Computer issues: Power Supply dying?

DracoGriffin

Recently, main computer has been crapping itself. If anyone could advise on fixing or solutions, would be appreciated!

Basically, artifacts on BIOS and only gets worse as the computer boots into Windows.

Nothing hardware/software changed recently; just started having issues with screen freezing while playing Mass Effect 2. Rebooted and tried again, froze up faster. Looked up on forums and... computer froze up with just Firefox up.

Now I started to think it was perhaps a virus and started up AV scan. Halfway through, froze. Rebooted and before the AV even really got started, froze. Just kept freezing up faster and faster; I even waited 15-20~ minutes between each reboot thinking it was a overheating problem.

After doing some research on secondary computer, looks like it could be the power supply is dying and killed the graphics card. I swapped the graphics card to another PCI-E slot, hoping a power cable came undone or graphics card needed to be re-seated. Rebooted; no difference.

Swapped the graphics card for an older one that I know worked... and monitor couldn't even detect it; regardless of which slot the gfx card was in. Decided to try a different monitor. Put the first gfx card back in and alternated slots with the new monitor; BIOS still artifacts but less so on the unused PCI-E slot.

Swapped the gfx card for the older one again and alternated slots on the different monitor. Monitor detected the older card but original slot came up with tons of BIOS artifacts. The unused slot had severely less artifacts (but still bad.)

Crappy specs:
AMD Athlon x64 3800+
Western Digital 250gb 7200rpm - SATA
PSU 500w
e-GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (old: e-GeForce 7800 GT 256MB)
Two DVD-RWs


Not really sure what else I can do/test but comments/solutions would be helpful. Should I begin asking Santa for an entirely new rig or can things be salvaged?

Hooth

Power supply sounds likely to me, do you have a spare you can test, or another comp to test the gfx card in?

Hooth

Also, when you say you swapped the gfx card for one you know worked, is it one that you know to have worked in that computer with that set up? And who made the power supply? It sounds highly likely to be the power supply to me, which is good, because you can get a decent one for pretty cheap these days.

Raern

Yeah, this is just a theory, but if the older card required more power draw then it could explain why the computer couldn't boot at all with it.

I may be wrong, but I don't think the power supply could do damage to the rest of your hardware without blowing up so badly that the power supply itself was totally incapable of powering up the computer. If so, you can probably get away with a new power supply.

Hooth

Raern wrote: »

I may be wrong, but I don't think the power supply could do damage to the rest of your hardware without blowing up so badly that the power supply itself was totally incapable of powering up the computer. If so, you can probably get away with a new power supply.

Unfortunately, I had a power supply that was underrated for the gfx card I had (though it did work for almost a year) take the gfx card with it when it finally failed. The symptoms were very similar to the OP's.

Raern

I meant, if his supply hasn't failed yet, the the graphics card is probably fine. If he waits for it to blow, it could take out the rest of his system.

DracoGriffin

Hooth wrote: »

Power supply sounds likely to me, do you have a spare you can test, or another comp to test the gfx card in?

I have a secondary desktop but it's ancient. It doesn't have a PCI-E slot nor do I feel competent enough to swap PSUs between the two desktops. (Although the secondary is probably much weaker)

Hooth wrote: »

Also, when you say you swapped the gfx card for one you know worked, is it one that you know to have worked in that computer with that set up? And who made the power supply? It sounds highly likely to be the power supply to me, which is good, because you can get a decent one for pretty cheap these days.

Yes. I upgraded the gfx card from 7800GT 256MB to 8800GT 512MB with the exact same setup; nothing else has changed. Not sure who made the PSU; it's a pre-built computer. I am also thinking the newer gfx card needed more power but from what I've read, symptoms can take awhile before issues pop up from power fluctuations/inadequacy.

Raern wrote: »

Yeah, this is just a theory, but if the older card required more power draw then it could explain why the computer couldn't boot at all with it.

I may be wrong, but I don't think the power supply could do damage to the rest of your hardware without blowing up so badly that the power supply itself was totally incapable of powering up the computer. If so, you can probably get away with a new power supply.

No, the computer boots just fine with either gfx card. The issue is the monitor doesn't seem to detect a signal from the original gfx card which I've never had an issue with before upgrading.

Well, from what I've been reading, (and by no doubts absolute or final facts or such, just generalizing) as PSU die, the first thing to die/fry is the graphics card; especially in gamer rigs. After that, other stuff begins to short out or break down and sometimes the only solution is to start over. I'm just trying to understand how bad it might be or what steps I can take; I'm really starting to lean towards a new rig. I'd hope to salvage some of the parts though.

Raern

If you're comfortable switching parts around and assembling the PC yourself, then it's as simple as replacing things one by one until you have a working rig. This is also the only accurate way I can think of to figure out which parts are good or bust.

From what you've said just buying a new 600-700w powersupply and a decent midrange graphics card should guarantee you a working system.

If you're looking for an excuse to buy a system though, you can build a really nice system quite cheaply these days.

darkmayo

Need to do some process of elimination here, first off poke a friend and bring your video card over to there place and throw it in his machine. If you get no artifacting on bios then great, if you do then you probably will want to replace your card.