Do I need a new PSU?

Ever since I upgraded to a nVidia 7800GS and 2GB DDR400 RAM, my computer just randomly shuts off (at least once a day if I have it on the whole day). I can still hear the fans going (on the processor and video card), but the computer has shut down and I need to switch it off and wait a few minutes, then start it up again.

I was talking to a friend, and he said that perhaps my PSU is not powerful enough (I have not checked how many watts it has), and that I should go and buy a 450watt PSU as that's what is recommended for the video card.

Do I need a new PSU? Will any fit into my computer? Are they easy to install?

The PSU is the big metal box with all the power cables in that sits at the top back of most computers. It's usually pretty easy to remove and replace, just remember to plug everything back when you get the new supply.

The only other thing I'd recommend checking first is whether it's because it's over heating.

How would I know if it's overheating, or just not giving enough power?

I would buy a new power supply unit and find a way to check if the system is overheating.

This can be a very debilitating problem and can lead the ruination of the entire processor, graphics card, and power supply unit.

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Originally Posted by Omecle

How would I know if it's overheating, or just not giving enough power?

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Check that your fans aren't too dusty. This happens quite a bit especially with laptops.

As for the test, do an experiment. Run a high-end 3rd game at full quality and see when it turns off. Then restart the PC and leave the empty desktop open for a bit. If it goes off on the first but not the later, it's the overheat.

Oh okay, well when I am running WoW for awhile (even when AFK most of the day) and do other things like some audio stuff with the keyboard, it shuts off and then when I turn it back on (pretty much straight away) it runs fine for the rest of the day.

This has been happening at least once a day. So I don't think it'd be overheating, otherwise it'd want to shut it off all the time.

I don't know. Sometimes, problems like overheating don't always have a logical pattern.

The random power resets are occuring far too often. I would definitely get the new power supply unit; if the problem persists, I would look into a cooling system.

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Originally Posted by Grinenshire

Check that your fans aren't too dusty. This happens quite a bit especially with laptops.

As for the test, do an experiment. Run a high-end 3rd game at full quality and see when it turns off. Then restart the PC and leave the empty desktop open for a bit. If it goes off on the first but not the later, it's the overheat.

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The more demanding the task, the more power your components will draw from the PSU, so this test won't work. :p

It's probably quite likely it's overheating. Try this piece of software that will give you information about stuff on your motherboard, like temperature and voltage sensors. Run it immediately after a crash and let us know what it says.

When I install that software, I select the motherboard type IBM and it says none of the models are supported. I'm not even sure what model it is.

Straight after a reset, when booting up keep tapping the del key until the bios screen loads. From here go to it's hardware monitoring feature and note down the details and post them here?

I would also say this sounds more like an overheating issue. The fact that you need to wait a bit before you turn it back on is evidence for that. I don't see a reason why an overloaded PSU would work better after a few minutes of cooling down.

Most new computers are set to cut the power before the temperature gets high enough to damage it, but I'm not sure if that applies to the graphics card temperature.

How many extra devices do you have? If you only have an extra hard disk and this new graphics card, then I would say it's very unlikely for it to be a too weak PSU. My PSU is 315 watts, and I've got four hard drives and two DVD drives, still no problems at all. IIRC, most PSUs are about 200-250 watts.

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Originally Posted by o_O

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Originally Posted by Grinenshire

Check that your fans aren't too dusty. This happens quite a bit especially with laptops.

As for the test, do an experiment. Run a high-end 3rd game at full quality and see when it turns off. Then restart the PC and leave the empty desktop open for a bit. If it goes off on the first but not the later, it's the overheat.

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The more demanding the task, the more power your components will draw from the PSU, so this test won't work. :p

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I think it would actually. The difference between the power demand and the overheat is quite simple really. Time. Once you start a high-end application, the power will be immediately needed in all of the components, save the cooling system, and thus you'll see the effect right away. If it is the overheating, you'd still have to wait for a couple of minutes for the hardware to heat up to the level where it starts overheating. Either way, you should see that it's not the PSU once all the fans are working on full power and the PC is still on.

Apart from that, what Mirage said about the boot-up lag.

I only have one HDD, two optical drives and the graphics card. Oh and a fair amount of USB devices if that counts for anything, though they don't take up much power at all (most have to be plugged into the wall anyways).

My friend also has a nVidia 7800GS, and he said that they require a 450watt PSU. I will read the manual again once I find it though, but yeah, 250watt sounds kind of low.

And I only have to wait at most, 2 minutes before rebooting it.

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Originally Posted by Grinenshire

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Originally Posted by o_O

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Grinenshire

Check that your fans aren't too dusty. This happens quite a bit especially with laptops.

As for the test, do an experiment. Run a high-end 3rd game at full quality and see when it turns off. Then restart the PC and leave the empty desktop open for a bit. If it goes off on the first but not the later, it's the overheat.

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The more demanding the task, the more power your components will draw from the PSU, so this test won't work. :p

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I think it would actually. The difference between the power demand and the overheat is quite simple really. Time. Once you start a high-end application, the power will be immediately needed in all of the components, save the cooling system, and thus you'll see the effect right away. If it is the overheating, you'd still have to wait for a couple of minutes for the hardware to heat up to the level where it starts overheating. Either way, you should see that it's not the PSU once all the fans are working on full power and the PC is still on.

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The reason I said it wouldn't work is because spontaneous shutdowns aren't a usual symptom of a faulty PSU. You're much more likely to see lockups and hear funny noises from the optical and hard drives. That's because the highest-drain devices on a PSU are the ones which require power for kinetic motion.

If it's overheating, unless you have an old CPU, you're going to see random shutdowns because pretty much every PSU since 2001 has had automatic shutdown capabilities beyond a certain temperature, to save it burning out.

Given the number of devices on Omecle's PSU, only a faulty one would be weak enough to not be able to power them.

So, I should get a new cooling system? How much do those things go for. o.o;;