Bad power supply possible reason for unstable system?

S

Shadowhaxor

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 15, 2005
Messages
311
Recently I noticed that my PC has been running sluggish and unstable, which is a bif difference from say the last 2 - 3 months. Recently I noticed that we had a power outage and the PC seems to be even worse. The PC seems slower, I've noticed a huge drop in FPS in gaming and I'm just adding up the issues and looking at the power supply (its pretty crappy).

When I did have that power outage I noticed the PC would not come on. It would start and register power and it would start the power up (it's an Evga board so it powers up and off and then back up again) but it would never spin the hard drives. So I moved it to my second PC location and it worked. Then I moved my second PC to my primary PC location and it powered on with no issues. I proceeded to play musical PC for about 10 minutes and then it started up at the original location. I haven't had any power up issues recently but I'm assuming the PS isn't supply enough power to the PC and especially under load.

*PC specs in signature below*
 
A solid 550W PSU like BFG is fine for your system. I say under heavy gaming, your computer won't draw more than 400W, unless you stress test everything at once.

Signs of PSU being overloaded:
- Stuttering randomly even though you know your GPU can handle that settings.
- Freezing and crashing to desktop during heavy gaming.

Try stress testing your rig by running multiple stress test (like prime95, msi kombuster, etc) that stresses everything in your system, namely video card and CPU. If your pc bluescreens or freezes, you have a problem. Could be CPU, GPU, motherboard, PSU.

At any case, I highly recommend a fresh reinstall of the OS to make sure it's not the softwares that's slowing you down.
 
Kalster said:
A solid 550W PSU like BFG is fine for your system..
Click to expand...

Umm, BFG did have a crappy and good quality 550W PSU models. The OP hasn't stated which BFG 550W PSU he has.

Anyway, OP, try using another PSU if you can to see if the effects go away.
 
Absolutely a crappy or dying PSU will cause all kinds of stability issues. PSU are arguably the most overlooked component when a system has issues.

+2 to trying a different PSU. If you do need to buy a new one do not skimp on it, buy a good one.
 
I picked up a new power supply, but I also tore my entire rig apart and added a new heat sink (corsair A50). Machine runs like a dream again, 60FPS min in most games, the system is more responsive and overall tons better.

RIP BFG powersupply....... Not even sure what possessed me on even buying that thing before. Oh well, crisis averted... Game Time!
 
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