Question Trying to find the cause of freezing/restart

Apr 3, 2019
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This happens whenever I play Fallout 4 at low-medium settings and during occt psu test(no problems when testing just cpu or gpu). I searched the internet to solve this problem and that this problem is usually related to psu. I was convinced it was psu, at the very least hardware related problem since I didn't encounter errors and bsods. I bought a new psu (Corsair VS 550) to replace my old psu (Cougar SL 500). Had this computer since Aug 2013, all components are new when I bought it and haven't replaced any of them until now. Unfortunately that didn't fix it, occt psu test freezes/restarts 2-5 secs after starting the test using either of the psu.

Specs of other components:
PSU: see above
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570
GPU: GeForce GTX 760
MOBO: ASUS P8H61-M LX3 PLUS R2.0
RAM: 1x8gb ddr3

I have updated the drivers for the mobo found on asus website, gpu drivers is also updated. Stress tested without the gpu and using the integrated gpu and no problems with it. I also don't think it's overheating because this also happened after I woke up and booted/stress tested it immediately.
 

Aeacus

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While you did buy a new PSU, you again cheaped out on PSU. Corsair VS-series PSU isn't any better than your previous Cougar unit since VS-series PSUs are also low quality units and the worst offered by Corsair. Corsair CS, CX and CXm series are better than VS series but build quality wise, they still are worse than anything offered by Seasonic. While Corsair AX, AXi, HX, HXi, RMx, RMi, TXm and SF series are on-par with Seasonic PSUs.

It's your choice of cheap PSUs that makes the OCCT PSU test fail since that test will put 100% load on everything in your PC to test if your PSU can deliver the needed wattage at correct voltage levels. If PSU can't, you'll either fry the PSU or on better occasion, get the PC to reboot.

You can cheap out on every other component inside the PC except PSU. Since PSU powers everything, it is the most important component inside the PC. Also, while the PSU warranty covers the PSU itself and you can RMA the blown PSU, the PSU warranty doesn't cover any other component the PSU fried.

Most people learn the hard way not to cheap out on a PSU when low quality PSU blows and takes part of the system or the whole system with it. Even entire houses have been burned down because of the fire low quality PSU caused when it blowed up.

Like it or not, if you want your PC to work for years to come without any risk of fire and/or damage to your components, you need to hand out some money for good quality PSU. Here, i'd look towards any Seasonic PSU in 600W range, e.g: M12II-620 EVO (80+ Bronze), Focus 650 (80+ Gold), Focus+ 650 (80+ Gold), or PRIME Ultra 650 (80+ Gold),
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/Tc3RsY,qZKhP6,WrNypg,qn7v6h/

Warranty wise:
M12II EVO: 5 years
Focus: 7 years
Focus+: 10 years
PRIME: 12 years (includes all PRIME models: regular, Fanless, AirTouch, SnowSilent, Ultra)

All my 3 PCs: Skylake, Haswell and AMD are also powered by Seasonic (full specs with pics in my sig).

Also, I'm not talking that you need to go with the best PSU money can buy, e.g Seasonic PRIME 650 (80+ Titanium), which costs $150+ (and which also powers my Skylake build). Seasonic M12II EVO i linked above costs $75 and is more than enough for your PC, both wattage and build quality wise.

However, if you still think your "budget" VS-series PSU is good enough, please, do record a video when your cheap PSU blows up since i like to see some good fireworks. Just like seen in here,
youtube:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY27LkiEROg

youtube 2:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6snWfd1v7M
 
Apr 3, 2019
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I haven't experienced psu getting fried so far on my previous two desktops and those were using generic psu with low end gpu. I always thought psu frying happens mostly on high end builds, overclocking and other stuffs. I never once attempted overclocking because of possibility of psu frying and only do things that your computer can handle. I also did occt psu test with gpu downlocked(msi afterburner).

I did thought of buying the better ones from corsair(seasonic and evga as well) and yeah budget is one reason. Another is because I wasn't planning to replace my current pc yet. I also don't know if my next pc will still be a desktop and all my siblings are using laptop(one is a gaming laptop) except me.
 

Aeacus

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Thing with low quality PSUs isn't if they blow up but when they blow up. So far, you've been lucky but luck does run eventually out and loosing everything the PSU is connected to is far more expensive than the extra $40-$50 the good quality PSU costs over low quality PSU.

Also, as you can see from the OCCT, that even when you downclock the GPU, Corsair VS-series still can't handle your 170W GPU + the rest of the system, showing clearly how poor the cheapest Corsair PSU is.
Btw, i too have GTX 760 GPU (Haswell build) and in there, i have Seasonic M12II-850 EVO PSU. While 850W is a bit much for my system, i'd rather take the extra 200W on PSU than coming 100W short on PSU. Though, only thing i loose out using 850W unit is efficiency and since my PC is back up by an UPS, i'm replacing my trusty M12II-850 EVO with proper wattage (650W) and far more efficient Seasonic unit (either SSR-650TD or SSR-650TR) to get longer runtime out of my UPS. But enough of me.

So, now you know the answer to your restart issue; it's your low quality VS550 PSU, which either can't keep stable enough voltage or provide enough wattage for your PC during heavy load (gaming, OCCT).
As far as system freeze goes, that can be due to the low voltage supplied to your HDD, which leads to a data corruption on your drive and i think you'll figure out what happens when you have data corrupted on your HDD.

As far as Corsair and EVGA in general go, you can go wrong with both brands, especially when you buy their "budget" PSUs. Seasonic, in the other hand, is one of the oldest PSU OEMs in the world and they have been in business for over 40 years (founded in 1975). Corsair and EVGA aren't PSU OEMs, instead, they buy their PSUs from PSU OEMs (e.g Enhance, Great Wall, HEC, Channel Well Technology, Flextronics, Super Flower, Seasonic).
Besides releasing PSUs under their own name, Seasonic also makes PSUs to other popular brands. To name the few: Corsair AX series, EVGA Supernova GS series, XFX TS series, NZXT Hale82 series.
Also, Seasonic hasn't never made a bad quality PSU in their time (unless you count some noisy fans in their older models). PSU build quality wise, Seasonic is the leading OEM in the world. And depending on who you ask, either Seasonic or Super Flower is considered the best PSU OEM in the world.
 
Apr 3, 2019
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Hm...ok. This isn't exactly the first time it happened, back then it will freeze(black screen) for a few seconds then throws a display driver crash related to kernel and such. Though I think I did fix that by upgrading or downgrading display drivers since it's one of the suggestions to fix it. It rarely happens back then when I'm playing Fallout 4 and I started playing it one month after it's release(December 2015). I was able to play Fallout 4 without hardware related problems for three years. It only became repeatable this March that I started thinking a hardware is failing(psu is the first suspect). Uninstalling the drivers with ddu and reinstalling it with updated ones didn't help this time.

Based on what you said, while no frying happened yet is it possible that some components degraded faster due to me using low quality psu from non reputable brands? Because of that some of the components isn't receiving enough power anymore despite replacing it with new(although low quality as you say)psu? If that's the case then even a good quality psu won't solve it and I'm better off buying a new pc for heavy gaming. Though I can still use this one for other things just not heavy gaming.

I don't know how exactly the lifespan of computers these days. My pc is already five years old and I already suspected since January that a component will degrade or die this year, maybe it's happening now. I only recently learned through psu calculators that later releases of cpu and gpu required less power now. I guess this is also something to consider if I decide to just buy a new one.
 
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Aeacus

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Using low quality PSU, which operates outside of the ATX PSU standards (e.g too much/less voltage), can degrade components over time and reduce their lifespan. How much lifetime has been reduced - that's impossible to tell. But PC components do have good lifespan and in most of the times, hardware itself becomes obsolete due to the low performance rather than dying of old age. Of course, that applies when you manually don't OC your hardware since CPU/GPU OC decreases the component lifespan considerably.
For example, my AMD build is 8 years old and still works without issues since i've taken very good care of it (latest upgrade was PSU from Seasonic S12II-520 (80+ Bronze) to Seasonic Focus+ 550 (80+ Platinum) + CableMod custom sleeved power cables for eyecandy).

As far as good quality PSU goes, they are built to last and proper PSU can last through several builds. Meaning that when you buy good unit now, you can use the same PSU to power your next gaming rig without issues. Though, continuing to use low quality PSU, even on low loads (non-gaming) still can and most likely will decrease the component lifespan in accelerated rate.

Here's a broad example:
If you would've used good quality PSU from day 1, your PC life expectancy is about 10-15 years (CPUs last about 20 years).
Since you used Cougar unit most of the time and now Corsair unit, your PC may have 1-2 years left until something in it dies (factoring in the accelerated lifespan reduction).
Going with good quality PSU now (e.g Seasonic), would stop the accelerated lifespan reduction and you might get another 3-4 years out of your PC until something in it dies. Also, you can continue playing games without freezes/reboots and no worries of data corruption due to this.

Since i can't tell how much lifespan reduction there has been, your PC can die tomorrow, or next week or in 2 months; but using low quality PSU will bring the PC's failure sooner than using good quality PSU.

Btw, 650W PSU is more than enough for any gaming PC that has single GPU in it, even when you OC your CPU and GPU which adds additional power draw.
Example: system with i5-9600K and RTX 2080 Ti consumes about 450W at max load (RTX 2080 Ti is 250W GPU and the rest of the system comes in at about 200W). CPU and GPU OC combined can put another 100W on top of it, making the OC'd PC power draw at max load around 550W (450W stock + 100W OC). Due to that, 650W PSU is more than enough. 750W and up PSUs are mostly used in a PCs with multiple GPUs (e.g workstation PCs for 3D rendering).
 
Apr 3, 2019
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I guess it's more convincing now that component degradation did happen on my pc. My 2nd desktop was still in good condition when I bought my 3rd desktop(current), I think it was in the middle of it's lifespan when I stopped using it. But since no one is using it and it collected so much dust I guess some components on it died. I tried to boot it again and it won't display anything although there is power on fans, I guess the gpu died.As for this pc, now I know I won't be able to play demanding games using this one though I'm still curious which component was affected the most.

My brother asked me 2 weeks ago when will I upgrade my computer and told him that everything is still fine. After dealing with this problem for a week, I'm considering building a new one now. I have my eyes on an i5 coffee lake cpu and gtx 1660(not the Ti variant), was initially going for rtx 2060 but changed my mind because of budget reasons. I haven't decided on other components like mobo, ram and psu.
 
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Aeacus

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As far as your 2nd desktop goes and depending on which CPU you have, you could try pulling the dedicated GPU out and run on the CPU's on-board graphics. If you still don't get any signal to your monitor then most likely, the MoBo is dead. But it can also be RAM or CPU. If the CPU doesn't have on-board graphics (some AMD chips don't), then dedicated GPU can be considered as one of the components that died.

Regarding your 4th desktop, the MoBo selection depends on which 9th gen Core i5 you're going with. If non-K then any B- or H-series MoBo will do. But if K-series (e.g i5-9600K), then Z-series MoBo would be best since you can OC the unlocked multiplier CPU. Also, Z-series MoBos usually have the most features. Chipset wise, Z390 chipset is ideal. Z370 chipset would do as well but with it, you need to make sure it has latest BIOS. Else-ways, you'll need 8th gen CPU to update the BIOS. Note: if the BIOS update would be interrupted for whatever reason (e.g power loss), MoBo will be bricked with 0 chance of repair.
Brand wise, pick what you like. I'm using MSI and i also prefer Asus. Gigabyte and AsRock have also stepped up their game with 300-series MoBos but their 100-series MoBos weren't that good. Due to their past history, i, personally, avoid the latter two brands.

RAM wise, 16GB is more than enough for gaming PC. 8GB would do too if your budget is way limited. 32GB and up is only needed in workstation PCs. As far as RAM speed goes, max that B- and H-series MoBos support is 2666 Mhz. Only Z-series MoBos support faster than 2666 Mhz, e.g 3000 Mhz, 3200 Mhz etc. Though, 3000 Mhz RAM has the best price to performance ratio.

And for PSU, choice is relatively easy. Like i already said above, any Seasonic unit will do. While 500W range unit would be enough for RTX 1660, i'd go with 650W unit, just in case you're going to upgrade the GPU in the future.

Making the final build looking something like this (went with classy black & white theme),
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XPsqFt

I can say few words about the example build above if you're interested in my choices.