PC keeps freezing every couple of minutes -- is that bad power supply?
PC keeps freezing every couple of minutes -- is that bad power supply?
I'm looking for a new power supply unit so I can run an Intel Arc B850 or a GeForce RTX series. My current setup is: Asus motherboard, 32GB of Corsair RGB RAM, Ryzen 7 3700X processor at 4200 MHz, Radeon RX 6600 Ti graphics card with an 8GB memory slot, a 28-inch 1080p monitor with a fast IPS panel and 2ms response time. I also have a 500GB hard drive plus two solid-state drives, and the computer runs on a workstation power supply rated for 750 watts, which is the Corsair Gold model. I believe my PSU is failing because of a major tornado that hit last week. My PC keeps freezing up about five or six times in half an hour; I have to restart it each time right now. I am trying to reset it back to factory settings hoping this will just be a driver problem. But I still need a reliable power supply for the future, specifically one rated Gold, so I can upgrade my RAM and video card if possible. I might also try switching from an AM4 CPU socket to the X3D cooler. My budget is around 100 to 140 dollars. If you need more details, just let me know.
How old is the power supply? Has it been used a lot for gaming and editing videos? Check the Reliability History tool or Event Viewer to see if it's recording any error codes, warnings, or just regular events right before or when things freeze up. Clicking on an entry might show more details, but those could be misleading too. Overall though, there are other reasons that could explain what's happening.
I am trying to figure out how a tornado could make a driver go wrong. Is it maybe bad hardware? A few years ago my house got hit by lightning twice and blew out my broadband router and network switches. The investigation showed burnt parts and black smoke on the wall near the phone sockets. I changed to using fiber optic lines, which means fewer weak points for trouble.
I'm not sure if the PSU is over 5 years old. It's a Corsair 750, and the writing on it is yellow. I did a full factory restore. Even after that, I still get an Radeon error report, my screen freezes up, and I keep getting errors when streaming or gaming on my Asus ROG Strix Laptop. The GPU has been around for about four to five years since we got stimulus checks from the pandemic. It froze me out while playing games like Alt-tab in it. The errors show up on my main desktop computer too.