Screen line flickering

[kristian221]

These weird lines will appear across all three of my monitors every minute or so for just a second. Also the computer will sometimes just randomly restart. Never had this problem before and it just started happening after 3 and a half years with this computer.

 

[BobbyBubblehead]

possibilities

1) Line Noise
2) Insufficient or corrupted power supply
3) Bad graphics adapter
4) Failing monitor
5) Electrical disturbance (from a device, such as speakers around your monitor)
6) Strong magnetism from a nearby source, and many other things

or Coke B. 3 and a half years worth of dust in the machine?

 

[kristian221]

Now it wont stay booted up for more than a few minutes...no warning or anything. Everything seems to be loading super fast as well.

 

[BobbyBubblehead]

most likely culprit is your PSU is dying then.

can you get into BIOS to see if its in the mood for dancin (your 12v rail that is)

 

[kristian221]

most likely culprit is your PSU is dying then.

can you get into BIOS to see if its in the mood for dancin (your 12v rail that is)

Not sure how I would mess with that in the BIOS, haven't played around with that much. Seems the more monitors I have plugged in to the GPU the more likely it is to die. It never dies while idle either, only when playing a game or watching a movie.

 

[BobbyBubblehead]

press delete a lot when you turn the pc on (at post) to enter bios.



look at the voltages for a minute or two and see if they are stable. if the values are shifting constantly it could well be your power supply.
the tolerance of voltage swing is 5%

if its within those values then we can look elsewhere for the problem

 

[BobbyBubblehead]

sounds like a power or heat issue. in short

as the more load (demand) you put on the system the more likely it is to fail.

 

[kristian221]

The value for the voltage of the CPU was shifting slightly, but within the 5% range. Other than that everything else was pretty much constant. I am starting to think it is a GPU issue because of the flickering lines I keep seeing.

 

[kristian221]

So, do you think it is a GPU or PSU issue? The restarts are getting more frequent, happening sometimes when I am just web browsing.

 

[freakdiablo]

You could check to see if it's thermal. Try installing HWMonitor if you haven't already. This will show both the GPU and CPU temps.

Another thing you could also check the connections (both monitor cables and SLI bridge). Make sure the Graphics cards are seated right and the PCIe power adapters didn't come lose. Maybe even try just running a single card, if it still happens, switch cards.

Also, try checking the PSU with a multimeter, as software readings aren't always 100% accurate. There's a sticky laying around, but it basically consists of testing one of the 4pin molex connectors. Black wires are ground, red wire is 5v, and yellow wire is 12v.

 

[Bobnova]

Check the capacitors near the CPU and the capacitors on the GPU, they should not be bulging, leaking, exploded, or otherwise trashed.
Pull the PSU out and peer through the grill and see if you can see the tops of those capacitors, too.

It sounds PSUish to me. Could be GPUs. You could take one GPU out, see if the problem still happens, swap GPUs and see if it still happens. If it happens with either GPU, it ain't the GPUs.
If it only happens with one GPU, doublecheck, and if it continues to be true you've found your culprit.

Check all the PSU connectors at both ends too, make sure they're all the way seated and are not melted/fried/hate life.

 

[kristian221]

You are going to hate me for this...Yes it was a PSU and GPU problem. The problem was one of the power pins was out on the GPU. It was only getting half power. Think that did any damage to it? It has been a couple weeks.

 

[freakdiablo]

Good to know that was all. You can try checking wires and things, making sure the card wasn't trying to pull too much power through the PCIe slot or something. I don't know if it could, I never thought about it

 

[kristian221]

Everything appears to be working fine. No idea how it came unplugged just sitting there.

 

[RyanCouch]

I dont think underpower damages components
if you had overvolted on accident then you'd want to worry. you should be just fine