Question Power supply underpower?

Jan 24, 2020
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So I've got a ASRock b450m hdv 4.0 Mobo, ryzen 3 3200g, Blu-ray drive, front USB add-on, 16 gb ddr4 3000mhz, 120 gb SSD, 1 tb mechanical drive and a Asus GeForce gtx 1660. I was trying to run on a cheap bronze 550 cooler master. It all runs smoothly with a gtx 460. I put in the 1660 and I get screen flickers and occasional system blue screen crash. Games crash to desktop, doors whenever the 1660 goes to fire up. The 1660 runs flawlessly in a friend's rig run by a 1000 watt PSU.

I'm convinced that it has to be the PSU that is the issue. I read it's voltage on it is also unsteady.
If this is the likely culprit I can get my hands on an EVGA 750 watt.

Do you think my guess that the cheap 550 as the problem could be correct?
 
Jan 24, 2020
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Yes. I've literally tried everything I can think of. I've clean wiped and installed newest drivers, repeat and older and middle drivers. Reinstalled windows several times.

For some reason as well the GPU will be running at 100, and CPU at 0 while sitting at desktop.

I don't understand why my 1660 works in the other rig flawlessly, and I can put the 460 in with no issue. But as soon as I put the 1660 in mine it has problems.
 

Karadjgne

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Rofl. Sorry, but you'd be better served punching that psu calculator in the face, a more satisfying result. Did you also happen to see a recommended psu at the bottom of the screen, it was probably a very decent psu and twice as much as needed or cost.

You'd maybe need a 750w/850w if you had a i9 9900k and RTX2080ti, otherwise a good quality 450w will suit your build just fine, a decent 550w if that made you nervous.

Question. With the windows wipe, driver wipes and all the rest of the resets, did you happen to have followed ASRock bios update procedure (that does not mean just update to latest, it means there will be several updates necessary to bring to current) and also happen to download and install all the latest motherboard chipset drivers from ASRock? That'll include audio, Lan, USB, pcie...
 
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Jan 24, 2020
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Thank you!! I'll give it another shot tomorrow. Does the 550 watt cooler master masterwatt semi-modular bronze qualify as a decent 550? I'll have to do a couple more updates and hopefully this works. If the 550 works I can return the 750.
 

Karadjgne

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It's OK. And that's about as far as I'd go with most CM psus, they aren't exactly close to brilliant, but they work. For your build that 550w will be enough.

With the chipset drivers, they get stored in windows/drivers folder. If you reset windows, it wipes out anything in that folder and replaces just windows stuff. That leaves everything on your mobo at the mercy of Microsoft. Most drivers are very generic, good enough to function, just not very well. It's exactly like trying to get a good picture from stock VGA drivers, when your video card really needs its own drivers set installed. You gotta do for the mobo what you do from nvidia.
 
Jan 24, 2020
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All the driver's have been updated properly, and it still does the flicker and occasional blue crash. I put the PSU into another rig and then plugged in the gpu and updated Nvidia drivers. Same issue. But the card in another rig with a different PSU is working flawlessly.

It's gotta be something with the cooler master PSU. It's the only common denominator when issues occur.
 

Karadjgne

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I would tend to agree with those results. I try everything I can, software related, or basically free, first, and then move onto the expensive parts. It's a 50/50 stab in the dark most times.

But as you say, you've done the homework, and have your answer. Only question now is what you can replace it with.
 
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Jan 24, 2020
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I have a 750 watt EVGA put aside at alocal store. I just wanted to be sure before I purchased another PSU.
I think the moral of the story is not to cheap out on a psu and to read reviews. I purchased the PSU from Canada computers, and am thinking I should try to return it. It would work for a lesser rig I put together for a friend using an fx4100 and 460 GPU. But it makes me wonder if it's even worth using at all, as it could potentially be an issue that could just degrade the thing quicker.


But I'll pickup that EVGA. Thanks for pointing out the Mobo drivers I had missed on the overall wipe. Good to dot all your i's and cross your t's.
 
Jan 24, 2020
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I'll have to take a look when I'm back home again, but they only had 700 and up at the store. The 700 was a modular as well and I didn't want to pay extra for the cosmetic. But I do plan to add another drive or 2. Also gives me room to up my CPU and GPU in the future, no?