Power Supply Had it?

[TheGrid]

Hi Guys,

So first ill give you a bit of a background on my situation. Over the past month my computer has randomly been crashing to a black screen then restarting. During those time ill be able to get back into the desktop other times it will do it at the password screen. I have reinstalled windows and gpu drivers thinking it would be them, however the problem is still persisting. I have swapped out my SLI 570's for a single 6750HD for the mean time and no crashing has occured. However, my cards had been working fine before this month. After checking crashing through blue screen viewer, it appears to be a 116 error, which is GPU timing i think. BUt i have go my mate to test both cards for 1 week each and no issues of crashing what so ever.

So im thinking maybe its my PSU, however i have never tested one. I read through overclockers.net that you can test your psu through speedfan (no idea of how accurate those results are) to see it rail voltage and so have done so and the results are as follows:

At Idle

3Vsb: 3.41V
Vbat: 3.33V
Vcore: 0.83V
+12V: 6.45V
AVcc: 3.30V
3Vcc: 3.30V
VIN1: 1.01V
VIN2: 2.04V
VIN3: 0.92V
GPU Vdcc 1.00V

I have no idea what these mean, but the +12V is low isnt it? I tried to do a load test using interburn test and OCSCANNER however the +12V only went up to 6.55V and no higher. That was also after 1 hour of testing.

Any help with this would be much appreciated as im unsure what else the problem maybe. Im hoping its the PSU as ill just buy a new one and wait oput my GPUs till the GTX 980 TI's are released.. but if the PSU is fine then i guess its the GPUs

Thanks in Advance!

TheGrid

 

[Samat]

If that 12V line result is correct then the PSU is definitely toasted, I'd stop using it immediately. It's a miracle it runs at all.

 

[TheGrid]

Ok. Is there a way to get a more accurate reading? Just want to make sure before I purchase a new one, however I have a gut feeling it is toasted. How are EVGA for PSU's? or Seasonic? I have only ever had corsair, but this is my second PSU that has died on me in 6 years so time to try another brand. Ill RMA this one and when i get its replacement ill sell it.

These are the PSU I was looking at:

EVGA 220-P2-1200-X4 SuperNovo 1200W Platium 80+ HIGH EFFICIENCY Modular Power Supply - $309

or

Seasonic 1200W 80Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply, SS-1200XP - $375

or

Corsair AX-1200i 1200W i 80+ Platinum Certified ATX PSU - $439

The corsair one, to me, is way over priced.. Im just not sure of the quality of the Seasonic or EVGA.

Thanks for the Reply Samat, its appreciated.

 

[Samat]

Ok. Is there a way to get a more accurate reading? Just want to make sure before I purchase a new one, however I have a gut feeling it is toasted. How are EVGA for PSU's? or Seasonic? I have only ever had corsair, but this is my second PSU that has died on me in 6 years so time to try another brand. Ill RMA this one and when i get its replacement ill sell it.

These are the PSU I was looking at:

EVGA 220-P2-1200-X4 SuperNovo 1200W Platium 80+ HIGH EFFICIENCY Modular Power Supply - $309

or

Seasonic 1200W 80Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply, SS-1200XP - $375

or

Corsair AX-1200i 1200W i 80+ Platinum Certified ATX PSU - $439

The corsair one, to me, is way over priced.. Im just not sure of the quality of the Seasonic or EVGA.

Thanks for the Reply Samat, its appreciated.

All 3 of those are excellent power supplies, but the EVGA one is definitely the best deal looking at the price. You can check the JonnyGURU test for it if you like (http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=389).

You should see the voltages from bios usually or if you have a voltage meter (and know what you are doing!) you can test them from the connectors.

 

[TheGrid]

Hi again Samat. So I doubled checked the voltages in the the BIOS and they are as follows:

CPU Voltage: 1.156V
3.3V Voltage: 3.280V
5V Voltage: 5.00V
12V Voltage: 11.520 (that did fluctuate to 11.62V)
VTT CPU Voltage: 1.106V
CPU VCCSA Voltage: 0.896V

So now im confused as to whether it is my PSU or not. Is the 12V Voltage Low for a 3 year old PSU?

 

[Samat]

Hi again Samat. So I doubled checked the voltages in the the BIOS and they are as follows:

CPU Voltage: 1.156V
3.3V Voltage: 3.280V
5V Voltage: 5.00V
12V Voltage: 11.520 (that did fluctuate to 11.62V)
VTT CPU Voltage: 1.106V
CPU VCCSA Voltage: 0.896V

So now im confused as to whether it is my PSU or not. Is the 12V Voltage Low for a 3 year old PSU?

That 12V voltage is barely inside the specification (atx specification allows for ± 5% fluctuation), and that's at idle so it's not very hard the predict that it will go even lower and out of spec under load. You could always test the system with other power supply if you have one available, but I'm pretty sure it's the psu causing the problems.

 

[TheGrid]

I think you are I just turned on my PC and the 12V was 12.00 when I started to game it gradually dropped to 11.52V so I think it is the PSU. I'll let you know when I pick my new one up today

Thank you so much for the help! Much appreciated!

 

[TheGrid]

Hi again Samat. So I doubled checked the voltages in the the BIOS and they are as follows:

CPU Voltage: 1.156V
3.3V Voltage: 3.280V
5V Voltage: 5.00V
12V Voltage: 11.520 (that did fluctuate to 11.62V)
VTT CPU Voltage: 1.106V
CPU VCCSA Voltage: 0.896V

So now im confused as to whether it is my PSU or not. Is the 12V Voltage Low for a 3 year old PSU?

That 12V voltage is barely inside the specification (atx specification allows for ± 5% fluctuation), and that's at idle so it's not very hard the predict that it will go even lower and out of spec under load. You could always test the system with other power supply if you have one available, but I'm pretty sure it's the psu causing the problems.

One last question Samat, could I get away with a 1000W PSU as I'm thinking 1200W might be overkill.

my build is as follows:

CPU: i7 3930k not over clocked
Motherboard: Rampage IV Extreme
GPU: Sli EVGA GTX 570 HD's
RAM: 16GB Corsair 1600MHz Vengence
HDD: 3 x Caviar blue
Dvd: Samsung Bluray Drive
Case: Coolermaster HAF X
Cpu Cooler: Corsair H100
Fans: 5 case fans + 2 cooler fans

From my caculations I think I need at least a 1050W thus why I was going to get a 1200W but Im waiting to get a gtx 980ti later this year so 1200W might be overkill.

 

[Samat]

Hi again Samat. So I doubled checked the voltages in the the BIOS and they are as follows:

CPU Voltage: 1.156V
3.3V Voltage: 3.280V
5V Voltage: 5.00V
12V Voltage: 11.520 (that did fluctuate to 11.62V)
VTT CPU Voltage: 1.106V
CPU VCCSA Voltage: 0.896V

So now im confused as to whether it is my PSU or not. Is the 12V Voltage Low for a 3 year old PSU?

That 12V voltage is barely inside the specification (atx specification allows for ± 5% fluctuation), and that's at idle so it's not very hard the predict that it will go even lower and out of spec under load. You could always test the system with other power supply if you have one available, but I'm pretty sure it's the psu causing the problems.

One last question Samat, could I get away with a 1000W PSU as I'm thinking 1200W might be overkill.

my build is as follows:

CPU: i7 3930k not over clocked
Motherboard: Rampage IV Extreme
GPU: Sli EVGA GTX 570 HD's
RAM: 16GB Corsair 1600MHz Vengence
HDD: 3 x Caviar blue
Dvd: Samsung Bluray Drive
Case: Coolermaster HAF X
Cpu Cooler: Corsair H100
Fans: 5 case fans + 2 cooler fans

From my caculations I think I need at least a 1050W thus why I was going to get a 1200W but Im waiting to get a gtx 980ti later this year so 1200W might be overkill.

You should be fine with the 1050W psu, in review the GTX 570 SLI setups been just under 600W total system draw. Count in your cpu prolly hogging a bit more power you should still be more than fine having the psu running at a comfortable load when maxed.

 

[TheGrid]

Well i got my new PSU and no random shut downs at all and my +12V rail holds well about 12V. I also noticed using my Asus Suite that my old 12V railo was dropping down to 11.4V so definitely the rail. Thanks so much for the help guys.