Motherboard problem or PSU?

[ForgottenTemplar]

Hello. So I am sure similar situations were described on forums before but here goes. Everything worked fine up until one day I turn on my pc and my monitor [LG e1942] goes into power saving mode (no signal basically). Cpu starts spinning but RPMs are low which I found weird only after about 15 seconds cpu RPMs kick in and boots into bios even though I coudn't see anything on the screen I could tell (after said 15seconds num lock lights up). At first I thought it's the drivers messing up after a windows update but it appears that drivers were not at fault. Nvidia gt610 silent was not showing up in device manager even after making sure PCIE was enabled in bios so I've tried onboard vga and it worked but monitor turned on only after ~15 seconds like before. Things I've done to remedy the situation:
1.Replacing the gpu with an older one which I know works, gpu fan starts spinning monitor still gives no display.
2.Clearing cmos (taking out the battery)
3.Replacing ram sticks, cleaning out ram slots (using one stick a time, changing ram sticks)
4.Changing ram speed a little (800mhz to 667mhz).
5.Unplugging the HDD.
6.Using a different vga cable.
7.Updating monitor, gpu drivers (nvidia found no compatible hardware). (Bios up-to-date too)
8.Reinstalling windows.

Last thing I did was I took my gpu out of PCIe slot (has only 1 pcie slot btw) and it booted into bios>windows instanstly without any delay like before (vga plugged into onboard). This time cpu RPM adjusted properly and display came up immediately. So now after all the things I did could that be my PSU failing or a dead PCIe slot. Also my desktop hangs up but that's rare.
My ancient specs:
Amd athlon 64 x2 4400+ 2.3ghz (not overclocked, not overheating)
3gigs of ram
ASUS Nvidia GT610 [fanless]
GIGABYTE GA-M61SME-S2L (rev. 2.0) mobo
Fortron FSP350 350W Power Supply.
I would appreciate if anyone could answer this.

 

[clarkjd]

i'm betting on a failing PSU, based on the fact that if you remove the GPU everything else works. This seems to be an older unit, and as PSUs age they become less and less able to supply their rated outout, and 350 watts was a bare minimum for your system.

 

[ForgottenTemplar]

i'm betting on a failing PSU, based on the fact that if you remove the GPU everything else works. This seems to be an older unit, and as PSUs age they become less and less able to supply their rated outout, and 350 watts was a bare minimum for your system.

Ok so assuming PSU is the problem (hope it is) what budget power supply unit would you recommend? Perhaps something that would be enough for a budget build in the future since I am not a huge gamer.

 

[shknawe]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/slredirect/picassoRedirect.html/ref=pa_sp_atf_computers_sr_pg1_2?ie=UTF8&adId=A06220091LJ9B9XJXOMBJ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FRaidmax-300W-XT-Power-Supply%2Fdp%2FB0714K8QLJ%2Fref%3Dsr_1_2_sspa%3Fs%3Dpc%26ie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1543151393%26sr%3D1-2-spons%26keywords%3D400w%2Bpower%2Bsupply%26psc%3D1&qualifier=1543151392&id=7183632553652243&widgetName=sp_atf I would try this one.

 

[clarkjd]

i'm betting on a failing PSU, based on the fact that if you remove the GPU everything else works. This seems to be an older unit, and as PSUs age they become less and less able to supply their rated outout, and 350 watts was a bare minimum for your system.

Ok so assuming PSU is the problem (hope it is) what budget power supply unit would you recommend? Perhaps something that would be enough for a budget build in the future since I am not a huge gamer.

I would recommend something in the 500 watt range from tiers 1 or 2(certainly no lower than 3) from this list:
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/631048-psu-tier-list-updated/

Whatever is available in your area and within your budget. As a general rule of thumb, expect to pay approximately $1US for every ten watts for a quality PSU (unless you can find it on sale!) You can't go wrong with a PSU from Seasonic.
One of the main problems with El Cheapo PSUs is they don't have enough of the proper connections you may need, so you start using adapters to get the connections. That's like trying to use a donut spare tire as your main tire, just asking for trouble.

 

[ForgottenTemplar]

Got it. Thanks for answering!