix the issue. Later it started stuttering again although significantly less.

Last week I decided to finally update my BIOS version to the latest one, and after that the stuttering worsened back to what it was with the old motherboard.

My friend wondered if it could be the PSU. I’m not sure but could a faulty PSU damage the motherboard since I tried another known good PSU and it didn’t help. My current PSU (Corsair RM750) is 3 years old bought brand new.

I decided to try a clean installation of windows, which didn't fix the stuttering, but made it much less frequent. Some games didn't stutter at all, like The Finals, for example, but most open world games are still stuttering. I also tried building a 2nd PC with the leftover parts including my old motherboard (except the same OS drive from my other PC) and it stuttered.
My current PSU is still under warranty, so I'm wondering if I should RMA it.

If any of you know anything that could fix this, please comment. If you need more info, feel free to ask. Thanks for reading! :)

Example (Snowrunner)
Another example (The Division 2)

SPECS:
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU: Asus RTX 3070 TI
MOBO: Asus B550-F Gaming WIFI II
PSU: Corsair RM750 750w
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32gb 3600mhz
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB 65% full and Samsung EVO 980 500GB 20% full
OS: Windows 10

Test PC Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x
GPU: Asus GTX 1070 TI
MOBO: Asus B550-E Gaming
PSU: Fractal Design Integra M 750w
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16gb 3200mhz
Storage: Samsung EVO 980 500 GB 20% full
OS: Windows 10
 
Last edited:
Also, when scrolling pages like Steam or Youtube, when things are loading in, like pictures, thumbnails etc. the same freezing happens.
 
Hardware issues can arise from a PSU that's going bad, but damage is much harder to figure out unless something is obvious. And it's not really practical to test a motherboard for electrical damage, given how many components there are.
 
Tried running a malware check?

Are there any strange processes you see in Task manager?

You tried all the hardware so unless it's a dying SSD, it couldn't be a hardware issue. If it is, i would suspect RAM, or a motherboard. But you tried two...


How soon after the clean Windows install did the problem return?
 
35below0 said:
Tried running a malware check?

Are there any strange processes you see in Task manager?

You tried all the hardware so unless it's a dying SSD, it couldn't be a hardware issue. If it is, i would suspect RAM, or a motherboard. But you tried two...


How soon after the clean Windows install did the problem return?
Click to expand...
Ran Malwarebytes, didn't find anything. Also ran Windows Defender scan and nothing.

No strange processes as far as I know.

I have switched my OS SSD 2 times now, and tried running with only a brand new m.2 SSD and still got stutters.

So the problem came back when I updated my BIOS to the lastest version, not a windows install. When I did the clean Windows install, the stutters became much less frequent. I tried a clean windows install with my old motherboard too, but it didnt help at all, which is strange because it helped with the new one.
 
I realized you posted some videos in the OP, but I'm having trouble seeing stuttering from the viewpoint of having a large frame time spike somewhere. I suggest going through the motions again, but running CapFrameX. Make sure in the "Overlay" page, the overlay items Framerate and Frametime are selected, as well as the "Graph" checkboxes
image.png


If there's stuttering involved with the game itself, Framerate will dip and Frametime will spike up.

If neither value changes significantly (they are related, so if one changes the other will too), then it's probably your mouse.
 
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Nikzogg said:
Hey all!

So a few months ago my PC started stuttering/hitching seemingly out of nowhere. I tried everything I could find online but nothing fixed it.

I have switched every component in my PC, including switching my old drives to new ones, and trying OS with 2 new drives. I also changed my motherboard which seemed to fix the issue. Later it started stuttering again although significantly less.

Last week I decided to finally update my BIOS version to the latest one, and after that the stuttering worsened back to what it was with the old motherboard.

My friend wondered if it could be the PSU. I’m not sure but could a faulty PSU damage the motherboard since I tried another known good PSU and it didn’t help. My current PSU (Corsair RM750) is 3 years old bought brand new.

I decided to try a clean installation of windows, which didn't fix the stuttering, but made it much less frequent. Some games didn't stutter at all, like The Finals, for example, but most open world games are still stuttering. I also tried building a 2nd PC with the leftover parts including my old motherboard (except the same OS drive from my other PC) and it stuttered.
My current PSU is still under warranty, so I'm wondering if I should RMA it.

If any of you know anything that could fix this, please comment. If you need more info, feel free to ask. Thanks for reading! :)

Example (Snowrunner)
Another example (The Division 2)

SPECS:
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU: Asus RTX 3070 TI
MOBO: Asus B550-F Gaming WIFI II
PSU: Corsair RM750 750w
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32gb 3600mhz
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB 65% full and Samsung EVO 980 500GB 20% full
OS: Windows 10

Test PC Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x
GPU: Asus GTX 1070 TI
MOBO: Asus B550-E Gaming
PSU: Fractal Design Integra M 750w
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16gb 3200mhz
Storage: Samsung EVO 980 500 GB 20% full
OS: Windows 10
Click to expand...

Stutter from my experience is usually due to bad ram you should try and expo settings if motherboard supports it.

Also not that 3600 is technically a overclock so try running it at 3200

Make sure ram is in slot 2 and 4
 
Nikzogg said:
So I just made a discoveryt, that when scrolling in some windows, it won't stutter IF I don't move my mouse. But when I move it while scrolling, I get stutter.

Example while moving mouse

Example while not moving mouse

Maybe this has something to do with it?
Click to expand...
Plug the mouse into a different USB port.

The mouse isn't causing problems itself, but maybe there's something wrong with the USB ports/bus
 
35below0 said:
Plug the mouse into a different USB port.

The mouse isn't causing problems itself, but maybe there's something wrong with the USB ports/bus
Click to expand...
Tried plugging it into different ports, no difference. Then tried with wired connection to pc instead of wireless, no change. Also tried with 2 different mice and same result.
 
hotaru.hino said:
I realized you posted some videos in the OP, but I'm having trouble seeing stuttering from the viewpoint of having a large frame time spike somewhere. I suggest going through the motions again, but running CapFrameX. Make sure in the "Overlay" page, the overlay items Framerate and Frametime are selected, as well as the "Graph" checkboxes
image.png


If there's stuttering involved with the game itself, Framerate will dip and Frametime will spike up.

If neither value changes significantly (they are related, so if one changes the other will too), then it's probably your mouse.
Click to expand...
Here is a video with CapFrameX
Probably not the mouse then.
 
beyondlogic said:
Stutter from my experience is usually due to bad ram you should try and expo settings if motherboard supports it.

Also not that 3600 is technically a overclock so try running it at 3200

Make sure ram is in slot 2 and 4
Click to expand...
I've tried 2 other different sets of ram already and ran windows memory diagnostic without errors. Sticks are in slots 2 and 4, and I've also tried with slot 1 and 3, only 1 stick in different slots. Tried with XMP on and off, at 2666mhz and 3600mhz
 
hotaru.hino said:
Can you tell us the time stamp(s) when the event happens?
Click to expand...

Accidentally put the same video there twice, whoops.
0:07, 0:15, 0:18, 0:28, 0:32, 0:42, 0:45, 1:04, 1:20, 1:26, 1:37, 1:44, 1:55, 2:04 for example
There's also a comment in the video with the stamps now
 
@hotaru.hino @beyondlogic @35below0
Alright, so I found at least a partial culprit to my problem. ASUS LightingService task. After I ended that task and deleted the folder, it removed at least most of the stutter. Now I know why updating bios caused the stutters to come back, adn why reinstalling windows helped it. However, the stutters are still not completely gone, although much less frequent.
 
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Reactions: 35below0
Nikzogg said:
Hey all!

So a few months ago my PC started stuttering/hitching seemingly out of nowhere. I tried everything I could find online but nothing fixed it.

I have switched every component in my PC, including switching my old drives to new ones, and trying OS with 2 new drives. I also changed my motherboard which seemed to fix the issue. Later it started stuttering again although significantly less.

Last week I decided to finally update my BIOS version to the latest one, and after that the stuttering worsened back to what it was with the old motherboard.

My friend wondered if it could be the PSU. I’m not sure but could a faulty PSU damage the motherboard since I tried another known good PSU and it didn’t help. My current PSU (Corsair RM750) is 3 years old bought brand new.

I decided to try a clean installation of windows, which didn't fix the stuttering, but made it much less frequent. Some games didn't stutter at all, like The Finals, for example, but most open world games are still stuttering. I also tried building a 2nd PC with the leftover parts including my old motherboard (except the same OS drive from my other PC) and it stuttered.
My current PSU is still under warranty, so I'm wondering if I should RMA it.

If any of you know anything that could fix this, please comment. If you need more info, feel free to ask. Thanks for reading! :)

Example (Snowrunner)
Another example (The Division 2)

SPECS:
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU: Asus RTX 3070 TI
MOBO: Asus B550-F Gaming WIFI II
PSU: Corsair RM750 750w
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32gb 3600mhz
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB 65% full and Samsung EVO 980 500GB 20% full
OS: Windows 10

Test PC Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x
GPU: Asus GTX 1070 TI
MOBO: Asus B550-E Gaming
PSU: Fractal Design Integra M 750w
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16gb 3200mhz
Storage: Samsung EVO 980 500 GB 20% full
OS: Windows 10
Click to expand...
Try deleting geforce experience. It was using 33 oercent of my cpu usage at times and was causing massive stutters in cpu dependent games like snowrunner. Snowrunner is running great now. It was unplayable before
 
LizardPrim said:
Try deleting geforce experience. It was using 33 oercent of my cpu usage at times and was causing massive stutters in cpu dependent games like snowrunner. Snowrunner is running great now. It was unplayable before
Click to expand...
Tried deleting geforce experience, but seems like it made no difference.
 
I have also noticed these stutters/hitches even while not playing games. For example, while scrolling Steam's store page or game news feeds, youtube videos when I move my mouse and the video progress bar shows up, spotify when scrolling the front page. When I scroll through the pages I mentioned, the first time it hitches multiple times when scrolling, but doesn't after I've scrolled through it once. Seems to be the worst with sudden events.
 
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