[SOLVED] Peripherals dying when PC is under load

MikeC.

Prominent
Jan 27, 2020
5
0
510
I'm having a really weird issue with my PC. When under heavy load, like playing AAA games (Mostly Battlefield V) after 15-30 minutes my mouse and keyboard will momentarily die, no LED, no movement. they only die for 1-3 seconds, then they are fine for a few minutes before it happens again. My PC is fine during normal use, it's only under heavy load while playing BFV that the issuse happens. For the way the power dies on the mouse and KB, I'm thinking it's a power issue and I need to replace my motherboard or power supply. The confusing thing, is that since I built this computer a year ago, it has been fine, it was only when I upgraded from a Radeon RX 580 to a GTX 1070 that the issue started. I checked my temps and they are all normal. If anyone can give me advice on what is wrong and how to fix it, I would greatly appreciate the help.

Specs:
MSI B450 gaming plus
Ryzen 5 2600 (Game boost ON, no OC w/ Wraith Max cooler)
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000
Gigabyte GTX 1070 (no OC)
Corsair CX650 M power supply

Mouse and Keybaord
Razer Deathadder Elite
Corsair Straife Mk.2

If you need any other information, just let me know. Thank you.
 
Solution
Hardware faults with ANY component, can cause ANY other component to not work correctly. There doesn't even NEED to be a rhyme or reason for it. If your graphics card flakes out when loads go beyond a certain point, it can destabilize anything on the system including voltage regulation, driver stability, the entire PCI bus subsystem, anything. There is no clear cut "why", when something is faulty it simply "can" and does often affect other things.

If it is destabilizing the system and then recovers after a few seconds, repeatedly, then you'd see what you are seeing. IDK, I have no exact answer but what I do know is that used graphics cards these days, especially high end models, are not advisable to purchase used. There are too many...
Your PSU is most likey causing the issue. The 1070 alone as a guideline requires around 450 - 500 watts. You need a bigger PSU. Your pushing the system hard gaming, I'm sure the CPU / GPU both are being pushed.... Use the link to calculate the wattage your system needs.

That PSU is perfectly fine in terms of capacity, for that configuration. While it's not a top notch power supply, it's also not a complete turd. Unless there is an ACTUAL problem with the power supply, such as it is faulty, then it is very unlikely that it is responsible for the problems.

Besides which the RX 580 has a higher power draw than the GTX 1070 so if there WAS going to be a power supply related problem it most likley would have been occuring with the AMD card installed anyhow. And I guess that's possible.


How long has that PSU been in service?

A LOT of the 1000 series cards were pushed HARD and were ALSO used for mining in a lot of cases, and pushed even harder while mining. Plus, many of them had modified BIOS installed to allow them to mine better, and those BIOSes made them practically useless for gaming although they'd work ok for standard display functions, in most cases. Sometimes they could be flashed back to a BIOS that belonged on the card and was intended for gaming and sometimes they could not.
 

MikeC.

Prominent
Jan 27, 2020
5
0
510
The 1070 I bought used on ebay, but I haven't had any kind of graphical issues with it. I really hope it isn't the issue, I can't afford another one right now. The PSU I believe was bought new, though I could be wrong. It's getting a little old and has been in the last 2 or 3 systems I've built. I could be wrong, but this seems like a power issue to me. something wrong with the PSU or motherboard. I don't know how the GPU could cause this kind of issue, but I'm not an expert. This is a problem I've never come across before. I'll start looking at PSU's and maybe try a UPS I have laying around to see if that fixes it.
 
Hardware faults with ANY component, can cause ANY other component to not work correctly. There doesn't even NEED to be a rhyme or reason for it. If your graphics card flakes out when loads go beyond a certain point, it can destabilize anything on the system including voltage regulation, driver stability, the entire PCI bus subsystem, anything. There is no clear cut "why", when something is faulty it simply "can" and does often affect other things.

If it is destabilizing the system and then recovers after a few seconds, repeatedly, then you'd see what you are seeing. IDK, I have no exact answer but what I do know is that used graphics cards these days, especially high end models, are not advisable to purchase used. There are too many scammers, low lifes, miners, and generally clueless people that might be passing on a busted card to you without even realizing it (Although in most cases, they realize it) to make it a good or safe idea.

Personally I wouldn't buy used hardware, especially graphics cards, from anybody I didn't know well enough that I'd have no issue inviting them to my mother's house for Thanksgiving dinner. And actually, I probably wouldn't even be willing to buy one from a couple of the people that would likely BE there in any case. LOL.

A UPS will not fix anything. Ever. A UPS is ONLY for the purpose of battery backup, and if it's been "laying around" for a while anyhow, or if it's more than five years old, then there's a good chance that the battery or batteries in it are no good anyhow and it might actually be a danger to your system to even use it.

If you have been using this PSU for the last few systems, meaning it's been in use for more than three years already, then there is EVERY chance that the PSU is to blame because those CXm units generally don't last more than three years on average when used in moderately to heavily demanding gaming systems.

I'd probably start with a PSU and then if that doesn't fix it at least it wasn't a waste of money because you likely needed to get a newer, higher quality unit for use with whatever graphics card you end up using in the end, anyhow.

And those power supply "calculators" should be avoided in my opinion. They are basically worthless.

I'd use this for any capacity recommendations you might need.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm


And this when looking for model recommendations.

 
Solution

MikeC.

Prominent
Jan 27, 2020
5
0
510
New PSU didn't solve the issue. It looks like the GPU is the issue, unfortunately. Hopefully, with tax season coming up, I'll be able to afford a new one. Thanks for the help and advice everyone.
 
After installing the PSU, it is probably at least worth TRYING to do a hard reset of the BIOS settings, and then go back into the BIOS and reconfigure any custom BIOS settings you might have had. Sometimes when a PSU is bad it can cause problems with some of the BIOS settings such as memory configuration or other automatically configured settings as when there is a lack of stable power delivery some settings are reduced to account for that. Or things just get garbled.

It is worth at least trying a hard reset AND a fresh driver installation before throwing in the towel.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.




If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.



First,

make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.


Second,

go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.


Third,

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.



The last thing we want to look at,

for now anyhow, is the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.