Power suddenly cut off

[Uddie]

Hi, first post here. Been a long time lurker but never really been able to answer or need any specific help before. That changed yesterday.

I recently upgraded my GPU from a GTX480 SLI setup to a single GTX 780. Not had time to play with it until yesterday. I was playing Metro Last Light for around 1.5hrs when my system just shut down all of a sudden. No crash, no lag, no bluescreen. Everything was fine then it turned itself off. I then turned it back on, but as i did i could smell burning so quickly hit the power button.

I opened the case and couldn't trace any hint of where the burning came from and it disappeared pretty rapidly. Now i had been monitoring my temps and the GPU never went above 58C on auto fan profile, my CPU stayed in mid 50s. The RAM felt pretty hot but i thought that was normal under stress.

Ran Memtest86 just in case it was RAM and it came out fine. Checked blue screen view for error log but had nothing.

Played again later for another hour to try and reproduce the problem but nothing. I am at a bit of loss here, if any of you guys could point a light on this i would hugely appreciate it the help. Play games on this machine but also use it for work (3d rendering, overnight sometimes) and i would rather avoid this happening when i am not about.

There is a little dust in the case but nothing drastic. Its possible some could have got singed or maybe I bumped the power lead? Hoping it may have just been random 😀

My system:
Intel I7 930 stock speed
P6T deluxe mobo
MSI Gaming GTX 780 3GB
12GB Gskill Ram
Tagan Superock 1000W PSU
Coolermaster HAF 932

If you need any other info just ask. Again, thanks for any help and advice.

 

[house70]

If temps are fine (which they seem to be) even under stress, I believe you might have just burned off a small dust ball. Or it could have been an insect that temporarily shorted out something. If the cooling fan is drawing air onto the heatsink/fins, the first variant is more likely.
Please ensure that you use a good surge protector on the PC (PSU, monitor). Simple stuff like that can save your system.

 

[Uddie]

Thanks for replying so quickly. I meant to say that the CPU is watercooled so no heat sink on that to gather dust but the GPU has a quite a large heatsink, but its clean as literally just installed the other day but it could have picked something up from the bottom of the case/PSU.

I do have a surge protector (not sure how good this one is though), and the PSU failing is my main concern here. The system is around 4 years old now. I may have another look tonight when i get home, see if i can see anything inside the PSU. Is there any way to tell if a PSU is on the way out?

 

[house70]

They can get a coil whine when that happens. I would say it should make the system unstable under stress if unable to provide good current. Don't think the PSU is the cause. It could have been the GPU heatsink.

 

[Uddie]

Thanks very much for the advice mate. I will report back if there is anything further. Fingers crossed I don't have too. 😀