Unstable energy supply Issues with power transmission Inconsistent voltage output
Unstable energy supply Issues with power transmission Inconsistent voltage output
I've had my current motherboard for almost a year now, and since I got it, the power delivery has been pretty unreliable. The model is MSI B450M Pro VDH Max. Basically, I first noticed it when I tried to enable Precision Boost Overdrive or whatever it's called, since I have an X series Ryzen chip. It would work normally most of the time, but as soon as something CPU intensive happened, the whole system would hard reboot. Hard reboot as in no bluescreen or errors reported in windows event viewer, just a black screen and then it would reboot. I tried a more powerful PSU, a 750 watt as opposed to my 550 watt, and that didn't help at all. I eventually figured out that it was just PBO acting up, so I disabled it. I went to manually overclock my CPU, and the same thing would happen, so at that point I figured it was the VRMs or power delivery or something. I reset everything back to normal/defaults, and I have been relatively fine since. Recently, though, I decided to reinstall Red Dead Redemption 2, which is a pretty intensive game as plenty of people know. There is one specific loading scene in a quest in Valentine that causes my system to do the same exact thing as it would do with PBO or overclocking, but now at default settings at stuff (albeit I have the high performance power mode selected in windows power management) So is this a problem with power delivery? The CPU never gets above 70 degrees C, so I doubt it's thermals. If it is power delivery, what should I do? I think the motherboard is still covered by the manufacturer's warranty, and I think I got one from the store I bought it from, too (MicroCenter). The downside should I have to do a store warranty is that the MicroCenter I got it from is like an hour's drive away. Any help is greatly appreciated
Chipset drivers are set, the latest BIOS is up to date, and your system details appear in your profile. If you prefer not to check there, you have a Ryzen 7 2700X with MSI B450M PRO VDH Max 16gb (2x 8gb) Corsair LPX DDR4 at 2400mhz, paired with an MSI Ventus RTX 2070 Super EVGA 550 G3 power supply.
It’s near the maximum capacity of the motherboard. You could be unlucky with poor airflow and elevated room temperatures, which might bring it close to failure. Would you like me to check the VRM temperatures?
The airflow should be adequate because the 240mm radiator at the front is drawing in air, and removing the side panel helps. I can check VRM temperatures via HWInfo to confirm. I’ll share an update soon.
In fact, using a fan-side panel off helps intake for fans. But for components without a fan directing cooler air right onto them—especially those lacking a side panel—the airflow won't reach the other side. The air pushed in by the front intake simply disappears into the gap left by the missing panel, causing pressure loss. To clarify, refer to the recent nr200 review: tested with a near-open (perforated) side panel versus glass, resulting in only slight temperature changes. Unless you're using a downdraft cooler, the VRM won't get sufficient airflow from that side.