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I'm having an issue with my PC: It is rebooting sometimes, and I am suspecting the PSU, so I want to confirm a few things. It is a new PC and the first issues started occuring roughly one month after purchase. Also they only occur after several hours of usage. And it seemed that completely shutting down powerline to the PC, and waiting few minutes, then putting it on again, seemed to relief the issue, but that might be just coincidence?
First off:
- Does the PSU capacity decrease over lifetime of the PSU?
- Does the PSU capacity temporarily decrease as it is active for a continious time?
My PC specs: Intel i7-3770, 16GB RAM, GTX 770, SSD, HDD. I think Asus Z77 motherboard.
As you can see it is pretty high-end, but I rechecked the PSU on the invoice yesterday and to my surprise I found a 30 euro PSU, namely the HKC V-550.
My system draws 480W of power from the powerline, if on full GPU & CPU stresstest. This is a heavily modified version of their base system, which did not include such a high-end GPU as the GTX770.
Also, as far as I know, a system shutdown (without! bluescreen) can only occur, if:
- PSU shuts down
- CPU shuts down
- Motherboard shuts down?
But to me it occurs to be logical that the PC would not reboot if the CPU or Motherboard had shutdown, yet with a PSU and a safety switch it might seem logical that it could reboot.
Also about the reboot: The PC "on"-LED in the front turns off once it reboots, and in my headset (that is connected through USB) I heard some kind of clicking sound once when it turns off, and once when it turns on. Might that be enough reason to believe that it is the PSU?
Also, the temperatures of my CPU and GPU, actually of my whole PC, are perfectly fine under load. The only real test I have not been able to do yet is Memtest86, but wouldn't that lead to a bluescreen under windows anyway? Instead of a reboot.
Well I hope someone is able to help me here.
please explain what a stress test is? there is no such software that can accurately measure the amount of power your computer pushes without a power adapter like kill-a-watt – Sickest – 2013-09-23T07:28:20.160
A stress test does not measure the amount of power the computer pushes, rather it pushes the computer to use a lot of power - and thats the point the OP was making - when doing a lot of computing the system is drawing 480 watts - which he is - I think correctly - postulating might be the cause of his problems as the PSU can (I suspect) only handle 550 watts, and thats not a big margin. – davidgo – 2013-09-23T07:35:11.197
Check in the power section for the "ac Restart" option or start on power, or whatever they call it this week. It does sound like a shutdown, not a crash. and unstable system asus MB can certannly bail out like that without it being an actual power issue. If your showing a 480W use though, and using only a 550, the spikes could still trip it. Could be anything. Lower your power consumption (somehow) without changing the clock and ram and all that. see if it still does it. If there is nothing to pull, then downclok the graphics card, that will get you some leeway to test. – Psycogeek – 2013-09-23T07:43:37.380
Some components may draw more current from time to time, even taking HDDs for example, when they have to spin up, they require more energy and the load for sure is dynamic and change with time, so you may not have enough wattage – Ashtray – 2013-09-23T08:49:35.617
At 30E and 550W, your PSU is almost certainly a low quality one that's unlikely to perform well at its listed rating if it's capable of. A good PSU in that power class should cost at least twice as much. – Dan is Fiddling by Firelight – 2013-09-23T13:28:10.677