Graphics card causing crash? Help/thoughts/advice?

[noiseredux]

Dudes,

I own this desktop: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-desk ... Id=9008225

Plus I added another 4GB RAM to max it out to 8GB.

I installed a Radeon 6670 PCI Express card into it over a month ago. I output thru DVI.

So I've had no issues running games with this thing. Maybe a handful of times I've lowered some graphical settings in a game (Walking Dead) but for the most part it's been great.

Saturday night, while booting up, I got a black screen. No Windows starting and then a freeze. Nothing on the screen at all. I could hear the fan spinning and the HDD thinking, but nothing on the screen.

After some Googling on my phone, I decided to pop out the graphics card on a whim. I hooked up VGA via the motherboard, and sure enough I now had visuals. So it seemed pretty narrowed down that the GPU was somehow the cause.

Yesterday I tried to play Enemy Unknown without the GPU, and the framerate was horrible. So for the hell of it, I popped the GPU back in. Now it worked. I played through to the end of Enemy Unknown yesterday, easily 5 or 6 hrs without a problem.

This morning I tried to play Street Fighter X Tekken and after about 20 mins the system crashed. When I restarted - black screen. Took the damn GPU out and again, system's working fine via VGA/motherboard.

SO:

1. While the GPU seems to be the issue, I feel like it's not a bad/faulty GPU. Like I said, it's only a month old or so. It's also worked great in that month, graphical performance-wise.

2. My hunch is it's the power supply. This system came with 240W power supply, which is pretty shit. The recommended specs on the GPU suggest 400W. So this is the obvious issue from where I can see. Though it should be noted that 240W was enough to run it for a month with no issues, so not sure.

Here's the part where you guys razz me for buying a prebuilt PC from Best Buy, but rest assured, lesson learned for the future. In my defense, this was bought just a replacement PC to do every day stuff. It wasn't until after purchasing it and realizing it could run games that I'd actually realize I like playing games on PC. So yeah next PC (several years out) will be built with that in mind.

3. Heat maybe? There's a fan in the PC, and a fan on the GPU itself. But could heat be an issue that would cause the card to just shut itself down?

4. What else?

[dsheinem]

and thus ends noise's foray into PC gaming

[bmoc]

I think you are correct. That card needs more power. It could also be heat but I think this is much less likely unless your case fan is running at an absurdly low rpm.

[Luke]

Sounds like an issue I had a few years ago, and it ended up being the power supply. Best of luck.

[Ivo]

Really sounds like power supply issues, although I am not an expert. Possibly the PSU is not outputting consistently enough power.

[EvilRyu2099]

Buy a nice cheap 400W PSU.. They are not too hard to install either.. They have coords that connects to the CPU/Motherbards, HDDs, Disk drives, and GPU...

[Mephikun]

Buy a nice cheap 400W PSU.. They are not too hard to install either.. They have coords that connects to the CPU/Motherbards, HDDs, Disk drives, and GPU...

No. No no no no no.

I cannot stress enough how bad of an idea it is to cheap out on a power supply. Cheap ones generally only last 3-12 months and can take other parts with them when they go. I had one that literally blew up and fried my entire computer, which at the time was my only "gaming" PC (specs were barely mid-range). I went a year without a new gaming PC, and although I'm very happy with what I have now (beats the living crap out of the last one), I really wish that hadn't happened.

My advice is to get an 80 plus silver or higher certified PSU. Also I'll PM you the link to an article on Tom's Hardware explaining what to look for in a PSU. Never buy a crappy PSU.

By the way, nice choice in your GPU. I had one until July when I upgraded to a GTX 650 Ti 2 GB. My sister now has the 6670 in her custom build (she was using the integrated graphics in the A6-5400k before, which aren't terrible but the 6670 definitely helped her out.)

Sent from my NookTablet using Tapatalk 2

[Jmustang1968]

I would say psu and heat are an issue.

That prebuilt was made cheap and for the components in it. Adding graphics card will both increase power needs and heat that the pc cannot handle.

Those prebuilts can also be upgrade resistant. Instead of throwing money at it, I would use what you have and put together a modest rig on your own.

[Ziggy]

Buy a nice cheap 400W PSU.. They are not too hard to install either.. They have coords that connects to the CPU/Motherbards, HDDs, Disk drives, and GPU...

No. No no no no no.

I cannot stress enough how bad of an idea it is to cheap out on a power supply.

YES!

Do not get a cheap power supply. Get a known good brand, and spend a decent amount on it.

The power supplies that come with prebuilt PCs are always junk. They're cheaply made, and just barely sufficient to power the computer out of the box. Whenever some one has such a PC and asks me to help them with adding/upgrading the video card, I ALWAYS make them upgrade the PSU as well.

There's power supply calculators available on the net. Like this one: http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/to ... index.html

I inputted the specs from the Best Buy link with your added RAM (I assumed you have two sticks of 4GB) and your added video card. It calculated about 350w, which is about 100w more than what you have right now. So, not only are you under powered, but couple that with the fact that those stock PSUs are garbage anyway, and it's safe to bet this is your problem.

Also keep in mind that just because the calculator says 350w will do doesn't mean you shouldn't get more. I would aim for 500w, no less. It's nice to have head room. And also, if you add more components down the road (or upgrade to a more power hungry GPU) then you'll need more power.

Another thing that people often overlook is amperage. It's easy to figure out wattage with such calculators, and they'll have the appropriate voltages (and let's hope they're stable if you get a decent PSU) but no one really pays attention to amperage. If you go to the ATI site and get the full specs for your card, it should list the required amps on each voltage line. You can then pick out a PSU accordingly.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time picking it out, but this one looks nice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817153169

One thing that catches my eye is the Japanese capacitors. There was something going on called the capacitor plague and that's probably why better brands started to specify that they use top notch caps. Cheaper PSUs are made with cheaper components. Even without the bad caps from the plague, cheap caps wont last as long as quality caps.

[noiseredux]

Those prebuilts can also be uograde resistant. Instead of throwing money at it, I would use what you have and put together a modest rig on your own.

I'm not sure what you're saying. If I'm upgrading (added RAM, added GPU, etc) and willing to replace the PSU, then isn't that "using what I have and putting together a modest rig on my own"?