Potential power supply problem?

[SM Phoo]

Hey guys, this topic may feel a bit vague as I've not actually been to my friends to have a look yet but here's the story.

 

Few days ago we were playing Apex and he said it felt like his game were freezing / lagging a bit, then he got kicked out of the game completely. (He just got new internet that day so we thought that was the issue)

PC was still running as we were speaking on discord - I noticed when we spoke though sometimes it did freeze out from his end.

He said he was gonna restart his PC just to see if that helps, and mentioned it says there is an update also, so may take a few minutes.

 

PC restarted at went straight to a blue screen

Stop code: 0xc000021a

Startup repair log file: c:\windows\system32\logfiles\srt\srttrail.txt

 

I talked him through some potential fixes from online and youtube but nothing helped, so he ultimately just did a clean install of windows 10.

He's not tried any gaming yet, which I've asked him to do today. The machine formatted ok, logs into windows etc, so that seems fine

 

Whats happening though is, when he turns the machine off, it's making a weird noise, and the only way to really describe it like a stuttering noise coming from what he thinks is near the power supply. (Cant confirm)

Problem is, he's told me that he regularly turns off the PC by just holding down the power button, so I'm thinking he's messed up the PSU.

 

Is there anyway of running any tests on the PSU. Before this blue screen, no noises were coming from anywhere.

Without seeing the machine yet (going round tomorrow) I'm thinking if the PSU is now finding it hard to send enough power that could have caused the PC to lag and stutter (The PSU is more then enough for his machine)

Thanks

[Fasauceome]

6 minutes ago, SM Phoo said:

Problem is, he's told me that he regularly turns off the PC by just holding down the power button, so I'm thinking he's messed up the PSU.

This shouldn't cause damage to the power supply at all, more likely it just corrupts windows installs. To verify if the noise is the PSU, it's a good idea to remove the PSU from the case to separate it from the rest of the PC to hear it better, make sure the noise is actually coming from it.

[Princess Luna]

7 minutes ago, SM Phoo said:

PC restarted at went straight to a blue screen

Stop code: 0xc000021a

Startup repair log file: c:\windows\system32\logfiles\srt\srttrail.txt

This Blue Screen happens when your Windows is corrupted it has nothing to do with the PSU.

 

7 minutes ago, SM Phoo said:

Whats happening though is, when he turns the machine off, it's making a weird noise, and the only way to really describe it like a stuttering noise coming from what he thinks is near the power supply.

Is it like a loud "click"? because if so that's just that Newer PSUs do this because you have a relay that essentially switches power from the +5VSB to the normal +5V between the off and on modes of the PSU.

 

It's normal behavior.

[Quadriplegic]

1. Don't judge PSU by its wattage.

2. It is unlikely for PSU to not send enough power (which can be monitored with wall meter by the way). 

Stuttering noise could be the fan hitting something.

[Votivee]

I'd look into the boot drive. I just repaired a laptop last week that was getting the srttrail error and the drive ended up having a ton of corrupted sectors and was completely unusable by the end of my repair.

[SM Phoo]

Thank you for the replies. I'll look into it more tomorrow.

It's a good sign to hear most of you convinced it was more of a software rather than hardware problem though.