Need help trying to figure out if my PSU is dying or what else to try!

[maikalwolf]

This is my set-up:

Asus Sabertooth 990fx R2.0 mobo
32gb Gskill 1866mhz ddr3
Thermaltakes tough power 750w. 80 Plus Gold.
Windows10
Thermaltake Water Cooler 3.0 240 Riiding RGB Edition PWM
fx8320 AMD RADEON R9 390
1 2tb Sata HDD 7.5 rpm
gaming keyboard and gaming mouse

So the problem is that over the last couple of months my system force closes and reboots the PC off and on when ever I try to enter my games (World of warships, Fractured Space, Total Warhammer). It started of intermitently but recently its to the point that it was doing it all the time while I attempted to enter games.

I have tried everything suggested my Customer Support of WoWs and still the same problem. I did research on the web, used MSI Kombuster to test/monitor the system and temperatures seem okay. I used DDU to clean and re-install drivers for GPU. I have re-installed Win 10, I have reinstalled Steam and the non-Steam games.

I thought at first it was my GPU, although temps were normal, with or without the MSI Gaming App (I read it did not play well with the wattman software). I have reverted to previous Radeon software updates as far back as December of last year.

I sent the GPU back to MSI and they are sending me a refurbished card after much back and forth (they wanted to give me a $171.00 refund but I held out for the card.) I sent them the card because it was still under warranty and I bought it used, I figure maybe it was a bad card someone sold me.

In the meantime I had an older gently used R7 260X card and I put it into the system...you guessed it, no problems whatsoever on high game settings of WoWs and the other games. In fact the problem dissapeared. So I borrowed a R9 390 from a friend that was selling his since he upgraded. I installed it and once again the problems returned. I deleted and re-installed WoWs again just to make sure. As soon as I tried to enter the game the PC again just forced closed and restarted. Same symptom.

The thing is I did all the stress tests and it passed CPUID, Kombuster, Full mark, GPU shark. Temperatures were normal and it passed all the tests. I was going to wait on the refurbished RMA of my R9 390 from MSI to test it again, but I wonder if I am chasing my tail and just need to replace the PSU, which according to several caculators I have tried seems to be enough to power things up!

Your thoughts ladies and gents? Should I just get another PSU and try that or could I try something else? Like I said, with the R7 260X the problem dissapears ( of course is less power hungry), with a different R9 390 the reboot returns.

Oh, no overclocking on these cards or the system ever.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Johan45]

There's an easy test for the PSU. Run Prime 95 blend and HEaven benchmark at the same time. If it can handle that the odds are it's not the PSU but something else.

 

[maikalwolf]

Will it make a difference which card it has?

There's an easy test for the PSU. Run Prime 95 blend and HEaven benchmark at the same time. If it can handle that the odds are it's not the PSU but something else.

Should I put the R9 card back in for the test or should I run it with the R7 anyway? I took out the R9 because it forced closed while I was researching in the forums. And thank you for taking the time to respond.

 

[Johan45]

I would use the trouble card

 

[maikalwolf]

Okay thanks for that. I did run it on the R7 card and it held up with no reboot. Tomorrow I will do it with the R9 card and report back.

 

[wingman99]

I would check for any shorts in the wiring in the PC. Wiggle all the wires while the PC is on.

 

[maikalwolf]

I thought about that. But It would not explain why the problem is not happening with the R7 260X i have been using! No problems at all and it passed several stress test. It only happens when I put in the R9 390. And as i said, I RMAd original one I had back to MSI, and used my friends R9 and it happened again. Now Im thinking I just traded a year old R9 for a refurbished R9!...lol Im hoping those refurbished go through stringent testing over at MSI.

 

[demien88]

Smells like bad PSU to me. It isn't for nothing that r9 is unable to work properly while r7 that is way less power hungry gpu can. Or you got some wiring gone to heck. If you can ask friend to borrow you PSU that is strong enough for r9 ask him just to test it out.

 

[maikalwolf]

Yeah, that's next on the agenda after I try the testing again with his R9-390. As for borrowing another PSU I think the best he may have is a 550W. Most calculators I used in the past to figure out how big a PSU I need put 550W at least minimum to not enough! I may visit a local BestBuy and see what they got available, I can always return depending on how that goes. Again thanks for the comments!

 

[trents]

A good name brand 550W PSU is quite adequate to run any system with only one power hungry video card. The watt calculators greatly overestimate needs because they want to cover the situations where people buy cheap junk PSUs that themselves greatly exaggerate their watt output claims.

 

[demien88]

550 is enough but get good/decent brand at least bronze. How old is your PSU anyway?

 

[maikalwolf]

I've had it for 2 years. It was a friends who had it for 3 years out of the box. Based on my speck you folks really feel a 550W is enough?

 

[demien88]

If you are not so sure about it get 600/650 but I wouldn't cheap out on it. Thats long millage for psu

 

[wingman99]

I have had my Corsair HX 620 for 9 years and it is still going strong. I would go with 550w.

 

[maikalwolf]

Update. Received a new CPU today and my RMA R9 390 and it looks like it was the CPU. After 4 hours of game play on High settings I have not had a re-boot or any issues so far. Tomorrow I'll try Ultra gaming and if the R9 holds up I'll consider the issue fixxed! Once again thank you all forthe great advice!!!

- - - Updated - - -

Is therea way to close the thread or mark it resolved?

 

[wingman99]

Glad it is working well. How do you know it was the CPU that was the problem and not the GPU?

 

[maikalwolf]

Crappers. I meant it was the GPU, not the CPU. That RMA GPU went to black screen after a week. I borrowed my friend extra R( 390 and it worked great. No more resetting of the PC. I went a head and bought my friends R9 since he had no need of it and has not heard of the crypto mining!!!!! And I'm not telling him because I don't know anything about it either!!!! wink wink. Anyways, still waiting on replacement for the replacement. Today they want to offer me an RX480 8gb in exchange! I think that's not an even exchange. What do you think?

 

[trents]

The GPU Boss gives the Rx 480 a slight nod: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-RX-480-vs-Radeon-R9-390 Kind of depends on what you would mostly use it for.

 

[Sentential]

Crappers. I meant it was the GPU, not the CPU. That RMA GPU went to black screen after a week. I borrowed my friend extra R( 390 and it worked great. No more resetting of the PC. I went a head and bought my friends R9 since he had no need of it and has not heard of the crypto mining!!!!! And I'm not telling him because I don't know anything about it either!!!! wink wink. Anyways, still waiting on replacement for the replacement. Today they want to offer me an RX480 8gb in exchange! I think that's not an even exchange. What do you think?

PSU issues are easy to diagnose, look at the rails and if it goes out of 10% of the rated spec the PSU is dead. Your description sounds like a PSU issue and taking the RX480 would ease that. Just remember that WoW is CPU and HDD heavy not so much the GPU.

 

[trents]

Actually, I think 5% out of spec is the standard for healthy variance. But that only measures voltage. It can be in spec voltage wise and still not provide enough total power to be stable under load.