Friends computer works at another friend's house but not hers?

[datfayse]

My brother's girlfriend's computer refuses to get past the ASUS logo while booting at her house, but runs perfectly fine at her friends house. It only works at her house when she swaps out the GPU; it doesn't work when a GTX 760 is in, but will boot perfectly with an old ATI card that only needs PCIe power and no extra cables. She had a cheap power supply but we swapped it with an EVGA 80+ Bronze 600W one and it still doesn't work.

CPU: FX-8120
PSU: 600W 80+ Bronze EVGA
RAM: 4gb (?)
MOBO: Some random ASUS one without a name, 760G chipset
GPU: Works with old ATI card, but not a GTX 760

She's tried clearing CMOS, using a power surge protector power strip, and tried different parts of her house to no avail. Any ideas on what's wrong?

 

[scout_03]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from datfayse : "Friends computer works at another friend's house but not hers?"

My brother's girlfriend's computer refuses to get past the ASUS logo while booting at her house, but runs perfectly fine at her friends house. It only works at her house when she swaps out the GPU; it doesn't work when a GTX 760 is in, but will boot perfectly with an old ATI card that only needs PCIe power and no extra cables. She had a cheap power supply but we swapped it with an EVGA 80+ Bronze 600W one and it still doesn't work.

CPU: FX-8120
PSU: 600W 80+ Bronze EVGA
RAM: 4gb (?)
MOBO: Some random ASUS one without a name, 760G chipset
GPU: Works with old ATI card, but not a GTX 760

She's tried clearing CMOS, using a power surge protector power strip, and tried different parts of her house to no avail. Any ideas on what's wrong?

does it work with the gtx 760 at the friend house .

 

[datfayse]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from datfayse : "Friends computer works at another friend's house but not hers?"

My brother's girlfriend's computer refuses to get past the ASUS logo while booting at her house, but runs perfectly fine at her friends house. It only works at her house when she swaps out the GPU; it doesn't work when a GTX 760 is in, but will boot perfectly with an old ATI card that only needs PCIe power and no extra cables. She had a cheap power supply but we swapped it with an EVGA 80+ Bronze 600W one and it still doesn't work.

CPU: FX-8120
PSU: 600W 80+ Bronze EVGA
RAM: 4gb (?)
MOBO: Some random ASUS one without a name, 760G chipset
GPU: Works with old ATI card, but not a GTX 760

She's tried clearing CMOS, using a power surge protector power strip, and tried different parts of her house to no avail. Any ideas on what's wrong?

does it work with the gtx 760 at the friend house .

Yes but not at her house

 

[scout_03]

did she remove the amd driver before using the gtx in system .

 

[datfayse]

did she remove the amd driver before using the gtx in system .

I was thinking that would be an issue too, but it worked perfectly at her friends house but would freeze on the ASUS boot logo at hers, so I don't see how it could be that.

 

[scout_03]

try a cmos reset to se what happens .

 

[datfayse]

try a cmos reset to se what happens .

She's tried a hard reset with removing the battery and putting it back in, but it didn't change anything.

 

[scout_03]

so if she goes to friend it work check if there is not a loose part in system od the board and that the cable from monitor outside metal shell does not touch case also she did use same monitor cable on both place for test same for psu cable . recheck power cable on gpu if they are in fully inserted .

 

[datfayse]

so if she goes to friend it work check if there is not a loose part in system od the board and that the cable from monitor outside metal shell does not touch case also she did use same monitor cable on both place for test same for psu cable . recheck power cable on gpu if they are in fully inserted .

I don't think she used the same cable cuz the old ATI card doesn't have HDMI, and she's taken the system apart twice now to try to figure out if anything was loose but it doesn't look like it was. For the cables, she just got a new power supply 2 days ago and it still didn't work. I personally think there's an issue with the power source she has at her house but there's not really much we can do about that.

 

[scout_03]

you could get something like this https://www.amazon.com/Power-Gear-Receptacle-Indications-50542/dp/B002LZTKIA and if you colud get a voltmeter to check the outlet voltages .

 

[spdragoo]

Kind of sounds like a power issue...not with her system, but with the wiring in her house.
-- If it was a problem with the PSU, a) it wouldn't have worked at the friend's house, & b) it would have been fixed by replacing the PSU.
-- If it was a driver issue, then again it wouldn't have worked at either house (since the houses have no effect on driver files stored on the PC itself)
-- If it was a CMOS issue, again a) it wouldn't have worked at the friend's house, & b) the CMOS reset would have already fixed it.

 

[g-unit1111]

Honestly, I hate to be *THAT* guy but it really sounds like your PSU is failing to power your GPU. That EVGA B series PSU is not a good unit, and the FX-8120 needs a constant stream of power from a reliable power source. So it might work with the older 4GB card because it doesn't require that kind of power, but the GTX 760 will. So I would point to the PSU as being the likely culprit here. I would try it with a stronger PSU and see if that works.

 

[datfayse]

Kind of sounds like a power issue...not with her system, but with the wiring in her house.
-- If it was a problem with the PSU, a) it wouldn't have worked at the friend's house, & b) it would have been fixed by replacing the PSU.
-- If it was a driver issue, then again it wouldn't have worked at either house (since the houses have no effect on driver files stored on the PC itself)
-- If it was a CMOS issue, again a) it wouldn't have worked at the friend's house, & b) the CMOS reset would have already fixed it.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. I think she had a power surge in her area recently cuz a squirrel got stuck in a power cable and fried something (and itself, RIP squirrel). What do you think she should do to try to get this fixed?

 

[Peter Martin]

Kind of sounds like a power issue...not with her system, but with the wiring in her house.
-- If it was a problem with the PSU, a) it wouldn't have worked at the friend's house, & b) it would have been fixed by replacing the PSU.
-- If it was a driver issue, then again it wouldn't have worked at either house (since the houses have no effect on driver files stored on the PC itself)
-- If it was a CMOS issue, again a) it wouldn't have worked at the friend's house, & b) the CMOS reset would have already fixed it.

It's a power delivery issue in her house. Move to another room to see if it may be any better. Get a line conditioner to plug the computer into as a workaround.

Get this, plug it in, plug her computer to it. Done!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000512LA/ref=s9_acsd_top_hd_bw_bk125_c_x_3_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_r=D8FSR26V79TDVZPD58G7&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=0c71b9e6-1ffe-5a3b-a15c-f4dc5bccf5fa&pf_rd_i=10967061

 

[datfayse]

Honestly, I hate to be *THAT* guy but it really sounds like your PSU is failing to power your GPU. That EVGA B series PSU is not a good unit, and the FX-8120 needs a constant stream of power from a reliable power source. So it might work with the older 4GB card because it doesn't require that kind of power, but the GTX 760 will. So I would point to the PSU as being the likely culprit here. I would try it with a stronger PSU and see if that works.

I have an older model of that same PSU powering an i5-6500 and a 1060 6gb, and she had a 450W gray box PSU powering her whole system beforehand. The system also powered on and worked perfectly at a friends house with the old PSU as well, so I doubt it's that.

 

[Peter Martin]

get a power line conditioner as a short term solution, call your power company to get things checked out too to see if they can fix the load issues.

 

[datfayse]

get a power line conditioner as a short term solution, call your power company to get things checked out too to see if they can fix the load issues.

I was going to tell her to call her city/power company to try to see if they could fix the issue caused by the surge they had recently. I'll let you guys know if anything changes, thanks for all the help everyone!

 

[g-unit1111]

I have an older model of that same PSU powering an i5-6500 and a 1060 6gb, and she had a 450W gray box PSU powering her whole system beforehand. The system also powered on and worked perfectly at a friends house with the old PSU as well, so I doubt it's that.

No it's absolutely that. The EVGA B series power supplies are utter garbage, in some cases bordering on housefire quality. They are not what I would use to power that particular system. I have seen hundreds of threads like this, and many of them involving the FX-8XXX series, this is absolutely the problem.

The i5-6500 and the FX-8120 are not the same CPU in terms of how they use energy. The i5 uses 65W. The FX-8120 uses 125W - twice the power of the i5-6500. It needs a solid source of power to be able to function properly. Ditch the junk PSU for a much stronger one and it will work fine with the GTX 760. Blaming it on the electrical wiring in the house is ridiculous. It's the PSU, no question. You can, and probably could get that system to run on a low end power supply, but does that mean you should run it on such a supply? Definitely not. I guarantee if you replace the garbage supply with a much better one, it will clear everything up.

 

[datfayse]

I have an older model of that same PSU powering an i5-6500 and a 1060 6gb, and she had a 450W gray box PSU powering her whole system beforehand. The system also powered on and worked perfectly at a friends house with the old PSU as well, so I doubt it's that.

No it's absolutely that. The EVGA B series power supplies are utter garbage, in some cases bordering on housefire quality. They are not what I would use to power that particular system. I have seen hundreds of threads like this, and many of them involving the FX-8XXX series, this is absolutely the problem.

The i5-6500 and the FX-8120 are not the same CPU in terms of how they use energy. The i5 uses 65W. The FX-8120 uses 125W - twice the power of the i5-6500. It needs a solid source of power to be able to function properly. Ditch the junk PSU for a much stronger one and it will work fine with the GTX 760. Blaming it on the electrical wiring in the house is ridiculous. It's the PSU, no question. You can, and probably could get that system to run on a low end power supply, but does that mean you should run it on such a supply? Definitely not. I guarantee if you replace the garbage supply with a much better one, it will clear everything up.

I'll start looking into higher end PSU's after we get her house sorted out. She recently had a power surge in her area that killed a hard drive in her computer, which is why I'm leaning towards it being a grounding issue with her wiring overall. Either way the wiring needs to be fixed cuz it's a hazard. Do you have any relatively cheap power supplies that are reliable? I don't think I mentioned this but money is a really limiting factor in this issue, otherwise I think it would have been fixed long ago.

 

[spdragoo]

I have an older model of that same PSU powering an i5-6500 and a 1060 6gb, and she had a 450W gray box PSU powering her whole system beforehand. The system also powered on and worked perfectly at a friends house with the old PSU as well, so I doubt it's that.

No it's absolutely that. The EVGA B series power supplies are utter garbage, in some cases bordering on housefire quality. They are not what I would use to power that particular system. I have seen hundreds of threads like this, and many of them involving the FX-8XXX series, this is absolutely the problem.

The i5-6500 and the FX-8120 are not the same CPU in terms of how they use energy. The i5 uses 65W. The FX-8120 uses 125W - twice the power of the i5-6500. It needs a solid source of power to be able to function properly. Ditch the junk PSU for a much stronger one and it will work fine with the GTX 760. Blaming it on the electrical wiring in the house is ridiculous. It's the PSU, no question. You can, and probably could get that system to run on a low end power supply, but does that mean you should run it on such a supply? Definitely not. I guarantee if you replace the garbage supply with a much better one, it will clear everything up.

If it was her PSU, it would be causing issues in both locations -- remember, the problem is that she's having issues at her house, but the issues don't occur when the PC is physically moved with the same components (including the PSU[/.u]) to a different physical location. Same components in different locations with problems in location A but no problems in location B = problem is not in the components.

 

[Peter Martin]

I know it can be the house because I had this happened to me before.

 

[g-unit1111]

I'll start looking into higher end PSU's after we get her house sorted out. She recently had a power surge in her area that killed a hard drive in her computer, which is why I'm leaning towards it being a grounding issue with her wiring overall. Either way the wiring needs to be fixed cuz it's a hazard. Do you have any relatively cheap power supplies that are reliable? I don't think I mentioned this but money is a really limiting factor in this issue, otherwise I think it would have been fixed long ago.

That's possible that it could be a grounding issue and if that's the case then your system may be beyond saving since something could have got shorted out in the process. But I would still look at the PSU being the possible culprit since those B series PSUs that you have are of very questionable quality. As I said the FX is not the same as an Intel CPU as it's far more power hungry than the aforementioned Intel. It needs a solid, steady source of power before it can function as a viable system. If you want a good PSU that's inexpensive I would recommend something like this:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151202&cm_re=seasonic_focus-_-17-151-202-_-Product

 

[Onus]

This could be a combination of two things, the most important being a crap PSU. The house difference could be your line voltage. For example, the GF's friend's house may have line voltage of 117V, and the GF's house may supply 110V; both are technically in-spec for house voltage, but the additional work the PSU has to do at 110V is more than it can handle. A good PSU (only around $50-$60) won't have this problem.

 

[Peter Martin]

what's a good psu that you guys could recommend her that are affordable? I don't know these days, just buy pre-builts and use them for work and research

 

[Onus]

I don't think it is possible to go wrong with Seasonic; I don't recall ever seeing any model from them fail a competent technical review. Some are better than others, but none are hazards to attached equipment or house-fires waiting to happen. The Focus and Focus Plus are lower-cost, but still a little steeper than the typical Corsair. Corsair's units (some of which are made by Seasonic) can vary, with some of the lower-priced "CX" units known for poor component selection and short lifetimes, even though they have all their protection circuits and are not dangerous. Even-hundred CX models (e.g. CX-500, CX-600) are the ones with poor reputations; the CX-x50 models have tested better.