PC locks up during boot - need second opinions as to cause

[aesliip]

Hi,

I've been having an issue the past couple days that I think I've narrowed down but I need second opinions.

My computer would lock up while operating Windows 7, 64 bit while gaming. No response to input, and would require a hard reset every time. I've tried a new hard drive, reformatting, disabling certain services/devices, and tried running in safe mode. I think I've eliminated the software side being part of the issue.

But tonight it locked up during boot, at the BIOS splash screen. And after each hard reset, it did it again and again. I removed the GPU and could boot just fine. My PSU is about 5 years old. Model OCZSXS600 I think. GPU is about a year old, MSI 560 Ti TwinFrozr.

I've got three HDDs running. I did a wattage consumption and came out at 430W with all components included.

I wrote this question on the problem computer, and it even nearly locked up during writing. Miniature freeze, with the trademark audio buzz.

I'm basically asking, is it the GPU or PSU? I would like to be totally sure as my budget is really tight.

Or could it possibly even be something else?

 

[lonewolf7]

There is only one way to determine the faulty part, borrow from someone and test with it. Or try your card on another system, see what happens.

 

[aesliip]

There is only one way to determine the faulty part, borrow from someone and test with it. Or try your card on another system, see what happens.

Yeah. I'm going to try the some other parts today. I put in my old Radeon HD 5770 today and it's been running just fine. The possibly faulty GPU is meant to stay rather cool and recently I've seen it reach temperatures of 70 degrees celsius. I've thoroughly dusted it out with compressed air today and will do some further testing with it and the PSU later today and post anything I find. One thing I've noticed about the 560 Ti, is that one of the fans is stiff. Not horribly stiff, but it stops very abruptly, while the other does a handful of revolutions before coming to a stop. I unseated the stiff fan but it's put together in a way that's beyond my knowledge so I'm not going to mess with it much more than that.

It's seeming like an overheating issue to me, so far. I'm going to try my brother's old GTX 480 later today just to double check. I worked out the wattage my system has with a 560 Ti and it's still about 120w under what my PSU can handle, and that's at peak load.

 

[aesliip]

Small update: Using the new video card, my monitor blacks out for about a second or two, and then returns to normal. This occurs more often when my system load is higher it seems, like playing a game. When I'm playing a game, there will be a series of these blackouts.

Please note the monitor LED doesn't actually turn off during any of this. Once it actually flashed "input not detected" on the screen.

 

[lonewolf7]

Honestly it looks like either PSU or MB is faulty.

Check MB : Take out all RAM sticks, start the PC, if the MB is beeping, then probably its ok, but not for sure, this is one way of testing it.

And try another known good working PSU, your GPU will need 31A and a 500W PSU minimum, so keep that in mind when borrowing a PSU.

Let me know. I am all ears.

 

[aesliip]

It ended up being the PSU. I didn't have a spare PSU laying around, but tried your RAM test as an indicator. Took a leap of faith and purchased a new 600w PSU. Currently running with the 560 Ti no issues whatsoever.

Thanks for the help.

EDIT: And the temperatures on it have settled down entirely.

 

[lonewolf7]

You are welcome.