5th RMA Card in 3 years, why do my cards keep dying?

[Zollblade]

Ok so i am getting really tired of my graphics cards dying on me... my first gcard which was an MSI Frozr III r9270 died after about 2 weeks after getting by new rig all new parts. i then moved my computer to another room because i thought it was the wall socket causing surges, then about a couple months later my next card died randomly without a sign.  I then thought it had something to do with my connection into my graphics card so i changed it so my graphics card was power was split using 2 powercable cables instead of

one. same thing happened for the 4th time so i got extra cooling on my case just to be safe and RMA to a new card this time the card was a MSI Frozr IV R9290. so i figured new cooling and a completely different model graphics card should work? nope... this one died on me a couple weeks ago. 

I am now running on my onboard graphics and everything seems to be running perfectly. with the occasional freeze during boot, requiring restart. The strange thing is my pc and all the other components seem to be for the most part unaffected after these faliures, its just my graphics cards that keep dying while my other components survive. There were a few warning signs however, one day a while back my pc just wouldn't even turn on even though there was power after reconnecting the power that goes into my motherboard it seemed to work. then i noticed my screens wouldn't turn on during boot occasionally which would be fixed if i restarted or reconnected my monitor to the pc while it was on. eventually my screens wouldn't turn on at all or would just flash on and off at random, while my pc was still running. could even see Windows flash onscreen ocasionally. Then I noticed all my graphics cards and case fans ramp up to full when i tried to boot up (still no display on the screens) eventually the fans on my gcard just stopped working  completely. I also recently noticed my one hard drive seems to be dying, sometimes it doent boot or just disappears when in use, this could be a completely different issue though.

Please if anyone has any help i would really appreciate it, I really dont want to have to go though another RMA again, have been having the same issue since i got this rig 3 years ago. im not too clued up on computers and my usual tech adviser doesn't know whats wrong either, he says it could either be my psu or motherboard causing the faults but the only way to find out at the moment would be to buy a new psu and mobo which i really cant afford right now.

A full list of my symptoms during the period as been included bellow and have attached the results of my voltage monitor app which appear to be normal.

Primary Monitor is a firewire iMac monitor; this monitor sometimes creates tiny sparks when DV-I port is being connected

Primary monitor often doesn’t show any signal when connected

Other components appear to be mostly unaffected after graphics card failure

Randomly restarts

PC sometimes doesn’t boot, no power at all

Screens Flashing

Monitors signal randomly disappear and reappear on both monitors

Artefacts when watching videos or playing games

Stuck in bios loading screen

Fan fluctuations

Secondary Hard drive doesn’t boot sometimes or disappears when in use (D: Games), HDD possibly on its way out?

Voltages on the hardware monitor appear normal when pc is on idle (haven't tested while gaming). Its deffinatly no a heat issue i have very decent cooling. This last R9290 ran at about 90C when gaming which from what ive read on other posts was "normal temps", not sure if i believe it. Either way my R9270 still failed even though they were much cooler cards

My Rig

• MSI Trin Frozr IV R9290
• X2 4GBs Vengeance DDR3-1400 RAM
• Arctic i30 Cooler
• Asrock z87 pro4 Motherboard
• X3 Seagate SATA Drives (not sure what speed)
• CoolerMaster 550 Silencio Case
• 1x Corsair SP120 fan
• 1x Jetflo 120 fan
• 1x Standard CoolerMaster case fan (included with case)
• Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHZ GPU
• Aerocool KCAS 700W Bronze Certified PSU
• 2x Surge protector plugs running in serial routing
• No UPS

[Zollblade]

And no im not overclocking anything. most of the time these cards would die even while i wasn't gaming.

[79wjd]

It's not necessarily the cause, but you should probably replace the psu as it's likely pretty shitty. 

[JCBiggs]

power supply killed 2 of mine.  

[samcool55]

Get a new psu and a new monitor.

The fact it's sparking is usually a sign something is wrong at the monitor side.

 

And that psu is a POS so just replace it with a decent psu. Never ever ever cheap out on your psu. 

[Zollblade]

Yeah all these symptoms do seem power related. starting to think the guy i got to build my rig might have cut a few corners to save on the psu. got the whole pc for quite cheap so maybe he took a chance by getting a cheapo power supply

 

[Energycore]

Found the problem. It's your PSU

 

Aerocool's Strixe-X line is fine but their K-CAS aren't. Chances are your GPUs keep dying because of high ripple.

[Zollblade]

any chance my motherboard could cause this kind of damage? would help if i could remove that as a possible cause

[Energycore]

Just now, Zollblade said:

Yeah all these symptoms do seem power related. starting to think the guy i got to build my rig might have cut a few corners to save on the psu. got the whole pc for quite cheap so maybe he took a chance by getting a cheapo power supply

 

The benefit of building yourself is that you always serve your own interests

 

What would your budget be for a replacement PSU? You can get one that won't kill your GPU for $45 or more.

[Zollblade]

its strange though it was a new rig when this happened, starting getting issues after only 2 weeks. would a psu really die that quickly?

 

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, Zollblade said:

its strange though even after 2 weeks i saw these problems. would a psu really die that quickly?

 

It's not an issue of dying....it's just a literal piece of shit that can't supply quality power. The PSU could be running 'fine' (by its standards), but it provides power that is out of spec and that can cause damage. 

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, Zollblade said:

its strange though even after 2 weeks i saw these problems. would a psu really die that quickly?

 

(please quote me so I get notified when you answer )

 

The PSU us not dying. It's providing unclean power, full of high and low voltage spikes because it's badly made. That unclean power does all kinds of bad stuff to the graphics card, be it the GPU chip or the capacitors on it, or memory modules.

[iamdarkyoshi]

The sparks are caused by either the PC or the monitor not being grounded. Its normal. For me at least.

 

Artifacting cards are bad luck, or poor temps causing premature failure. Total GPU failure could be caused by a bad PSU, bad video cable (I had a faulty DVI cable take out a motherboard's onboard graphics), faulty components, or moisture.

 

I have experienced every single one of these failures and to some extent, have managed to repair all of them (artifacting card still artifacted after a couple months of use)

[never_here]

what energycore says is true.  I built a few PC's for my friends, since i'm the go to guy for this crap, but i never cheap out on the PSU.  They complain and complain at me for why i get PSU's that cost as much as other parts, or more, but it really is one of the core pieces of the rig.  You just can't cheap out on that, or stuff like you are experiencing now, could happen.  Though, i've had branded PSU's fail on me, once, defective though.  So i got it replaced instantly, (first time use, and store owner knows me).  

 

Anyways, hope a new psu fixes your issues.  The only problem i see is that even with a new PSU, theres a chance your current components could have been damaged, considering you've had so much issues.  Also, if any of your devices 'spark' when in use, or plugging, or anything... thats not a good thing.  Something is definitely wrong, and needs to be checked.  Lastly, i hope you are grounding yourself when touching your system's internals.  

 

 

[Energycore]

Wrong thread

[Zollblade]

Haha ok yeah its probably a piece of shit, going to try swap that out before getting a new mobo. thinking of getting the Crosair CS650 next to be safe. should be fine right? 700w seems a bit overkill 
 

But the voltages appear normal on the voltage metering software im using? im guessing its pointless for detecting these kinds voltage spikes? tell me if im wrong

[Energycore]

Just now, Zollblade said:

Haha ok yeah its probably a piece of shit, going to try swap that out before getting a new mobo. thinking of getting the Crosair CS650 next to be safe. should be fine right? 700w seems a bit overkill 
 

Although the voltages appear normal on the voltage metering software im using, im guessing its pointless for detecting these kinds voltage spikes? tell me if im wrong

Where will you buy from? The CS usually isn't great value, although it's still fine

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, Zollblade said:

Haha ok yeah its probably a piece of shit, going to try swap that out before getting a new mobo. thinking of getting the Crosair CS650 next to be safe. should be fine right? 700w seems a bit overkill 
 

Although the voltages appear normal on the voltage metering software im using, im guessing its pointless for detecting these kinds voltage spikes? tell me if im wrong

@STRMfrmXMN knows all about PSUs.

[Zollblade]

2 minutes ago, Energycore said:

Where will you buy from? The CS usually isn't great value, although it's still fine

Not sure where exactly to find one, just been looking around, seeing whats in stock. what brand/model would you suggest? im a bit noob with tech, psu's in particular

[Energycore]

Just now, Zollblade said:

Not sure where exactly to find one, just been looking around, seeing whats in stock. what brand/model would you suggest? im a bit noob with tech, psu's in particular

XFX ProSeries or TS or XTR

EVGA GQ or GS or G2 or B2

Seasonic S12II or X-Series or really any model

Rosewill Quark / Photon / Capstone G

Corsair CXM (Grey Sticker only), RM, RMx

FSP Hydro G

Thermaltake DPS Gold, Toughpower Grand

be quiet! Straight Power E10, Dark Power Pro 10/11

 

(Any PSU that's on Tier 3 or better in the ranking that's on my sig)

 

And i'd say at least 500W since you have an R9 290.

[Zollblade]

21 minutes ago, never_here said:

what energycore says is true.  I built a few PC's for my friends, since i'm the go to guy for this crap, but i never cheap out on the PSU.  They complain and complain at me for why i get PSU's that cost as much as other parts, or more, but it really is one of the core pieces of the rig.  You just can't cheap out on that, or stuff like you are experiencing now, could happen.  Though, i've had branded PSU's fail on me, once, defective though.  So i got it replaced instantly, (first time use, and store owner knows me).  

 

Anyways, hope a new psu fixes your issues.  The only problem i see is that even with a new PSU, theres a chance your current components could have been damaged, considering you've had so much issues.  Also, if any of your devices 'spark' when in use, or plugging, or anything... thats not a good thing.  Something is definitely wrong, and needs to be checked.  Lastly, i hope you are grounding yourself when touching your system's internals.  

 

 

Thanks for the help hopefully psu will sort it, yeah i guess we will see, ill just get the psu wait a couple months and see how it goes, if the issues return then i might have to get a new motherboard. pretty sure my secondary HDD is on its way out probably because of the voltage spikes but i everything else seems to be allright. So would these sparks mean fault with the monitor? Just checked now and my monitor is using a 2 prong which i believe is ungrounded, is there any chance my monitor could be causing the failures? I know it sounds like a weird question,..

[Zollblade]

24 minutes ago, Energycore said:

XFX ProSeries or TS or XTR

EVGA GQ or GS or G2 or B2

Seasonic S12II or X-Series or really any model

Rosewill Quark / Photon / Capstone G

Corsair CXM (Grey Sticker only), RM, RMx

FSP Hydro G

Thermaltake DPS Gold, Toughpower Grand

be quiet! Straight Power E10, Dark Power Pro 10/11

 

(Any PSU that's on Tier 3 or better in the ranking that's on my sig)

 

And i'd say at least 500W since you have an R9 290.

awesome thanks man!!

[samiscool51]

prob PSU, replace it 

also @iamdarkyoshi  awesome pic, i also love Dave from EEVBlog

[Zollblade]

Thanks guys got an evga 750w G2 PSU and by some Christmas miracle i tried to test my gcard in and it works