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#11
No, I do my school work on this computer haven't had a problem. What confuses me is that why does it happen with WoW and not the other games that are more demanding in terms of GPU. Anyways, the lowest I can go on WoW is 1024x768 would that be ok? I only ask because it's incredibly hard to play the game at 720x576. Also, if my computer doesn't reboot from playing at those 2 resolutions then I can safely say it's not my GPU but my PSU?
1024x768 is fine to test and see if the problem still happens.
even though the other games run at high resolution and dont cause the same problem, those games could be utilizing the GPU differently than WoW does.
the idea here is to test and rule out the "possibles".
from my experience, intermittent resets, like someone pressed the reset button, no logs, no errors and no BSOD, is generally regarded as the PSU "resetting" because the PSU "saw" a current spike that went beyond its limit, triggered into "safety" by shutting off but then turning back on immediately because the current spike obviously ceased to exist.
i used to use PC PSU's to power different types of electronics besides a PC and quickly discovered this "safety" feature they have.
its designed to prevent an uncontrolled current flow event or a "dead short circuit", meaning without the "safety" feature, things would literally go up in blue smoke.
so its likely that a component in the PC is drawing excessive current spikes and/or the PSU is just failing.
even if any of the components themselves are relatively new, that still doesnt mean one or more single electronic components within the device itself could not fail.
Ok great, so let me understand everything because I stated from the start I'm dumb when it comes to this. If my PC resets at 768p then it's my PSU that is defected? if it doesn't reset it's my GPU that's defected or vice versa?
that would be really tough to say without actually having another PSU to replace the current one to test, which would be the easiest way to test.
there could also be other issues causing this, poor cooling due to dust build up (including inside the PSU).
have you monitored your CPU and GPU temps while playing WOW ?
do you have a IR thermometer you can measure the heat exhausting from the PSU ?
i would not declare anything "defect" at this point until the issue is narrowed down specifically.
ive only pointed out a few "possibles" that could be causing them though its really difficult to narrow down without additional testing.
if the issue only happens playing WoW, you could try playing WoW at 1024x768 and then see if the time it takes for the PC to "reset" is longer or the same.
i dont think the game itself is going to cause the PC to "reset" in the manner you described.
Ok I actually have a good idea of what my CPU and GPU temps are 2 days ago when I was consulting with blizzard after about an hour of playing WoW I saw my CPU was about 45-50C and my GPU was roughly a bit higher about 55-60.
Anyways now I think I understand the problem, I will go and buy a new PSU after I'm finished with my exams on the 22nd.
you should try using hwmonitor to monitor the GPU/CPU temps while playing WoW, because they will quickly cool down after playing it.
the PSU may or may not be the problem.
think of it this way, every home has a circuit breaker and that circuit breaker will "reset" if over loaded.
thats what is happening here, something is overloading causing the PSU to trip like a circuit breaker.
the difference between a home circuit breaker and this, the PSU will "reset" once it "sees" the overload is gone, a circuit breaker in a home has to be manually reset.
Yeah I got my temps from HWmonitor, also thank you for the analogy very helpful!