March 2020 - last edited March 2020
I can't disagree because, honestly, I'm an idiot when it comes to this. What I am going to do is just bite the bullet. The ultimate problem is money. I don't have a ton of money to pay someone to check it for me and then buy the part(s) needed to fix it. Since I do want to get a new GPU and that will require more power, I will just get a new PSU next week when I get paid and, hopefully, that solves the problem.
As far as bulging capacitors on the motherboard... from what I can see, everything looks pretty clean and brand new.
Anyway, I'm settling on a Seasonic Focus PX-750W 80 plus platinum. It's not too bad in price terms. And perhaps the GeForce 2060? Well, thanks for your help. I appreciate it.
March 2020
@ChrinnieSims That's a great power supply, but more than you technically need. Even a 2080 ti only requires a 650W PSU; a 2060 Super only needs 550W. Even giving yourself some breathing room with 650W (totally not necessary), either of these would do just fine:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RFZPN8G
In general, when you're looking for parts and want to compare prices quickly, pcpartpicker is great. This is the U.S. site, which is updated at least hourly:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/
There are sites for a number of other countries as well, although some of those seem to only be updated once every couple of days.
If you're planning to keep your 1080p monitor, a 1660 (regular, not ti or Super) would run the game at 60 fps with plenty of room to spare. A 2060 (regular, not Super) would likely maintain 144 fps in 1080p, and well over 100 fps in 1440p.
March 2020
In older times Windows would always show the BSOD screen but this was changed in favor of an automatic restart like you described. The link I posted has instructions on how to disable the automatic restart. After doing that you should see the well known blue screen.
March 2020 - last edited March 2020
@jpkarlsen As long as after that I can find a way to restart the system. I will try this and see if I can get any sort of an error message.
After following the direction in the link and disabling automatic restart.... I forced the error. No BSOD happened, it crash-rebooted again in spite of disabling that option.
Event Viewer shows Kernel-Power event ID 41 Task Category (63), but that only tells me is "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
For some reason, it didn't generate a BSOD as I said. And the crash is instantaneous, literally like you just pulled the plug from the wall. And while I keep wanting it to not be a hardware issue, the more it happens, the more I kind of think @holger1405 is right because it is just too much like a power failure than anything else.
March 2020 - last edited March 2020
@puzzlezaddict the problem is, I don't know when I'm ever going to get the urge to upgrade something else. But.... let's talk about your suggestion...
I don't know when, but at some point this monitor will be upgraded as well. I'm less concerned about being overkill and more about future-proofing anything I do. I mean, as far as the GPU goes, I want one that's ready for when I get a 4K monitor. I might as well upgrade to that, then get the monitor. That feels right to me, but I could be wrong.
But, for the PSU, 650W isn't too little for the 2060 Super? I was always told to go 100W more than I needed. Then I decided to up that a bit just to give me some more breathing room in case I upgrade other things.
Side note: I often buy from B&H for my camera needs. I have their store card. That's a good place to shop. I know some people there. I trust them almost with my life.
March 2020
Windows will show a BSOD if automatic restart is enabled or not as long as it can, the only thing that changes is the amount of time the BSOD is visible.
That is also mentioned in the lifewire article.
The problem is that it only can show a BSOD and write the crash dump to the hard drive if the system still has power, and in this case it doesn't.
For the PSU:
The PSU manufacturers love the fact that people by high watt PSUs they don't need.
I run a i7 6700 and a Asus Strix RTX2070 Super on a Corsair 520W HX PSU.
That is a system with 6 intern and 4 external SSD and conventional hard drives and a sound blaster sound card.
Nevertheless, I recommend following the recommendations of NVIDIA or AMD, but you certainly don't have to go higher then what they recommand if you buy a high quality PSU.
High watts don't equal high quality at all.
March 2020
@holger1405 @puzzlezaddict
I went with the slightly overkill Seasonic Focus 650W 80 plus gold. Yeah, a bit overkill, but not as overkill as I was planning on. Now I'm pretty much waiting until tax refund to get the new GPU. I'm not able to get the 2080 because that's really expensive, but I'm still leaning something more than the 1660. I'll research some more.
When the PSU arrives and I install it, I will test the system again and let you know if I still get the error. I swear on all that is living I hope it's only the power supply.
March 2020 - last edited March 2020
That is a good PSU.
The 1660 is a very fine card, I have one in my Notebook, (The mobile version that is a bit slower than the Desktop version.) it runs anything that is out there in the moment just fine on 1080P.
March 2020
I hear good things about the 1660. I just want more power. LOL I want to get this ready for bigger things. But, I appreciate everyone's help here! Great getting to see how awesome the EA Helpers and fellow members are regarding issues! Thank you all! :D
March 2020 - last edited March 2020
@holger1405 @puzzlezaddict
The new PSU arrived and I put it in. No small feat for this novice computer upgrader, but everything works without a hitch, so I did something right. I wish this had solved the problem, but I am glad I made the purchase. I thought I ordered the 650W, but I got the 750W. No biggie. Seasonic Focus PX-750 Platinum. It's a really quiet PSU compared to the old one.
Unfortunately, we still have the crash-reboot issue. So, it's either the GPU, the CPU, or the motherboard. Ah well. I'm going to hit up some friends and see if they have a GPU I can borrow to see if that may be the cause.