Power supply causing system instability? What are the cause of system instability aside from software issue?

[MIRTAZAPINE]

I have been running for the past year on my silverstone power supply sfx sx600g. It failed once before on an msi am4 board before the first time I turn it on and got a new one which I used until now. The frustration of the first failure cause me to accidentally scratch my previous Raijintek Styx/Nova case as fumble about the power supply with my case.

That aside just today my PC suddenly turn off itself. I thought it overheated or the mosfet overheated but it can't be as I am running it without any case on to test things out for routine cleaning now. I took out my old EVGA 500B bronze power supply and it booted just fine. Strangely enough, I find my mouse cursor now smooth and things or programs don't crash now. Add to it I don't need higher voltage for my overclock too where once with the Silverstone Sfx sx600g I needed higher voltage and it was not so stable. I never expected a psu to cause problems like this before first time encountering it usually a psu failure is an immediate shutdown rather than instability. So just asking you guys here have any of you encountered problem like this before? This results in a lot of frustration for me, I thought my software side of things needed a good reformat again. I am gonna rma the silverstone sigh.. that is the 2nd failure. Can't believe the cheap evga 500b is still going strong should have stuck with that.

Also just a general question on what cause system instability assuming all software things are excluded and how can detect this sort of "non-immediate" failure of hardware. I guess it is hard unless you have another working hardware you know that works 100% right? I had another msi 970 gaming board which exhibit this kind of behavior which I assume is the ram issue as the psu, windows install and ssd is all good. Never managed to fix that fully without another hardware. Though ramtest resulted in passes despite bsod on irql not equal errors.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I never expected a psu to cause problems like this before first time encountering it usually a psu failure is an immediate shutdown rather than instability.

A failing PSU problem can manifest into many different symptoms, to include system freezes, reboots, shutdowns and other issues that do not clearly point to power. So it is always essential to verify you are delivering good, clean stable power to the components inside, since they all depend on good, clean, stable power. And for the typical users, that is easiest by swapping in a known good supply.

That said, since you have encountered problems with more than one PSU, you need to look at your facility power too. Every home and every computer user should have access to a AC Outlet Tester to ensure your outlet is properly wired and grounded. I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

You might also consider running off a "good" UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation) too. Understand it is NOT about backup power during a power outage. It is about the AVR that makes an UPS so important. Power during a full outage is just a minor bonus. And note a surge and spike protector is little more than a fancy and expensive extension cord. They do not regulate the power, and do absolutely nothing for low voltage power anomalies like dips (opposite of spikes), sags (opposite of surges) or brownouts (long duration sags). And for excessive surges and spikes, they simply shut off power (if working properly), crashing your computer - never good.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Bad PSU & RAM are the 2 least obvious and most problematic issues to replicate in my experience.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Least obvious? Some times. Other times, it is extremely obvious. It just depends on the actual problem with the faulty devices.

 

[Folterknecht]

I had a similar problem in the early 2000s, which resulted in me becoming interested in PC hardware. In my case the faulty PSU caused shutdowns and bluescreens when a certain load on the GPU side of things was reached. As a regular user there is nothing else you can do beside systematically replacing components one at a time to solve the mystery. In my case I was lucky the faulty PSU didn't damage other components.
Since that time I'm a firm worshipper at the shrine of Seasonic and other quality PSUs.

 

[eidairaman1]

Plain and simple dont buy crap psus