Silverstone PSU Quality?

T

That's_Corporate

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 30, 2006
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So... recently my rig (Q6600 @ 3.3, 4870x2) has begun to reboot during Mass Effect 2. All of my temps look just fine, and from what I hear, phantom reboots during gaming leads to a faulty PSU.

Now, I have a 750W unit from Silverstone, that I thought was good quality. Was I wrong?

It's only about 2 years old.
 
Which specific model? A failing power supply doesn't necessarily mean the entire product line is of poor quality. It is just the nature of electronics. Maybe you should try backing off on your OC and see if it is still rebooting.
 
Strider 750W

Yeah, I understand it doesn't mean the whole brand is crap :)
However, I just ASSUMED Silverstone was a good PSU brand, I'm wondering if I assumed wrong.

PS: Yep, backed my OC down to stock levels, still happened.
 
Does it happen during any other games? How about while running load testing programs like LinX and Furmark? Try running those two programs at the same time and see if the issue happens. If not, then your PSU isn't the problem.
 
Holy crap!

Well I did just as you said: Ran both LinX and Furmark for 10 minutes straight, and it all went off without a hitch. GPU temperatures were within range and the CPU was pegged. Everything ended without errors.

Is it possible that games test the PSU more than these apps? Maybe it's just Mass Effect 2 that's the problem?
 
It's possible that the game is causing a unique problem, or that there is a driver glitch. If you can come up with some way to monitor your GPU temperatures, I'd be curious to know what levels they get to when you have a crash in Mass Effect 2. You could also updating your video drivers to the latest version (or if you're using the latest version, go back to an earlier one).
 
cpu might need extra voltage as it ages. its called electro migration or something where it gets out of range from having more volts than normal. could just be the chip getting old.
 
matrix563 said:
cpu might need extra voltage as it ages. its called electro migration or something where it gets out of range from having more volts than normal. could just be the chip getting old.
Click to expand...
If you read the thread, you'll find that is quite unlikely based on the evidence we have so far.
 
Zero82z said:
It's possible that the game is causing a unique problem, or that there is a driver glitch. If you can come up with some way to monitor your GPU temperatures, I'd be curious to know what levels they get to when you have a crash in Mass Effect 2. You could also updating your video drivers to the latest version (or if you're using the latest version, go back to an earlier one).
Click to expand...

I usually set my fan speed manually and peg it at around 75%. Temps never go above 65, which should be fine since furmark just ran for 10 minutes and the max was 90 degrees.

As far as the video drivers, I'm running 11.1a. This was also occurring with 10.10 and 10.11.

matrix563 said:
cpu might need extra voltage as it ages. its called electro migration or something where it gets out of range from having more volts than normal. could just be the chip getting old.
Click to expand...

Well I'm at 1.35 already. What would you suggest? 1.4?
Is that safe for an air-cooled Q6600?
 
Oh, and this is all on a brand new install of Windows 7 x64. Literally just reformatted 2 days ago. Still occurred in the same manner when I had 100 viruses :p
 
Well, here's what I have to report:

1) Initial voltage was 1.35, bumped it to 1.40 (@ 3.2 ghz), resulted in a reboot as usual
2) Increased the voltage to 1.45 (@ 3.2 ghz), resulted in a reboot as usual, same spot at 1.40, so I didn't raise the voltage any further

There is something interesting though...

On one attempt at loading Mass Effect 2, I got INSANE video corruption. The screen flickered during the intro BioWare logo advertisement, and during the menu. The best way to describe it would be artifacting, but not quite since all the colors were extreme (bright green, bright red, bright blue) and the whole screen flickered. This went away momentarily but then came back. I exited Mass Effect 2, came back, and everything was fine, both at the menu screen and during gameplay.

Right before this happened, I noticed a rather strange sound from the case. Wasn't loud, just a faint sound, like a HD accessing but a bit higher pitched. I thought it may be a fan bearing, but it couldn't be since I haven't heard it since.
 
Hang on, are these reboots happening at the exact same point in the game?
 
I'm beginning to suspect your GPU. Answer Zero's question, though. If it's at the same place, more likely a software glitch. Especially since you passed "the big burn" without issue. Maybe reinstall Mass Effect or go to a previous save?
 
Zero82z said:
Hang on, are these reboots happening at the exact same point in the game?
Click to expand...

That's a complex question hehe

Okay, before I reinstalled windows 7, this was happening (which is actually WHY I reformatted). Back then, it happened at different points. It could be during dialogue, during a cinematic. Here's that thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1576164

Now, for the last two reboots, they happened in the same room, but not necessarily the same location. The only thing I noticed that this room had that the other's didn't, was steam. By steam, I mean particles. Before the crash, I saw a FPS drop as the particles appeared on screen.

So to answer your question, no, not always at the same point.

matrix563 said:
sounds more like video card
Click to expand...

You think? How can I be sure though? Because it really doesn't happen in other games. Maybe it's just the Unreal 3 engine that my vid card hates?

I would be PISSED if I bought a 6970 for almost $400 and ended up STILL having the problem :mad:
 
seomtimes an overclock can corrupt the video card drivers. happened to me a few times
 
thats just it, once its corruped stock won't fix the corruption. at least that was the guess for mine. makes sense if thats what happened
 
matrix563 said:
thats just it, once its corruped stock won't fix the corruption. at least that was the guess for mine. makes sense if thats what happened
Click to expand...

Well, even if that is the case, not OC'ing the CPU is not really an option, because 2.6ghz on a Q6600 is just unbearable.

I googled the topic and didn't see anything about video driver corruption though. So if anything that seems very very rare.
 
Zero82z said:
Have you tried lowering your graphics settings in the game?
Click to expand...

Yep, that's how I had to beat the game. Ended up lowering the resolution to near-pathetic levels to get past the end battle :(

However, video cards aren't supposed to just reboot your PC when they run high detail levels, right?
 
No, but if it's only happening in one game then that kind of throws up a few warning signs.
 
The game might not like your setup....

PC gaming isn't like console gaming. PC developers have to test and design their games for countless computer configurations, whereas console developers are developing for a fixed set of hardware components. This type of stuff happens all the time.
 
Agreed! That's what I've been beginning to think.

However, how does one exhaust the other possible causes? It seems to be a strange mix of symptoms.
 
That's_Corporate said:
And those warning signs point to... a bad card?
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Well, I wouldn't say so since ME2 seems to be the only game that gives you problems. It seems more like a random compatibility issue to me.
HOOfan_1 said:
PC gaming isn't like console gaming. PC developers have to test and design their games for countless computer configurations, whereas console developers are developing for a fixed set of hardware components. This type of stuff happens all the time.
Click to expand...
That's really not true. PC developers build their games around APIs, just like console developers do. There are certainly tweaks for certain specific pieces of hardware, but they hardly test on and design for countless different configurations. It's really the job of drivers to ensure that a particular piece of hardware works properly with the APIs.
 
This happened to all of your game or just some specific game ?

Try lowering your GPU clock and uninstall and then reinstall again. After uninstall use driver cleaner for clean uninstalling.

See what happened again.

After all your description I don't think your PSU caused this it sound more like your GPU is failing. Or maybe you put the VGA power connector to the line which already have a lot of load.
 
FWIW, I've had the Strider Plus 750W powering my SFF PC (2x 5870 CF, single 6970) for over a year with absolutely zero problems in any game, including ME1/ME2. I have to agree with those who believe your GPU is much more likely the source of the problem.
 
dewi_imut said:
This happened to all of your game or just some specific game ?

Try lowering your GPU clock and uninstall and then reinstall again. After uninstall use driver cleaner for clean uninstalling.

See what happened again.

After all your description I don't think your PSU caused this it sound more like your GPU is failing. Or maybe you put the VGA power connector to the line which already have a lot of load.
Click to expand...

Well, I made sure that the power connectors had their own, discrete connections right to the PSU so I think that's taken care of.

Lowering the clock speed on the card by 50 mhz on the core and mem does solve the issue, but it's much like lowering the resolution; It ends up being unplayable.

Mr. Wolf said:
FWIW, I've had the Strider Plus 750W powering my SFF PC (2x 5870 CF, single 6970) for over a year with absolutely zero problems in any game, including ME1/ME2. I have to agree with those who believe your GPU is much more likely the source of the problem.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, interesting.

Well I checked and my warranty expired in August, so that's no go :(
 
New information: It's not just ME2. It just happened to me after getting hit by a rocket (don't ask) in Borderlands.
 
Try a different driver set. Go back to like, 10.9. Those were stable for me. Granted, so are the 11.x or whatever we're at now. 10.11/10.12 were horrible, though. I'm starting to think more recent drivers are not the best for the 4xxx series...
 
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