Power going out during PC usage

[BettersonMcgee]

I recently bought a used 1070 and have been having issues where sometimes the power JUST in my room will go out while I use my PC. I haven't found any real patterns with the outages like with power usage or clock speed spiking, just that it consistently goes out whenever I play DOTA 2. I play other, much more intensive games such as Monster Hunter World and Doom Eternal on max settings without any issues, it's only happened once when I was playing Apex Legends. I've since plugged out everything thats not in use, leaving only my pc monitor a light as well as a powerline adapter for my internet.

I have a 500W EVGA power supply and was wondering if that could be the source of my woes? But if so, why is it just in DOTA? This is all very confusing to me and I'd like some advice before I go blow money on a new power supply. Obviously seeking an electrician would be a last resort and is something I'd hope to get done eventually, but wondering if anyone has some insight here? It would save me a lot of worry right now. I also want to make sure I'm not just putting a band-aid over a sword wound either.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core OEM/Tray Processor
Motherboard	Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$72.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$39.34 @ Amazon
Memory	Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$39.34 @ Amazon
Storage	Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$34.04 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$236.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB SC GAMING ACX 3.0 Black Edition Video Card
Case	Rosewill RANGER-M MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply	EVGA 500 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply	$49.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$472.68
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-26 22:11 EDT-0400

to add, I noticed that the clock speed will usually reach 2000MHZ and stick there while that is quite a bit higher than the boost clock. Is this something to consider as well?

[aisle9]

Is it tripping the breaker? What else do you have plugged into the outlet that the PC is going through? Are you using an actual surge protector?

[Alex Atkin UK]

This not normal, I wouldn't say an electrician is a last resort, I'd say its absolutely essential at this point.  No device plugged into the mains should be able to cause brown-outs like this, especially if its not tripping the breaker.  I'd be very concerned there is a fire risk here.

[BettersonMcgee]

45 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Is it tripping the breaker? What else do you have plugged into the outlet that the PC is going through? Are you using an actual surge protector?

yep it trips the breaker. If i just hit the reset button on the main outlet everything comes back on.

[kirashi]

2 minutes ago, BettersonMcgee said:

yep it trips the breaker. If i just hit the reset button on the main outlet everything comes back on.

Call an electrician immediately, and move the PC to a different circuit if you have to use it. The breaker is doing its' job preventing a short-circuit or fault. Don't muck with it unless you know what you're doing, or you want the possibility of fiery house carnage.

[BettersonMcgee]

1 minute ago, BettersonMcgee said:

yep it trips the breaker. If i just hit the reset button on the main outlet everything comes back on.

as of now I have nothing but my pc monitor and a desk lamp plugged in, but I have tested it a bunch with the lamp unplugged. When I say surge protector I mean a power bar that at least claims to be one. I've also had it plugged directly into the wall and had the same issue. At this point i'm wondering if the card is defective,my system is defective, or my power is defective. Either way I need to figure out something before i start trying to return things or purchase others that are supposed to fix it.

[kirashi]

24 minutes ago, BettersonMcgee said:

my power is defective.

Your power outlet is defective, or there's a ground/short somewhere between your PC and the outlet. Try an outlet in another room in your house. If things work fine, you know exactly what the problem is, which means it's time to call an electrician.

[aisle9]

30 minutes ago, BettersonMcgee said:

as of now I have nothing but my pc monitor and a desk lamp plugged in, but I have tested it a bunch with the lamp unplugged. When I say surge protector I mean a power bar that at least claims to be one. I've also had it plugged directly into the wall and had the same issue. At this point i'm wondering if the card is defective,my system is defective, or my power is defective. Either way I need to figure out something before i start trying to return things or purchase others that are supposed to fix it.

*Edits: I totally misread the problem as a breaker panel issue, but it reads more like a GFCI tripping.

 

What @kirashi said. What you have is a problem with your home's wiring (clarification, at least with that outlet), and no amount of tinkering with surge protectors (get a real one, btw) is going to fix it. It's not your PC. Even a full 500W load should not be anywhere near enough to trip a breaker. It's detecting a fault. Don't mess around with it. Take that outlet and any GFCI outlets tied to it out of use until an electrician can get there to isolate and fix the problem.

 

Additional question, where's your PC plugged in, and why is it plugged into a GFCI outlet?

[BettersonMcgee]

16 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

*Edits: I totally misread the problem as a breaker panel issue, but it reads more like a GFCI tripping.

 

What @kirashi said. What you have is a problem with your home's wiring (clarification, at least with that outlet), and no amount of tinkering with surge protectors (get a real one, btw) is going to fix it. It's not your PC. Even a full 500W load should not be anywhere near enough to trip a breaker. It's detecting a fault. Don't mess around with it. Take that outlet and any GFCI outlets tied to it out of use until an electrician can get there to isolate and fix the problem.

 

Additional question, where's your PC plugged in, and why is it plugged into a GFCI outlet?

Pardon my ignorance, but im unsure of what a GFCI outlet is. My room is in the basement and my pc is plugged into one of the outlets down here. I can provide pictures of the breakers and the outlets tomorrow if necessary.

 

What is also tripping me up is we have a whole host of appliances down here and we have had no issues prior to this. We have one of those hair driers that completely goes over your head down here, and its been in use alongside a tv with a computer connected to it as well as my computer prior to upgrades all at the same time. All on different outlets but all a part of the same system. Its just really strange that as I get this 1070 playing DOTA suddenly makes the power go nuts. Such a specific scenario it'd be hard to believe it's not supernatural lol.

[BettersonMcgee]

Just now, BettersonMcgee said:

Pardon my ignorance, but im unsure of what a GFCI outlet is. My room is in the basement and my pc is plugged into one of the outlets down here.

Might I add, I greatly appreciate the input so far. This is a lot more insight into the issue than I had hoped to get. I contacted a local electrician on their website and I hope they might have some input as well. I'm not too keen on calling an electrician as I'm not the home owner here and this seems to quite literally be a ME problem as it doesn't really affect anyone else, so my parents are in no rush to hire an electrician. Where the obvious solution is to stop using my computer, I'd obviously like to avoid that as well lol. I'll steer clear of it or stick to light usage in the meantime of course

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, BettersonMcgee said:

Pardon my ignorance, but im unsure of what a GFCI outlet is. My room is in the basement and my pc is plugged into one of the outlets down here.

That explains the GFCI. GFCI stands for ground fault circuit something-or-other...interrupter, maybe? The outlets that have "test" and "reset" buttons, like yours, are GFCI outlets. In a nutshell, a functioning line should have a more or less constant flow of electricity through it. If there's a fault, like a short, that electricity will flow somewhere else. The GFCI outlet will pick up that loss in current and cut power to the GFCI outlet and anything downstream from it. The idea behind GFCI outlets is to prevent electrocution if you drop the hairdryer into the tub, but if one is failing repeatedly, that points to an issue either with the outlet itself or with the line.

 

Either way, it's something I would have a professional check out. On the list of things in a home that you do not want to screw with or ignore, an electrical problem is high up there. And it may not be your family's problem now, but if the fault is with the line itself and the circuit does what overheated short circuits sometimes do, it will very quickly become their problem. Emphasis on "sometimes" there. It's a high-priority deal, but if you go back in and hit the "test" button to cut power to the line then just don't reset it until an electrician gets there, you're not terribly likely to burn the place down in the meantime.

[BettersonMcgee]

11 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

That explains the GFCI. GFCI stands for ground fault circuit something-or-other...interrupter, maybe? The outlets that have "test" and "reset" buttons, like yours, are GFCI outlets. In a nutshell, a functioning line should have a more or less constant flow of electricity through it. If there's a fault, like a short, that electricity will flow somewhere else. The GFCI outlet will pick up that loss in current and cut power to the GFCI outlet and anything downstream from it. The idea behind GFCI outlets is to prevent electrocution if you drop the hairdryer into the tub, but if one is failing repeatedly, that points to an issue either with the outlet itself or with the line.

 

Either way, it's something I would have a professional check out. On the list of things in a home that you do not want to screw with or ignore, an electrical problem is high up there. And it may not be your family's problem now, but if the fault is with the line itself and the circuit does what overheated short circuits sometimes do, it will very quickly become their problem. Emphasis on "sometimes" there. It's a high-priority deal, but if you go back in and hit the "test" button to cut power to the line then just don't reset it until an electrician gets there, you're not terribly likely to burn the place down in the meantime.

5 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

That explains the GFCI. GFCI stands for ground fault circuit something-or-other...interrupter, maybe? The outlets that have "test" and "reset" buttons, like yours, are GFCI outlets. In a nutshell, a functioning line should have a more or less constant flow of electricity through it. If there's a fault, like a short, that electricity will flow somewhere else. The GFCI outlet will pick up that loss in current and cut power to the GFCI outlet and anything downstream from it. The idea behind GFCI outlets is to prevent electrocution if you drop the hairdryer into the tub, but if one is failing repeatedly, that points to an issue either with the outlet itself or with the line.

 

Either way, it's something I would have a professional check out. On the list of things in a home that you do not want to screw with or ignore, an electrical problem is high up there. And it may not be your family's problem now, but if the fault is with the line itself and the circuit does what overheated short circuits sometimes do, it will very quickly become their problem. Emphasis on "sometimes" there. It's a high-priority deal, but if you go back in and hit the "test" button to cut power to the line then just don't reset it until an electrician gets there, you're not terribly likely to burn the place down in the meantime.

The master outlet in the breaker panel has the test and reset buttons on it, but the actual outlet I use doesn't. When it trips pressing reset restores power to all the outlets in my room. Not sure if this changes anything, but I felt it was worth mentioning.

[aisle9]

4 minutes ago, BettersonMcgee said:

The master outlet in the breaker panel has the test and reset buttons on it, but the actual outlet I use doesn't. When it trips pressing reset restores power to all the outlets in my room. Not sure if this changes anything, but I felt it was worth mentioning.

Ok, that is a bigger problem. That's a fault within the circuit for your room, not just a GFCI tripping. Either a short or a high enough current load that it's at risk of overheating. 500W should never, never be enough to trip a breaker. Get an electrician out there asap.

[BettersonMcgee]

3 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Ok, that is a bigger problem. That's a fault within the circuit for your room, not just a GFCI tripping. Either a short or a high enough current load that it's at risk of overheating. 500W should never, never be enough to trip a breaker. Get an electrician out there asap.

Thanks a lot. I'll see what I can get done

[aisle9]

Just now, BettersonMcgee said:

Thanks a lot. I'll see what I can get done

Full disclosure: I'm not an electrician at all, but I've learned enough over the years to know when it's time for professional help.

[BettersonMcgee]

I'd hate to be premature about this, but I think I've solved the problem.

 

After talking with an electrician he suggested I get a breaker replacement for my room, but he mentioned something else that caught my attention. He said that the type of breaker I had in my house (AFCI) are meant to be finicky and preemptively trip if it detects a fire could be caused. This is usually due to wires being too small for their appliance, or just faulty/poorly managed power bars and stuff. While I was paying all my attention to my PC hardware for potential flaws, I didn't pay any mind to my monitor. In contacting steam support, they said they didn't have any advice for me other than sometimes the monitor can cause surges when switching between resolutions and refresh rates often. So what I remembered was when I recently bought a higher resolution monitor, I neglected to use the original power cable that came with it, instead using the power cable for my old monitor. After switching the power cables and running DOTA for an extended period of time, recreating all of my prior steps, I have not run into any issues so far. If I don't have any issues after more time I will consider this case closed. This solution makes sense to me because even though it would happen CONSISTENTLY in DOTA, it would still happen sometimes in other applications as well. This could be because DOTA would always cause the same type of power consumption in my monitor which caused the issue whereas other games would only do so rarely. I'm still in disbelief that I possibly saved $230 by switching a cable, but I'm not going to hold my breath yet. Just gonna have to hope and pray this works

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 hours ago, BettersonMcgee said:

I'd hate to be premature about this, but I think I've solved the problem.

 

After talking with an electrician he suggested I get a breaker replacement for my room, but he mentioned something else that caught my attention. He said that the type of breaker I had in my house (AFCI) are meant to be finicky and preemptively trip if it detects a fire could be caused. This is usually due to wires being too small for their appliance, or just faulty/poorly managed power bars and stuff. While I was paying all my attention to my PC hardware for potential flaws, I didn't pay any mind to my monitor. In contacting steam support, they said they didn't have any advice for me other than sometimes the monitor can cause surges when switching between resolutions and refresh rates often. So what I remembered was when I recently bought a higher resolution monitor, I neglected to use the original power cable that came with it, instead using the power cable for my old monitor. After switching the power cables and running DOTA for an extended period of time, recreating all of my prior steps, I have not run into any issues so far. If I don't have any issues after more time I will consider this case closed. This solution makes sense to me because even though it would happen CONSISTENTLY in DOTA, it would still happen sometimes in other applications as well. This could be because DOTA would always cause the same type of power consumption in my monitor which caused the issue whereas other games would only do so rarely. I'm still in disbelief that I possibly saved $230 by switching a cable, but I'm not going to hold my breath yet. Just gonna have to hope and pray this works

That can happen, while there are generally only a few designs of mains plugs, they aren't all created with equal quality.  The old one probably was making an inconsistent connection and thus the problem.