USB Keeps Restarting/Losing Power: Considering Upgrading Old 750W PSU for my newly Installed RTX 3070Ti

[TNinja]

I recently installed an RTX 3070Ti Phoenix. I noticed some of my USB ports have been spasming randomly, and when the GPU is under heavier load, my mouse stops working and won't turn on again until I reboot.

At first, I thought I didn't have enough Wattage, as the store specified 700W was required. I have a 750W PSU, so I wasn't sure if I was edging my requirements.

But after thinking a bit. My most obvious suspicion is that it is because my PSU is 10 year old and actually degrading, and it was a Bronze certified 80 PLUS. But I am still wondering if BOTH suspicions were the reasons.

 

I was thinking it was about time I get a new PSU anyway, since it is really old.

I know a Titanium grade is unecessary, but right now the stores have a deal for Seasonic Titanium grade PSU that is only 10 bucks more than a Platinum graded Seasonics, so these are my considerations.

 

Seasonic PRIME TX 750 for 260 bucks

Or 

Seasonic PRIME TX 850 for 310 bucks.

 

I asked ChatGPT for a quick help, and it recommended I might just need 650W instead.

It basically told me lower Wattage doesn't necessarily mean it's a downgrade. So I'm asking here as a final decision.

 

I am really hoping it is not because my Motherboard decided to damage my USB plugs the moment I installed a new GPU. That would be a pain, and I don't even feel like troubleshooting that.

 

 

 

Machine spec:

Windows 10 64bit

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

DDR4 64GB

NVidia RTX 3070Ti

750Watt PSU 80PLUS Bronze

Mainboard

[TrigrH]

update bios

[TNinja]

9 minutes ago, TrigrH said:

update bios

Hm, isn't that kinda one of those last resort things?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

9 minutes ago, TNinja said:

Hm, isn't that kinda one of those last resort things?

Buying a psu is a last resort

Update the bios anyways who knows if that could be the problem

 

But suspecting the psu here is quite reasonable cause afaik if volt starts dipping too much then some odd stuff can start happening. Well thats true for too high volt aswell cause when i was using a shit psu for my p5q the 80gb hdd kept flaking out and making odd noises (but its fine and still working atm after swapping to a better psu a couple years ago) cause psu ran 12v at 14v and 5v at 6v. But still do everything else first before buying another psu

[TNinja]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Buying a psu is a last resort

Update the bios anyways who knows if that could be the problem

 

But suspecting the psu here is quite reasonable cause afaik if volt starts dipping too much then some odd stuff can start happening. Well thats true for too high volt aswell cause when i was using a shit psu for my p5q the 80gb hdd kept flaking out and making odd noises (but its fine and still working atm after swapping to a better psu a couple years ago) cause psu ran 12v at 14v and 5v at 6v. But still do everything else first before buying another psu

Alright. I was told a long time ago that I shouldn't flash my BIOS unless it is absolutely necessary, because if something fails, it fails hard.

But apparently, it's super easy today.

[Trinity-W]

43 minutes ago, TNinja said:

I recently installed an RTX 3070Ti Phoenix. I noticed some of my USB ports have been spasming randomly, and when the GPU is under heavier load, my mouse stops working and won't turn on again until I reboot.

At first, I thought I didn't have enough Wattage, as the store specified 700W was required. I have a 750W PSU, so I wasn't sure if I was edging my requirements.

But after thinking a bit. My most obvious suspicion is that it is because my PSU is 10 year old and actually degrading, and it was a Bronze certified 80 PLUS. But I am still wondering if BOTH suspicions were the reasons.

 

I was thinking it was about time I get a new PSU anyway, since it is really old.

I know a Titanium grade is unecessary, but right now the stores have a deal for Seasonic Titanium grade PSU that is only 10 bucks more than a Platinum graded Seasonics, so these are my considerations.

 

Seasonic PRIME TX 750 for 260 bucks

Or 

Seasonic PRIME TX 850 for 310 bucks.

 

I asked ChatGPT for a quick help, and it recommended I might just need 650W instead.

It basically told me lower Wattage doesn't necessarily mean it's a downgrade. So I'm asking here as a final decision.

 

I am really hoping it is not because my Motherboard decided to damage my USB plugs the moment I installed a new GPU. That would be a pain, and I don't even feel like troubleshooting that.

 

 

 

Machine spec:

Windows 10 64bit

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

DDR4 64GB

NVidia RTX 3070Ti

750Watt PSU 80PLUS Bronze

Mainboard

Hi, I see you on an old BIOS. Try update BIOS. There are quite a few out what shows good support but also reasons that the MOBO needed various fixes, if you are lucky the BIOS update could fix it. But it's not definite. It could be faulty MOBO or something else.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B550-TOMAHAWK/support

 

[Trinity-W]

1 minute ago, TNinja said:

Alright. I was told a long time ago that I shouldn't flash my BIOS unless it is absolutely necessary, because if something fails, it fails hard.

But apparently, it's super easy today.

As long as your are careful and don't mess with it as it's updating you'll be okay. Step by step.

[TNinja]

On a slightly related note. Is it worth to "Future proof" a PSU, considering how much power the RTX 4000 series is drawing?

 

In like 5 or 6 years, I might need a new GPU card, and I can't tell how much power I might need for that next card.

And I also don't know how much life this PSU has left as it was bought in 2009.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

47 minutes ago, TNinja said:

On a slightly related note. Is it worth to "Future proof" a PSU, considering how much power the RTX 4000 series is drawing?

 

In like 5 or 6 years, I might need a new GPU card, and I can't tell how much power I might need for that next card.

And I also don't know how much life this PSU has left as it was bought in 2009.

That is a very old unit, reccomended to replace but not absolutely neccesary, problably still has a few years of life left

 

As for a replacement id suggest buying used because discounts are massive (50%+ at times over new) with very minimal risk. As for model do your own research, tierlists are only a vague reference and you definitely shouldnt be overpaying (spending 20$+) just to get a tier up (ex buying a stupid overpriced RMx over something like the RMe or UD-GM)

 

 

Also bios flashing is fine, if you manage to fuck it up the b550 tomahawk has a JTPM1 header (spi header) located right below the vrm on the left side of the board, seems like they just use SPI for their tpm modules, you can use that alongside some dupont female -> female jumpers and a ch341a to reflash your bios externally

 

iirc that board also has a bios flashback so you can just use that to fix your bios since afaik its dumb and will flash regarless of corrupted bios or not

[TNinja]

I have updated my BIOS, and so far, I have not experienced any more USB restarts. I have yet to try under heavy load, though, but I have hopes up.

 

Was the motherboard just not accustomed to the new GPU or something? I don't think I have experienced this before, as this is the first time I have updated a BIOS.

[TNinja]

I can confirm I no longer have USB power outages, even during heavy load. It was as simple as a BIOS update.

Marked that first reply as a solution. And I appreciate some of the deeper answers that came along as well.

 

Though as I write this, I learned something about ASUS, and I am glad my motherboard wasn't from ASUS as this was going on.