Thats sad...

Could the motherboard be dead now because of it?
Im planning to buy a new motherboard, cpu and ram... But im afraid whether the GPU is fine and wont harm the new components.
My guess is that the motherboard could be dead... But I wonder if the faulty PSU damaged something else that could eventually harm the new components
Well, PSU is pretty complicated thing passing several voltages of different current to all parts. That means it as several regulators and any damage can affect different parts, Ther's nothing left but to trywith known goodandvompatible PSU to be able to asses eventual damage.
 
Dec 20, 2021
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So... My PC consists of components that were bought in 2015, EXCEPT the PSU which is around 10 years old...

Everything was working absolutely fine until November 2021, when my pc randomly started to shut off by itself and then automatically turn back on. It happened like once 2 weeks.

Then december started... the random shut offs started to happen more frequently... that's where I found out... when I start a modern game like Genshin Impact, Diablo 2 Resurrected etc., the PC turns off after 30 seconds... But if I just chill on the internet or play retro games like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, nothing happens... even if the PC was turned on from morning to late night hours, the PC wouldn't randomly shut off... So my obvious guess was that PSU was old and needed a replacement.

I had to wait a week to get to my new PSU, so I was still using my PC with the "faulty" PSU, all I did was browse internet and play the mentioned retro game... nothing else... didn't have a single random shut down.

So I got my new PSU... replaced it with the old one... Everything worked fine. I could play the modern games again for as much as I wanted.... for 2 days that is.... So on the second day the PC was running pretty much for a whole day, browsing, gaming, the usual stuff...
But THEN, around 3:00 AM, not only did PC randomly shut off, but now it's not turning on at all.

I tried to take out the power cable, put it back in, turn the switch off/on, the typical things that people suggest you to do on the internet... nothing worked, at all. Just a small clicking sound from the PSU when I pushed the power button on my PC case.

I tried to plug back in the old PSU, just to check if the PC would turn on, all I got was a small light for a second from the motherboard that's usually just shining there while the PC is on (no, not the danger blinking light), not a single fan was spinning.
I held the power button for 20 seconds, THATS when I got the blinking blue light at the bottom of the motherboard for a few minutes.
I took off GPU (GTX 970) from the motherboard, pushed the power button, the pc started to work (the cables were plugged into the motherboard with an integrated graphics card, i5 4690k ). That's when I tried to put into the motherboard an old GPU (like around 10 year old gpu) just to see what would happen with monitor cables inserted in. The PC was working but nothing was shown on the screen.

To sum this up:
with GTX 970 inserted in, nothing happens, the pc doesn't turn on.
with an old GPU, the pc turns on but nothing is shown on the screen.
I left the GPU slot empty and inserted a DVI cable into the motherboard... Everything works.



I tried it with both PSUs, both work the same.

So what is the problem now?
Can't the motherboard handle GPUs anymore? I tried to insert both GPU's in both GPU slots, the problem stays the same, so it can't be the slot or the GTX 970 itself that is damaged (I've never done overclocking, nor pushed the limits with graphics in video games...) I'm just guessing at this point though.

System components:

CPU - i5 4690k (Hyper 212 EVO CPU Air Cooler )
GPU - GTX 970 EVGA FTW
RAM - 16GB (2x 4gb & 1x 8gb) 1600 mhz
Motherboard - MSI Z97 GAMING 3
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB
PC Case - Cooler Master HAF 922
OLD PSU - INTER-TECH SL-700
NEW PSU - GIGABYTE P750GM
 
The problem is you only use junk PSUs.
INTER-TECH SL-700
Is junk. 500w @12v that they sell for 700w and only one 6+2 pin PCI-e connector. How did you connect it to
GTX 970 EVGA FTW
which has two 6 pin connectors. You used a shady 8 pin to 2x 6 pin adapter?

Probably the Inter-Tech killed some hardware because of bad voltage regulation and high ripple.
 
Dec 20, 2021
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The problem is you only use junk PSUs.

Is junk. 500w @12v that they sell for 700w and only one 6+2 pin PCI-e connector. How did you connect it to

which has two 6 pin connectors. You used a shady 8 pin to 2x 6 pin adapter?

Probably the Inter-Tech killed some hardware because of bad voltage regulation and high ripple.

No adapters were used. Surprisingly the old Inter-Tech SL-700 has 2x 6pins built in.
All I can say is that the only thing the GTX 970 does now is twitch its fans a little bit every now and then... With both PSUs though... (The gpu fans twitch only when the GPU is installed but not plugged with pin connectors... Otherwise the fans don't twitch at all).
Not sure if the gpu is dead, the motherboard gpu slot or the old and the new PSU that lasted for.... 2 days?

But both PSUs make the pc work without the GTX 970 or the old 10 year old GPU installed in... So not sure what to do now really
 
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Dec 20, 2021
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The problem is both your PSUs are considered faulty now (old one because of age, new one because it broke after 2 days), and doing any tests with faulty PSU is pointless as results are going to be meaningless. Start with getting a working PSU and redo all the tests.

Can you please recommend good PSUs around the range of 70$ - 100$