My PC sparked and the screen turned off.

[Jetze_]

Yesterday I replaced the thermal paste on my gpu and cpu, this gave me excellent results in burn in tests and everything worked. I plugged my psu in, turned it off, and touched the case regularily to ground myself.

Today, while playing the witcher 2 with excellent temps, I heard a loud spark and my screen went black. I quickly pressed the power button. Afterwards it smelt of burned rubber or something. Is this the PSU, the motherboard or perhaps the GPU?

SPEC
Sparkle GTX 275
I7-920 with Noctua Cooler
GA-EX58-UD3R ver1.6
Corsair CX600M 80 bronze plus
WD Blue
6GB mushkin enhanced RAM

Thanks for reading,
Jetze

PS 4 or 5 years ago te PSU shorted and was replaced.

 

[basroil]

You probably killed the PSU, it wasn't exactly a great one to begin with, so ~5 years sounds about right.

 

[captaincharisma]

yep, that happens when you try to play a game with a GPU working at full tilt with a weak or old PSU

if you are going to stay with corsair PSU's stay away from the CX line as they are not meant to power gaming PC's

 

[Jetze_]

Could it be that due to the better GPU temps (used to be 100c now 75c) after applying thermal paste and cleaning it, the GPU draws a lot more power and caused the thing to blow? The smell of the power connection of the GPU has a slight hint of toasty plastic.

EDIT: Any advice on buying a new PSU?

 

[basroil]

Could it be that due to the better GPU temps (used to be 100c now 75c) after applying thermal paste and cleaning it, the GPU draws a lot more power and caused the thing to blow? The smell of the power connection of the GPU has a slight hint of toasty plastic.

EDIT: Any advice on buying a new PSU?

Probably just a coincidence, or maybe you accidentally dropped something into the PSU.

As for replacements, try:
EVGA G2 650 (P2 if you want)
Corsair RM650x
XFX Gold 650
Seasonic G-650
Seasonic 660XP2 (one of the best PSUs ever made)

 

[Jetze_]

Thank you! Any tests I could do to ensure it is the PSU?

 

[basroil]

Thank you! Any tests I could do to ensure it is the PSU?

If you have another PSU you can replace and test, or you could try the PSU self-test (read the manual), but only if you take out the PSU and take it somewhere it can catch fire without issue.

 

[joex444]

> Any tests I could do to ensure it is the PSU?

Swap in a known good PSU?

 

[Jetze_]

Thank you! Any tests I could do to ensure it is the PSU?

If you have another PSU you can replace and test, or you could try the PSU self-test (read the manual), but only if you take out the PSU and take it somewhere it can catch fire without issue.

Yeah I can take outside, thanks.

 

[Jetze_]

So I tested it outside. Unplugged everything except the motherboard, CPU, RAM, cpu fan and two case fans. Everything works and the mobo speaker made on beep.

 

[basroil]

So I tested it outside. Unplugged everything except the motherboard, CPU, RAM, cpu fan and two case fans. Everything works and the mobo speaker made on beep.

That's good news, now time to replace that PSU before it actually causes problems.

 

[Jetze_]

True that, so it is probably the GPU that is causing trouble right? Since it slightly smells of burnt stuff and the screen went black.

 

[captaincharisma]

True that, so it is probably the GPU that is causing trouble right? Since it slightly smells of burnt stuff and the screen went black.

its possible or the PSU started having problems where it couldn't handle the power draw from your GPU anymore

 

[basroil]

True that, so it is probably the GPU that is causing trouble right? Since it slightly smells of burnt stuff and the screen went black.

Do a thorough inspection of everything, if anything is charred or has a stronger smell than anything else, that's at least one point of failure (though not necessarily the only point)

 

[Jetze_]

Is it actually worth buying a new GPU and PSU for this 7 year old PC?

 

[basroil]

Is it actually worth buying a new GPU and PSU for this 7 year old PC?

Not really, personally I would scrap it since the 920 isn't all that great for gaming anymore (even my 2600K is showing it's age, I would hate to see how my older 920 fares with games... right now it's CPU intensive software slave only). For ~$800 you can get a very nice replacement system that will run circles around your current system (and if you are talking about games only, even a $500 system will)

 

[Jetze_]

If I would want a desktop PC capable of doing most games 60fps, ultra, 1080p. What would you advice me?

 

[basroil]

If I would want a desktop PC capable of doing most games 60fps, ultra, 1080p. What would you advice me?

On cheap side:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($47.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($37.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING Video Card ($249.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $654.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-30 12:44 EDT-0400

On better side:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.38 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($100.66 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card ($429.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1073.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-30 12:48 EDT-0400

First will do most games 1080p near ultra, second will do pretty much everything at ultra and >60fps

 

[Jetze_]

Allright thanks for all yout help man. I will probably go with an AMD gpu or a 1060, and an i5-6400, because a gtx 1070 is 550 euro over here. I would probably also go with an SSD, or is that overrated? Also can I use the noctua cooler I already have?

 

[basroil]

Allright thanks for all yout help man. I will probably go with an AMD gpu, and an i5-6400, because a gtx 1070 is 550 euro over here. I would probably also go with an SSD, or is that overrated? Also can I use the noctua cooler I already have?

The cooler might need a new mounting bracket to work, check on the noctua site to see if it's compatible as-is or if you need to request an adapter plate.

As for GPU, the AMD 400 line might be fine, but so far none of their offerings even come close to the 1070. See if the 480 or 1060 is cheaper, and go with the cheaper of the two.

An SSD makes most things faster, and recently there's a few (Samsung 750 EVO, and the like) lower end SSDs that are very cheap, $200 for ~500GB or $120 for 250. If that's enough storage (you can always use your old disks too), go for it!

 

[Jetze_]

Again, thank you for everything. I think I can reuse my old HDD and I will look into the cooler, since it is a pretty good one. The rx 480 is definiely cheaper, because all nvidia prices are stupidly high at the moment.