[SOLVED] PC crashes, possibly GPU?

[matty337s]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum. I'm not really a PC guy, but I am an electronics engineering student so I have knowledge of how it all works.
I'm posting this question under the graphics card section, but I don't really know what the problem is, so I'm not sure this is the right place.
I bought a custom PC second hand a few years back and got some good use out of it, just uni stuff, 3D modeling, and a little gaming. The mobo (I think) on that system crapped out with sparking sounds and restarting every few minutes. A friend gave me his old case and mobo with RAM and I swapped over my gpu, psu, and hard drives.

My current setup is :
Gigabyte ga-990fxa-ud3 motherboard
Corsair 16gb(4x4gb) DDR4 Vengence RAM
AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core Processor
Corsair Watercooler
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3 GB Video Card
Corsair VS650W Power Supply
Samsung 840 Series SSD and 2x WD HDDs
All in a Corsair case with ample cooling.

The problem I'm having is it randomly restarts. No BSOD, no errors. The only thing in the event viewer in Kernel-Power 41, which isn't much help. All temps are fine, below 30C.
I have disconnected everything from the mobo except the psu and ssd and it still does it. I have measured and logged all of the outputs from the PSU (12V, 5V, 3.3V etc) and none of them change when it reboots. I assumed 650W is enough for my system and I think its a high-quality PSU I think.
No overclocking.
I have updated to Windows 10 from 7 a few months back and don't think the issue occurred in windows 7 but didn't start immediately after the change either.
I have updated the gpu drivers.
I have also recently noticed that it seems to reboot whenever I start up a game, or the novabench benchmarking gets to the GPU phase. But it also does it randomly. Sometimes after a minute. Sometimes an hour. Even when it's idling with no use.

I'm completely stuck and don't have the money to spend buying new components that may or may not fix the issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Matt

 

[altVortex]

This is similar to a power-surge problem I encountered before. The problems I faced were either PSU getting too hot because its fan was not spinning, or the +12v amperage wasn't enough so it caused sudden shutdowns, especially when under heavy load like playing high-end games. Hope you solve it soon.

 

[matty337s]

Thanks for the info. I've checked that the fan spins and changes speed based on load. I have also checked and the power rails stay on while reboots so I think it's unlikely but I'm not discounting it.

 

[Bassplate]

Thanks for the info. I've checked that the fan spins and changes speed based on load. I have also checked and the power rails stay on while reboots so I think it's unlikely but I'm not discounting it.

This sounds more than a Hardrive failure....In fact the PSU could drop some voltage to the Hardrive(Which causes to restart)But i don't really think it could be the Case as your Voltage Rating are just fine.
Well there are a few suggestions i might have...This is just a quick way to test
1.Check all power connection on the Motherboard and see if the points are perfectly connected.
2.Graphics cards are also most likely the cause of an unexpected shutdown or Restart of an Computer(Due to Short Circuits or Faulty GPU).Just to Test...Remove your Graphics Card and Boot Into Windows and See if the Restarting Remains.Use your Integrated Graphics(onboard Screen Connect)and connect your screen to the motherboard.
3.Use a other SATA port's For your Windows Hardrive and Boot Directly from your Windows Hardrive...Maybe Disconnect the other Drives you have connected and see if your computer Still Restarts.
4.Perfectly Check your Corsair Watercooler...The connections are really important such as Fan connection or What however.
5.Maybe Use a other PowerSupply just to test if it could be due to Short voltage or Something.
6.Log into Bios and Wait A few moments and see if the computer Still restarts...If the Computer Still restarts or Shut down in BIOS it means its due to a faulty Component in your System and not Windows Itself or Drivers Or something.But IF the Computer runs fine in Bios and Still Restarts When your in Windows Or using Windows you could maybe try to Reinstall Windows and make a new Fresh install and maybe see if the Problem has been Resolved.

 

[matty337s]

Thanks for the reply.

1. I have checked all connections and have removed and replaced them all too.
2. There is no onboard graphics on this motherboard, it needs the GPU. I will try and borrow another one to test.
3. Do SSDs often fail? I have tried disconnecting my other drives and the issue remains. I will try changing the port...
4. I will check the watercooler, but I think it's fine. The CPU temps are also fine.
5. I will try and find another PSU to try.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers

 

[Bassplate]

Thanks for the reply.

1. I have checked all connections and have removed and replaced them all too.
2. There is no onboard graphics on this motherboard, it needs the GPU. I will try and borrow another one to test.
3. Do SSDs often fail? I have tried disconnecting my other drives and the issue remains. I will try changing the port...
4. I will check the watercooler, but I think it's fine. The CPU temps are also fine.
5. I will try and find another PSU to try.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers

No Problem Buddy