can a PSU cause system freezes

E

Edgeyforsure

New member
i have googled around abit, but my rig (in my sig) will randomly lockup, and i mean random even at stock, it will pass memtest for hours and hours, it will run prime for hours and hours then it will randomly freeze, i could be doing anything, have browser open, rendering, gaming... anything and it will on the odd occasion lockup and can only be fixd by pulling the plug and rebooting.

the only thing i can put this down too is the PSU (i had a few issues with stabilty with it in my old rig with trifire 6950's) im currently using only one 6950 whilst i await funds for a 680.

the PSU in question is around 5 years old, its an OCZ 1000w gold rated thing, i got given it by a friend so thats why i have such an overkill PSU atm (dont knock whats free eh?)

anyway, long story short, the bios reads the volts abit low.... 12v - 11.9 5v - 5.1 3.3v - 3.25v.

i know its not going to be exact but this is with no load at all, so i dont have a clue what the volts can drop too after extended time, the PSU doesnt put out any heat even on load, but i still think it might be the reason for the lockups.

i dont have any spair PSU to test this with, but may just take the jump for a ax860i anyway.



LONG STORY SHORTer,
can a dying PSU cause system lockups / freezes (not had any bluescreens)
 
Yes, that may cause occasional lockups if it really has a huge peak in voltage. Are you 100% sure your motherboard is fine and running latest BIOS? I have one HP barebone PC which I took apart since it was not working at all. It appears that the chipset had died or something else was wrong with the mobo, haven't felt like looking further to that issue though. It would be always best if you could measure your PSU with dedicated equipment but in most cases that is not possible.
I would recommend you to make sure all the components are physically fine and you have the latest drivers and BIOS version.
EDIT: By "hours and hours", do you mean that you left, for example, your computer run Memtest86+ over night. Did you run Prime95 using "SUM(INPUTS) error checking" and "Round off checking" for at least 6-12h (first select "Blend" and then "Custom" from the torture test menu and manually set the "memory to use" amount to 80-90% of your total RAM available)
 
Last edited:
hours and hours = overnight, with both, with and without overclocks (neither produced errors) latest bios and latest chipset drivers direct from their website

only reason im thinking it is the PSU as its the only thing from my old system (apart from SSD) and i did have a couple of lockup issues near the end of its life

i left prime running blend with 15.2gb of memory being used (other 780mb was being used by OS) it wouldhave been on for say 12 - 16 hours and no issues at all
 
Well, if you're considering to buy a new PSU anyway, wait until you get the new one and see if it solves the problem. I've also heard that OCZ's products are not always the most durable ones on the market. For that reason it is likely that your PSU is dying...
 
well, it wasn't my first choice in PSU, i generally stick to corsair but this was free and saved me money at the time, and to give it its dew, it has done well over the years.

to change my question, would an AX860i be enough for my 3930k + 670 / 680 in SLI [still undecided may just wait until the next gen of cards to see how they are]
 
Yeah that's how I understood it. Corsair PSUs are absolutely fantastic stuff, they have good regulation and low ripple, which is good for your components :) And to answer your question: Yes, the AX860i is definitely capable of supplying power for that system. You shouldn't even try to get too overkill PSU, because most of the PSUs reach their highest efficiency when you have 50%-> load on them.
 
the answer is definitely yes, talking from experience hehe, i had my corsair hx850 going nuts on me. it used to randomly crash at stock and oc'd, usually crashed instantly when i launched anything that used the graphic card, took me a couple months to figure out what was the problem but finally i RMA'd it and got the newer version of the hx850, and no more problems yay :P
 
Another 'yes' here mate. I know a feyears back, when Need for Speed Most Wanted was out I was playing it and it would freeze. I got to looking on some forums and they gave some hints how to stop it. Lower the 'world detail' setting amongst others. Lastly was Upgrade to a bigger PSU. So I switched from a 450w, I think it was to a 700w and the problem stopped.

In your case it sounds like that big old psu of yours is on its last legs, which is why your mate gave it to you, rather than keeping it.
 
Replace the existing PSU with one that you know it works, borrow one from a friend... If all's well then buy a new PSU. That's the fastest way to answer your own question.
 
I had a old cm psu just a year or so ago that would cause very random lockups. Took it apart and did some readings. Sharp drops in voltage on the primary were the cause of my lockups.
All psu's will degrade over time and at varied rates.
As above double check with a friends psu if you can just to be sure.
Best of luck.
 
the 860I should be enough for that imo. the 670/680's dont draw too much power. the 860i is a realy nice PSU! i added the 760i to my system a few days ago, and the corsair link option is nice. realy super efficent psu. you will be happy!:cool:
 
Hey, just wondering if that solved your problem?

I'm having a similar issue. Everything is running at stock speed, memtest runs fine for over a week, then will show a couple of errors or just lock up. Seems unlikely to be a ram issue if it runs fine for over a week?

The PC can be stable for weeks at a time and then lock up. It has been like this since day one and I had this PC for over a year now - kind of neglected this issue since it is so intermittent.

Once locked up, pressing the reset button, the PC acts like a failed overclock: the power is cut completely and then the PC starts up again (I think this is a Gigabyte feature to recover from a failed overclock - I am not overclocking however).

Any ideas?
 
hackeron said:
Hey, just wondering if that solved your problem?

I'm having a similar issue. Everything is running at stock speed, memtest runs fine for over a week, then will show a couple of errors or just lock up. Seems unlikely to be a ram issue if it runs fine for over a week?

The PC can be stable for weeks at a time and then lock up. It has been like this since day one and I had this PC for over a year now - kind of neglected this issue since it is so intermittent.

Once locked up, pressing the reset button, the PC acts like a failed overclock: the power is cut completely and then the PC starts up again (I think this is a Gigabyte feature to recover from a failed overclock - I am not overclocking however).

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to sound rude here

But please don't hijack other people post, Please start your own post :)
 
hackeron said:
I was asking for a follow up and sharing my experience - if replacing the power supply indeed fixed the problem, I don't need to waste people's time with another thread :)
Click to expand...

It's sorta of a rule on forums that you always start your own thread.

This thread is 2 years old now
 
King of Old School said:
It's sorta of a rule on forums that you always start your own thread.

This thread is 2 years old now
Click to expand...

I see what you're saying, but I am intentionally looking for old threads because an intermittent freeze like this can happen once every few months and it is only old threads where the person experiencing the problem can confirm whether it did indeed permanently solve their problem or not.
 
I'll allow it since the thread is from 2013, but this also means you might not get a reply from OP. The next time please do make your own thread though.

Good luck with your issue
 
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