Power supply dying??

Daniel_L · March 20, 2021

Hello all

Yesterday during light usage, my system suddenly shut off and failed to boot, corrupted OS files, tried to fix them to no avail. Managed to make an image of the drive using another machine. I reinstalled Windows (was overdue anyways), and about 5 minutes later (while silent installing Windows bloat), it shut down and wouldn't boot again. I suspected the SSD had failed. So I installed Windows on a HDD I had lying around, using a different SATA cable and a different port on the motherboard, failure repeated itself.

Started researching and it suggested power supply (it obviously hasn't failed completely since I've installed Windows multiple times). As an experiment I tried unplugging my graphics card (old 560ti) and installed Windows on the SSD running off my i7-2700k and motherboard graphics. Lo and behold the system is stable. When I try to plug the graphics card back in, the machine boots then powers off (but hasn't corrupted windows, I guess the current installation managed to finish installing all silent updates and therefore isn't writing to drive during power drop).

Despite the fact that one of the fans on the GPU spins slowly (maybe increases power draw? I have cleaned it but still not 100%), I'd say it probably isn't the problem, during POST and the few minutes/seconds the machine stays on, graphic output is good.

Power supply is 3 1/2 years old, machine has seen heavy uptime, sometimes on for a couple months at a time. 750W Sentey non-modular rated 80 bronze (I multiple hard drives, but that should still be fine)

Sadly I don't have many spare parts, so no PSU with 2 6 pin PCIe connectors or alternative graphics card to test with. I'll have to buy whatever is dying it's slow death.

Thus my question, is my failing power supply conclusion solid??

Thanks all

kes2006 · March 20, 2021

9 minutes ago, Daniel_L said:

Hello all

Yesterday during light usage, my system suddenly shut off and failed to boot, corrupted OS files, tried to fix them to no avail. Managed to make an image of the drive using another machine. I reinstalled Windows (was overdue anyways), and about 5 minutes later (while silent installing Windows bloat), it shut down and wouldn't boot again. I suspected the SSD had failed. So I installed Windows on a HDD I had lying around, using a different SATA cable and a different port on the motherboard, failure repeated itself.

Started researching and it suggested power supply (it obviously hasn't failed completely since I've installed Windows multiple times). As an experiment I tried unplugging my graphics card (old 560ti) and installed Windows on the SSD running off my i7-2700k and motherboard graphics. Lo and behold the system is stable. When I try to plug the graphics card back in, the machine boots then powers off (but hasn't corrupted windows, I guess the current installation managed to finish installing all silent updates and therefore isn't writing to drive during power drop).

Despite the fact that one of the fans on the GPU spins slowly (maybe increases power draw? I have cleaned it but still not 100%), I'd say it probably isn't the problem, during POST and the few minutes/seconds the machine stays on, graphic output is good.

Power supply is 3 1/2 years old, machine has seen heavy uptime, sometimes on for a couple months at a time. 750W Sentey non-modular rated 80 bronze (I multiple hard drives, but that should still be fine)

Sadly I don't have many spare parts, so no PSU with 2 6 pin PCIe connectors or alternative graphics card to test with. I'll have to buy whatever is dying it's slow death.

Thus my question, is my failing power supply conclusion solid??

Thanks all

It could also be your gpu maybe that has failed because if it was the psu it would probably have crashed with your igpu do you have any gpu you can borrow from anyone to test it out

Daniel_L · March 21, 2021

I don't have anyone I can borrow a PSU or GPU from .

Started with a fresh perspective this morning. Have confirmed system works fine with no GPU installed. However what is strange to me is that I can start the system with the GPU and have it sit in BIOS for hours...

So, I set the motherboard to run off of iGPU in BIOS and started the machine with no GPU attached. Stable. Attached GPU and booted, stable. Then noticed internet usage was spiking, windows auto installed drivers for the card. I reboot and boom, it won't start windows, blue screens before it fully loads. After a few attempts, Windows decides to uninstall new drivers (shockingly good idea) and system boots.

I proceed to install the latest appropriate Nvidia drivers (same ones I've been running for years) and reboot the system. Come into windows, head back to device manager and GPU has an error code, number 43. "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems". However the system is still stable.

Power down machine, change BIOS setting back to PCIE GPU and it won't start.

So yeah, it definitely seems like the GPU.