# Power supply and cooling issues



## Raimu (Jan 21, 2013)

I'm having some issues with computer crashes that I believe are related to overheating. I've been using speedfan since my friend suggested it to me to monitor what's been going on.

A little bit of background on my current situation, a few years back I bought a per-built computer and was using all the on-board stuff, until the original PSU died on me earlier this year. I went out and bought a new one.. pretty cheap, an Orion P4-485. There was no noticeable difference from the previous power supply, but a few weeks later I decided I needed a new graphics card and bought a Sapphire HD 7750 1gb card. That's when the problems started.

I run 2 monitors, and when I had multiple applications going, like a youtube video and a game, my graphics card would crash. I figured this was due to power restrictions, and I never had a problem other than trying to run videos and games at the same time. Today there was a power flicker and my power supply just kinda died, so I bought a Cooler Master Extreme 2 725... now it seems as soon as I turn on a game alone everything on my computer runs red hot. It hasn't crashed like it did before yet, but it did kind of flicker and my system slowed down while in game, which is what prompted me to look into this...

Anyway I did some research and there weren't to many glowing reviews on this PSU... but I'm not sure its my only problem, any advice on what to do from here?


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## parisdewitt (Jul 22, 2013)

What do you mean by all the applications running red hot? What happens when you open the game? Play the game for a while and then check what the temperature is.


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## Raimu (Jan 21, 2013)

well I've been playing league of legends for a bit, which isn't overly taxing on the system, and nothing has been wrong so far. Earlier I was playing borderlands 2 and I blackscreend for a second and started dropping a ton of frames. not sure if the PSU was the culprit now or not. Speedfan is giving off some pretty high readings even when I'm playing league, not sure if I should worry about it or not.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Please post your specs including make and model of power supply.

Please do not use speedfan for temperatures it has not been accurate for years and should only be used for fan control.

The BIOS is most accurate, as for monitoring software use CPUID hardware monitor or hardware info.


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## Raimu (Jan 21, 2013)

Manufacturer: Gateway Model: DX4300
AMD Phenom II x4 820 Processor 2.80 GHZ
6 GB RAM
Windows 7 64-bit

PSU- Cooler Master EXtreme 2 725
Extreme 2 725W - Cooler Master


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

Your power supply is not a very good make.

Please download hardware monitor and post a screenshot.

When was the last time you blew out any dust with compressed air?


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

A prime suspect would be the very poor quality Orion (made by HEC) PSU trying to power the 7750.


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## Raimu (Jan 21, 2013)

greenbrucelee said:


> Your power supply is not a very good make.
> 
> Please download hardware monitor and post a screenshot.
> 
> When was the last time you blew out any dust with compressed air?


I do actually clean my computer with compressed air every month or 2, I cleaned it out last night as well while installing the new PSU.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/Raimu/Hardware-screenshot_zps200bf2d6.jpg 

There's the screenshot.


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## Raimu (Jan 21, 2013)

Tyree said:


> A prime suspect would be the very poor quality Orion (made by HEC) PSU trying to power the 7750.


Yea, I just replaced the Orion unit. After 6 months of trying to power the graphics card it seems to have called it quits.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

The Coolermaster PSU is better quality than the Orion but nor one we would recommend.
It's very possible the old Orion PSU did some damage to the GPU.
Is the HWMonitor pic at idle or under load? The Temps listed are very acceptable and certainly not "red hot". Check the Voltages shown in HW Monitor and the Bios?


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## Raimu (Jan 21, 2013)

Tyree said:


> The Coolermaster PSU is better quality than the Orion but nor one we would recommend.
> It's very possible the old Orion PSU did some damage to the GPU.
> Is the HWMonitor pic at idle or under load? The Temps listed are very acceptable and certainly not "red hot". Check the Voltages shown in HW Monitor and the Bios?


Yea I should have mentioned those temperatures were idle. I could try taking another reading while under load.

Is there a thread about checking that stuff in the Bios somewhere? I'm not entirely sure how :uhoh:


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## Raimu (Jan 21, 2013)

Okay just an update... 

So I turned on some games with my normal graphics settings and played them as normal and watched the temperatures, all 3 remained around 50-55 which doesn't seem that bad.

I tried turning on a youtube video at the same time just to test it and after about 5 minutes my system locked up and the video crashed, but the game was still fine and the audio from the video still played, the video just cut out. All heat readings stayed roughly the same tho.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

50-55 under load is acceptable.



Tyree said:


> It's very possible the old Orion PSU did some damage to the GPU.


You can try your GPU in another PC to see if it's an issue or try another GPU in your PC.


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## Raimu (Jan 21, 2013)

Thanks for the clarification, I do have another GPU that I could try


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## parisdewitt (Jul 22, 2013)

Have you tried out the other GPU? And if so,can you explain/tell what happened?


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