New PC, new problems...

[iulian81]

Hi! I bought in June 2013 a PC made custom, I chose the parts. The problem is one that I can't resolve... and this drives me crazy... When I play some games, usually very graphic intensive games like Far Cry 3, Crysis 3 ... but also less intensive as Fallout 3 or NFS the RUN, the PC simply shuts down and I can't turn it on... In fact I can only can turn it back on if I unplug it from power socket wait for like 10-20 seconds, plug it again and power it on... More rare are the cases when it restarts... I tried a lot of things, i sent the video card in service, they said they tasted it for like 4 days.. and did not found any problems... also they replaced the gpu thermal paste and updated video card BIOS. I clean installed a lot of versions of nvidia drivers BETA and non- BETA. I tried resetting the gpu speed to normal gtx 660 with no factory overclock as the Golden Sample is a bit factory overclocked. I switched to WIN 8 from WIN7 , updated WIN8 to the last update, updated the motherboard drivers, update the BIOS from F2 to F5. I also tried a lot of stress tests like: Furmark -works ok, OCCT all test-ok, PRIME95, all tests - ok, PRIME 95+FURMARK- again ok, Unigine, 2 variants- both ok, 3dmark2011-ok, 3dmark2013-ok, Intel processor diagnostic tool- ok and now the problems, pcmark7- it shuts down or restart pc when the directx 9 test is starting and the Video card stability test program-it shuts down after a few minutes, maximum an hour....
And games: far cry 3 - shuts down and restarts after a few minutes or 1-2 hours, crysis 3 -the same as far cry3 but the problems happen more frequent, nfs the run- shuts down after like 3-4 hours and then more freqvently like crysis 3, fallout 3 - 7-9 hours of gaming, then constant shut down in the same place, nfs most wanted 2 - constant but rare shut downs , modern warfare 3- no shut downs, black ops- no shutdowns, black ops 2- shut down at the first second the game starts...., star trek 2013- shut down after a few seconds of gaming, far cry blood dragon- no shut downs but I didn't played much. That's all I can remember!!

Another strange thing is that in Cpuidhwmonitor when I stress test the cpu a lot the temperatures of cpu and mother board almost hit 100C and the gpu temperetature is almost 90C... but at least the GPU temperature is not confirmed by other software that shows like gpu-z log file that show max 71-72 C... And from Intel I got that if the cpu hit more then 76C the computer will power off anyway so there is no way that I had in that tests 100C! D:

And now my rig:

i5 4670 cpu 3400- normal, 3800- turbo, stock cooler

gigabyte b85-hd3 motherboard

8gb ram Corsair Vengeance 1600 - but i must set it to 1600 in bios; the default bios setting is 1330

GTX 660 Gainward Golden sample -has factory overclock

1 TB Western digital blue hdd

Inter -tech Energon 550W - quad rail PSU with 18A on every rail... I don't know much about PSUs, I bought it because it had a good performance/price ratio... I don't know about its reliability, it might be the source of the problem as I don't find no way to test it or find if it does its job properly....:|

Please help! You are my lost hope until I send the whole PC in service or I get mad and throw it off the window!!

 

[dbailey]

I would swap out the power supply first. See if it still happens with another one. Let us know if that was it.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Yeah, that power supply does sound fishy... NEVER cheap out on PSUs, that's only asking for troubles!

 

[Virgorising]

Hi.

People who say less than PSU ring true.....I lucked out getting lovely Antec to upgrade this system; beyond that, I have no clue.

Only other things I can imagine: maybe inferior or badly applied thermal paste? Like not Arctic Silver, other thought, did they use the stock fan? And, is it a good stock fan if so?

Is everything bundled/tucked away well in the box to foster good thermal flow?

 

[Bubbaleone]

....Inter -tech Energon 550W - quad rail PSU with 18A on every rail... I don't know much about PSUs, I bought it because it had a good performance/price ratio... I don't know about its reliability, it might be the source of the problem as I don't find no way to test it or find if it does its job properly....:|

Please help! You are my lost hope until I send the whole PC in service or I get mad and throw it off the window!!

The Gainward website lists their GTX 660 as requiring a minimum of 450W and a minimum +12V current rating of 24 amps. Your PSU is only rated at 18 amps. A 650W PSU with a dedicated single +12V rail with a current rating of ~50 amps would be a much better choice and offer you some "future proofing" if you plan to upgrade any hardware later on.

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[iulian81]

The Gainward website lists their GTX 660 as requiring a minimum of 450W and a minimum +12V current rating of 24 amps. Your PSU is only rated at 18 amps. A 650W PSU with a dedicated single +12V rail with a current rating of ~50 amps would be a much better choice and offer you some "future proofing" if you plan to upgrade any hardware later on.

.

Thanks but my PSU is quad rail 12V at 18A each... and I read that the total amps for 12V are the sum of those 4 rails.. so maybe I have 18*4=72A. On the PSU it is written is got 4 rails of 12V that have 450W and then the 3.3V and 5V have together like 140W, the 3.3 is got 24A and the 5v has 20A... Could be this an issue?

 

[iulian81]

Hi.

People who say less than PSU ring true.....I lucked out getting lovely Antec to upgrade this system; beyond that, I have no clue.

Only other things I can imagine: maybe inferior or badly applied thermal paste? Like not Arctic Silver, other thought, did they use the stock fan? And, is it a good stock fan if so?

Is everything bundled/tucked away well in the box to foster good thermal flow?

In the case everything seems al right, they used even cable management... , the video card is stock and the cpu is stock either... I tested the cpu a lot even with prime95 like 2 hours... no signs of overheating.... it does however shows me in some cpu monitors that the temperature of cpu reaches like 95C.... which I don't think is possible ... the pc should shut down or underclock by itself...anyway the crashes I had happen even at below 50% cpu usage... which deepens the mistery. In Prime 95 the PC constantly shuts down at like very low cpu usage and also video card... exactly when the first directx 9 test begin...when that sprite or something is appearing... I test it with Gpu-z log today and the last readings at the "sprite" was like 800mhz gpu, the max is like 1072mhz...

 

[TheThirdMan]

Thanks but my PSU is quad rail 12V at 18A each... and I read that the total amps for 12V are the sum of those 4 rails.. so maybe I have 18*4=72A. On the PSU it is written is got 4 rails of 12V that have 450W and then the 3.3V and 5V have together like 140W, the 3.3 is got 24A and the 5v has 20A... Could be this an issue?

The PSU is crap. Never skimp on PSU. My first two builds i got cheap PSUs and both had similar issues to what you have. It's the most important component. No matter how cheap a build is for me, I will always spend £45+ ($70) on a PSU or more, even if it's just a low power CPU and onboard graphics. It's nearly always the cause of failures like this. After the first two I always bought decent PSUs and I've never had a power issue again.

I'm pretty sure if you buy a 650w branded (corsair, XFX, thermaltake etc) PSU then you'll be fine. Be interesting to see if others agree though.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

I'm willing to bet the OP is located somewhere in Europe, possibly in the East. The Energon PSU is sold almost exclusively in that part of the world. Alas, over there, good power supplies are at least double the price of the Energon.

However.... There's no way to go around it. Buy a good PSU, from Thermaltake, Antec, Corsair, and so on... If you need suggestions, have a look at the information here: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

I know it sounds crazy to buy an expensive PSU... But trust me when I say: PSUs are like speakers in the audio world. They're the ones people always skimp on, when it comes to hi-fi equipment, even though they're in fact the most important link in the chain, and also the longer-lasting (you can change many amplifiers/receivers before you really want to retire a good set of speakers).

I have PSUs that have outlasted three CPU upgrades....

 

[Ketchup]

When I read about what you had to do to get the PC to power back on, I said to myself, "it's the power supply."

When I read what make/model you had, that voice got much louder.

You need a better power supply like an Antec, Corsair, Enermax, CoolerMaster, Seasonic (I am sure I am leaving out a couple) and your problems should go away.

Tell us a site you like to order from, and we can help you find a good one. See if there is any way to sell/return the Inter-tech Energon.

 

[Matt1970]

Thanks but my PSU is quad rail 12V at 18A each... and I read that the total amps for 12V are the sum of those 4 rails.. so maybe I have 18*4=72A. On the PSU it is written is got 4 rails of 12V that have 450W and then the 3.3V and 5V have together like 140W, the 3.3 is got 24A and the 5v has 20A... Could be this an issue?

Each rail is sperate. They do not sum together.

 

[iulian81]

It was the PSU all right... I bought a powerful Corsair Builder cx750 at 750W and 1 rail and now everything run smooth without any problems... I played all the latest games on maximum settings and also run the PCmark 7 tests and everything is OK... Thanks for all the help!!

 

[AnitaPeterson]

It was the PSU all right... I bought a powerful Corsair Builder cx750 at 750W and 1 rail and now everything run smooth without any problems... I played all the latest games on maximum settings and also run the PCmark 7 tests and everything is OK... Thanks for all the help!!

You're welcome!

And thanks for coming back with an update - most people here who post problems and/or ask questions don't bother to return to say if the suggested solutions worked out alright in the end....

Lesson learned (and confirmed): PSUs are the backbone of your system, so don't cheap out on them.