Computer Crashes During Heavy Use

[sammyk12]

So I have a low end gaming PC that I got about a year ago. This is it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229362

The only change I have made is that I upgraded the GPU to an Nvidea 650 with 2gb of gddr ram. My problem is that about 2 weeks ago, I tried to export a project in Adobe Premiere CS6, and after getting about halfway through, my computer just shut off. I started it up and tried a few more times with different export settings, but it kept shutting down. Suspecting a cooling problem, I shut down all other programs besides Premiere, took off the side panel, cleaned all of the dust out, and tried exporting it again with a room fan blowing on high into the case. This seemed to work, and I was able to export. This has also happened twice when I have not been doing tasks that were that intense (both times I was listening to Spotify while playing Hotline Miami, which is not that graphics heavy of a game). I can upgrade things, but don't want to spend money on new components without knowing what the problem is. Any help would be greatly appreciated in finding out what part(s) to upgrade so that this doesn't keep happening.

 

Thank you!

-Sam

[Altecice]

What power supply are you currently using? Buying a cheap prebuild and then putting in a new/more powerful GPU is asking for trouble.

 

Its either a temperature problem or a power supply problem.

[flibberdipper]

Is your power supply big enough to handle that little upgrade? Stock cooler?

[IKnowNothinAboutTechnology]

That PSU is slowly killing your PC...

[sammyk12]

Everything is stock besides the GPU. The website just says 500W, and when I just opened the case I couldn't see any branding or anything on the PSU. It's just a black box

[seiny]

Could also be that your case cooling isn't sufficient, monitor your cpu/gpu temperatures when doing those heavy tasks, your motherboard could have have an auto shutdown when temps get too high.

[seiny]

Since its pretty much a no-name psu I would recommend changing it, it might work for now but in the long run it may fail especially when you add more components.

[EmotionalSloth]

It probably has something to do with your psu

[Nicktrance]

Everything is stock besides the GPU. The website just says 500W, and when I just opened the case I couldn't see any branding or anything on the PSU. It's just a black box

 

A lot of low quality no-name psus come rated by peak power, so they might not actually be able to supply anything close to the wattage they're rated for for a sustained period of time. Still it should be enough for a 650 even after 1 year of aging on the capacitors, unless they are complete crap, so it could be something else (possibly a thermal or stability problem with the new GPU).

 

You can check temps of the whole system using utilities such as CPUID's HWMonitor (http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/hwmonitor/1.25-setup.exe - just install and run, it'll show you a list of temps, stretch the window until they're all visible, run something stressful in the background and take a screenshot or just write the important ones down/take a photo if it's unresponsive and post them here).

 

As for the PSU, the only way you can really test it out it to try out a different quality PSU which is proven to work correctly, I'd recommend getting a good PSU anyway but if money is a problem right now and you don't have access to a good PSU you might want to consider taking it to some sort of computer repair shop you trust.

[sammyk12]

After a little research it looks like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011 will be more than enough to fix my problem. I'm glad because I was about to go buy a new hard drive, and I wouldn't have had enough money to fix this, more pressing issue, but now I know to buy a new PSU now, and maybe a new hard drive later Thanks for all the help!!

[Nicktrance]

After a little research it looks like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011 will be more than enough to fix my problem. I'm glad because I was about to go buy a new hard drive, and I wouldn't have had enough money to fix this, more pressing issue, but now I know to buy a new PSU now, and maybe a new hard drive later Thanks for all the help!!

 

Unless you plan a massive upgrade in the near future I'd say that's massive overkill, a CX500(M or not) would be more than enough for your system with some headroom for expansion and/or overclocking and costs about half as much.

 

Also have you checked the temps just in case?

[sammyk12]

Thanks for the advice, Ill check that one out. No, I haven't, I honestly don't know how...

[Yummychickenblue]

Thanks for the advice, Ill check that one out. No, I haven't, I honestly don't know how...

You can download tools like CPUZ and MSI Afterburner to monitor temperatures on the CPU and the GPU.

 

Also welcome to the forum!

[Nicktrance]

Thanks for the advice, Ill check that one out. No, I haven't, I honestly don't know how...

 

Check my first post, I had edited with some info I think you missed .

 

You can download tools like CPUZ and MSI Afterburner to monitor temperatures on the CPU and the GPU.

 

Also welcome to the forum!

CPU-z and afterburner are good tools but HWMonitor checks all temps of the system in one place (it's made by the same people who make CPU-Z and GPU-Z), it's quite useful I have it on all PCs I use even ultrabooks .

[sammyk12]

Downloaded HWMoniter. What kinds of temps should I be looking for to indicate that something is wrong?
Also, does this PSU seem more reasonable?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139059&cm_re=corsair_cs550m-_-17-139-059-_-Product