Dirty Power, or a Failing PSU?

[insufferable_pedant]

Hi all, this is my first post on the forum and I'm hoping that some folks might be able to provide some insight and advice into a weird issue I've been experiencing. 

 

I recently moved to a new city for work, and I'm renting an apartment in a beautiful old (150-ish years old) building. I've recently got my office set up, and wanted to jump in to a quick gaming session the other day. Unfortunately, when I launch my game my computer just dies. No freezes, no hangs, no BSOD, everything just switches off and won't come back on until I toggle the switch on the PSU. I checked the MS event log and it just shows event ID 41... so no real help there. 

 

I've gone through some "easy" troubleshooting steps, like driver stuff (used DDU and then updated to latest graphics card driver) and removing my overclock, and at this point it seems, to me, like the issue has something to do with my power delivery. My initial thought was that this is a super old house and it seems totally plausible that the wiring is janky and isn't playing nice with my system. But, on the other hand, my power supply was a fairly "meh" unit to begin with (EVGA Supernova NEX750B--it's what I could afford at the time) so I suppose it's also possible that I'm experiencing a failure. Here's the thing, though, I've never experienced an issue with dirty power OR a PSU failure, so I legitimately have no clue what the problem could be. 

 

I recognize that fixing this is probably going to require a purchase, but I'd like to get some advice before I just start throwing money at the problem. Fortunately, I live within 30 minutes of a Microcenter, so I can easily grab a new PSU or a decent UPS, I just don't know which is more likely to solve my problem. So, my question is this: Which seems the more likely scenario, dirty power or a failing PSU? Or perhaps something else that I haven't thought of? I'm open to any and all suggestions! 

 

System specs are as follows: 

 

CPU: Ryzen 5 1600 (OC to 4.0ghz @ 1.3V, currently at stock settings)

GPU: Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury 

MoBo: ASRock X370 Taichi

Ram: 4x8gb G.Skill Trident Z RGB

PSU: EVGA Supernova NEX750B

[Applefreak]

Did you check the breaker panel yet, maybe you don't have enough amps in the wall when powering on. Of course an old PSU might be the cause as well. Might also be bad wiring in the wall (grounding issue) 

[insufferable_pedant]

24 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

Did you check the breaker panel yet, maybe you don't have enough amps in the wall when powering on. Of course an old PSU might be the cause as well. Might also be bad wiring in the wall (grounding issue) 

Hmm... I haven't checked the breaker, it's down in the basement, on the side my landlord uses (he lives in the house next door). I may go down and check it out. I will note that the computer works perfectly fine if I'm browsing the web, watching videos, or doing normal productivity stuff, it's just when I fire up a game (and the GPU starts to ramp up) that the computer dies. 

[insufferable_pedant]

Just a follow up: 

 

Because the crashes were occurring when I launched a game, I decided to watch what was happening with my graphics card leading up to the crash. Upon launching, the GPU ramped up to 100% usage, right before triggering the crash. So I went and dug out an old R9 270 to swap in and see if it makes any difference. I launched the same game as before, and managed to play for the better part of an hour with no issues whatsoever. I recognize that the power requirements of the R9 270 are a fraction of what my R9 Fury demands, but I'm thinking, at this point, that a power problem seems increasingly less likely. 

 

Soooo.... it looks like the problem is with my graphics card. Yay. I may try taking it apart for visual inspection, but for the time being that seems to be the culprit. 

[Whiro]

3 minutes ago, insufferable_pedant said:

that a power problem seems increasingly less likely. 

I would argue about that. Psu what you have is quite old now, remember that fury draws much more power than 270 so imo the actual problem is the psu

[insufferable_pedant]

3 minutes ago, Whiro said:

I would argue about that. Psu what you have is quite old now, remember that fury draws much more power than 270 so imo the actual problem is the psu

Hmm... the obvious solution here MUST be to replace both the power supply AND the graphics card 

 

Yeah, that thought did cross my mind. Maybe I'm just excited that it's working and I'm grasping at straws. I suppose that I could always grab a new PSU and return it if the problem persists. Or maybe I stop being cheeky and actually buy a new PSU and graphics card. After all, I had toyed with the idea of it a few months ago, but decided to put it off and prioritize putting a little extra into savings. Good thing Microcenter closed at 7:00, I think I have some options I need to consider.