Insufficient PSU cause of sudden system breakdown?

Discussion in 'Power Supplies and UPS's' started by JennE, Sep 7, 2012.

  1. JennE

    JennE Geek Trainee

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    To combat some suspicion of CPU heating, yesterday I replaced my stock Intel i7 960 CPU heat sink and fan with a Corsair H60 high performance hydro cooling system.

    Once everything was reassembled, the system boot up to WIndows 7 without problem and CoreTemp was monitoring an average temperature of 41C with minimal load. As I went to execute another application from the harddrive, my entire system blacked out. Fans stopped, displays lost signal with the only sign of life was a glowing red (LED) onboard system switch.

    Despite my efforts of diagnosing, I have failed to reveal the failure. Obviously looking at one of three possibilities ... PSU, motherboard or CPU. None are inexpensive items that can be just easily replaced for the purposes of testing, so I am hoping I can narrow down the likelihood before I basically have to rebuild a system for the sole purposes of testing.

    • Processor:Intel Core i7 [email protected]
    • Processor Cores:Core i7 960
    • Processor Speed:3.20GHz
    • RAM:12 GB OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 1333
    • Video Board Manufacturer:EVGA
    • Video Board Model:2x EVGA GTX560Ti SLI; 1 GeForce 8500xl
    • Video Memory:1GB
    • Mother Board:ASUS P6X58D-E
    • Hard Drives:1TB WD Cavair Black HD (x2) and 2 other HDD (capacity uncertain)
    • Monitor:3x ACER A231H 23" LCD monitor & 1x ACERX193W 15" LCD
    • Operating System:Windows 7 Home 64 Bit
    • Other:CM Silent Pro M1000 Modular 1000w 80+ Bronze PSU.
      Running monitors in Nvidia Surround Mode

    I did a breadboard test (motherboard out of case, CPU, cooling system and one stick of RAM only) and PSU fan did not engage nor was there any activity on the motherboard except the Red glowing switch. The paperclip test to jumpstart the PSU was successful. The fan fired up. When performing the breadboard test, if I pressed the onboard system-on switch (glowing red LED), the PSU fan would twitch, the DRAM LED would flash, and the household lights would have a noticeable minor surge of power.

    The specs above represent my system before the cooling installation. From one's knowledge and experience, is it likely the PSU is the culprit? Isthis power supply adequate to run this system and the newly introduced cooling system? Perhaps the cooling system was just too much for the system once the HDD was accessed.

    This is lending itself to sleepless nights ... the thought of uncertian problems and costly diagnostics scares me.
     
  2. Ghostman 1

    Ghostman 1 Mega Geek

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    It sounds like the power supply or motherboard, I would try another power supply first, Did you remove the cpu at all lately ? If you buy a new psu, make sure it is a brand name one, like corsair or antic ...
     
  3. JennE

    JennE Geek Trainee

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    Thanks for the reply Ghostman. I am really hoping its the PSU. A simple quick fix vs. the motherboard. What is the reputation of CoolerMaster PSU's. In your opinion, is 1000W sufficient or should I be aiming towards something a bit more robust?
     
  4. Ghostman 1

    Ghostman 1 Mega Geek

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    In my opinion Cooler Master is not very good, I would suggest corsair, Antic .Ocz , There are allot of good brand name psu's, just make sure it as a 80% certified rating..
    a 1000 watt might be a little high, I would say 500 to 800 would be good.. Thats in a Brand name PSU...
     

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