The problem: Motherboard or CPU?

[Harshmobo]

So, I've been playing The Old Republic pretty frequently for the last two weeks. The first week was fine, no issues. This last week, however, my computer would randomly crash during playtime. The kind of crash where I would hear a single tone from the PC, and the monitor would display a solid color (like blue, or beige, or just go black). I would have to manually turn off the PC to fix the problem.

Anyway, now I'm at the point where even a small load will just shut the PC off. Even just starting the game crashed my PC. I was unable to get it to boot again until I reset the battery on the motherboard, but even that doesn't seem to fix it now. When I did get it to boot, I tried running the Fur program to test component load, but the PC shut off the moment I hit the test button.

Now my PC won't boot at all. When I press the power button, the HDD beeps and spins a little, and the "CPU Phase" light on the motherboard comes on, then they stop and repeat periodically.

My CPU is an i5, and the motherboard is a MSI G77A-M45. Each component is only 2-3 years old at most. Both components have been working fine over the last few years playing games like Battlefield 4 on high with no issues.

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

The power supply is the most likely culprit. What power supply do you own?

 

[Harshmobo]

It's a Corsair CX600. I know it has adequate wattage for everything, including the video card. It's also only a few years old. Perhaps it's overheating?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

The Corsair CX power supply is low quality. They use capacitors from Samxon. Let me explain. Capacitors are used in power supplies to store an electric charge. They almost look like like an upside-down AA battery and have two magnetic aluminum foils inside with an electrolyte substance between them. The electrolyte substance is a liquid. The Japanese make the best capacitors because the seal them best and use a much better electrolyte substance. The ones in the CX are poor, not made in Japan.

My guess is one of these capacitors has already leaked due to poor sealing. If a capacitor leaks, it fails to do its job of regulating a voltage. For instance, your CPU and GPU run on a 12V voltage, so you don't want your power supply sending a voltage of 13V out to them! It can damage components and cause these freezes you are experiencing. I would buy a new power supply. You got 3 years out of it. be happy with that.

 

[Harshmobo]

Alright, I'll look into that. Thanks

Do you have a suggestion for a good PSU or brand?