Insufficient power ?

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

Hi guys, I am having an issue
Every once in a while, more often now, my computer will freeze and display random white pixels as if they were dead pixels, is this due to insufficient power to my GPU? My build is only a week old, I am using an r9 280 and a Seasonic 620w M12II, and this power supply's PCI-E cables are split, as in one slot on the psu has 2 6+2 pin connectors. On the manual, it says to connect only one cable (a 2x 6+2 cable) to a <225w TDP GPU. Should I try to connect two 2x 6+2 cables and only use one six pin per cable? Thus using both of the PSU's PCI-E connectors? Thanks

 

[WarWolverineWarrior]

If there wasn't enough power, your computer would just restart. What's your full setup?

 

[andy_Man]

It won't hurt to try.

 

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8Q7F99

 

[WarWolverineWarrior]

I see you only have 1 ram stick in a dual channel motherboard. That is a problem. I don't know if it will fix your freezing of computer but it will help you alot at least in gaming.

 

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

Why would that be a problem?

 

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

Perhaps I have it placed in the wrong channel?

 

[andy_Man]

If there wasn't enough power, your computer would just restart. What's your full setup?

I see you only have 1 ram stick in a dual channel motherboard. That is a problem. I don't know if it will fix your freezing of computer but it will help you alot at least in gaming.

Perhaps I have it placed in the wrong channel?

If it booted you are fine. Check the windows event log
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/226084-event-viewer-open-use-windows-7-a.html

 

[WarWolverineWarrior]

No, you should refer to your motherboard manual as to where the RAM should be. Freezing can be caused by : Overheating, program error(inefficient memory dump/usage), hardware malfunction(often due to overheating). Running single channel is not a problem but its not efficient(I honestly don't know if having 1 stick in ram can cause a crash). When does your computer freeze? during gaming? (During heavy load or resource use?) tell me as much as possible. My theory is that you are gaming and once the video card is trying to pull data, your RAM bottlenecks and craps out on you causing a crash, or you are overheating.

 

[Karadjgne]

That's a vram issue. Try tweaking your gpu clocks/voltage a little. If it works, great, but that just proves you've got a bad card.

 

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

Well, my computer freezes only when idling while browsing, light programs, downloading steam games, but never during gaming. Also, my gpu isn't even detected by my BIOS, as there is no tab for it or anything that says "graphics processing unit" or "gpu clock speed"

 

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

nothing appears to be overheating (by touch) when the system is shut down after idling

 

[WarWolverineWarrior]

Well, my computer freezes only when idling while browsing, light programs, downloading steam games, but never during gaming. Also, my gpu isn't even detected by my BIOS, as there is no tab for it or anything that says "graphics processing unit" or "gpu clock speed"

Yeah that points to no overheating. I'd say get the exact same stick of ram that you have, refer to your motherboard manual where to stick it in (Usually same color coding is where the other one should be) and get back to us.

 

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

I may have found the issue to be a physical issue: My CPU cooler (Hyper 212 EVO) is touching my side panel, I know that this component should not be carrying any charge, but with my side panel taken off, it does not seem to be freezing anymore. Kind of a long shot, I know, but maybe the cooler is picking up a charge from somewhere via the diffusion of electrical charge between two objects, such as the CPU

 

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

Nevermind my last post^, it froze again with the case side off, there is nothing in the event log besides the critical error when I have to force shut down the computer by holding the power button down(I know this is bad practice as well, but i cannot do anything while it's frozen)

 

[WarWolverineWarrior]

You should monitor your heat tho. There are programs to give you accurate readings. Try PCWizard or any other that you prefer.

EDIT: I meant CPU heat mainly

 

[Karadjgne]

You'll need to use a program like MSI Afterburner. It'll allow you almost full control of anything gpu rated like over/underclocking, voltages etc. You could try adding 10mv or underclocking base/memory by 50-100Hz or so.

 

[WarWolverineWarrior]

You'll need to use a program like MSI Afterburner. It'll allow you almost full control of anything gpu rated like over/underclocking, voltages etc. You could try adding 10mv or underclocking base/memory by 50-100Hz or so.

He's not having GPU problems. his system freezes on idle.

 

[Karadjgne]

Freezing on idle is most commonly a driver issue or sleep settings or low power states issue, not overheating issue. Pixelated displays are most commonly a gpu vram issue, but can also cause a system to hang up. As can a hdd. There are various possibilities, but overheating at idle isn't one of them.

This isn't a question of 'what' to fix, its a question of eliminating 'possible' causes, in an attempt to narrow down the culprit.

 

[INeedKeyboardHelp]

Freezing on idle is most commonly a driver issue or sleep settings or low power states issue, not overheating issue. Pixelated displays are most commonly a gpu vram issue, but can also cause a system to hang up. As can a hdd. There are various possibilities, but overheating at idle isn't one of them.

This isn't a question of 'what' to fix, its a question of eliminating 'possible' causes, in an attempt to narrow down the culprit.

The screen does not pixelate like you would normally think of it; just a few pixels turn white and they are few and far between, maybe 20 total across the whole screen