Old Computer Quandry

[Sssith]

I was happily playing Witcher 3 when my computer blue screened.  Now when I power it on the fan spin but nothing else.  Not sure what to do next.  If I hand to guess it would be motherboard problem (short, burnout), power supply failure, video card.  I would guess one of the first two.

I am going to try to figure out how old the computer is but I would guess close to five, certainly more than three.

Any suggestions welcome.

[Pixie]

Sudden death, ouch. 3-5 years isn't super old.

PSU seems likely for a sudden death, but the blue screen bit is weird. I'd expect PSU failure to be an instant shutdown. CPU death could do this, I suppose.

Can you give your mobo a good look-over for any swelling/blown capacitors?

Do you have any spare parts that can be swapped in for testing as needed?

[Sssith]

I do have some parts that I can try.  I'm planning on opening it up later today.

I looked up the last time I did a build and it was 2014, so six years old.  It has an Fury R9 which also matches the time frame for 2014.

The screen glitched, in the corner of the screen I saw a blue screen and then it just shut down.  Your point about a PSU just shutting off makes sense which seems to point to Motherboard or CPU.  Neither of which is good.

[Pixie]

I do have some parts that I can try.  I'm planning on opening it up later today.

I looked up the last time I did a build and it was 2014, so six years old.  It has an Fury R9 which also matches the time frame for 2014.

The screen glitched, in the corner of the screen I saw a blue screen and then it just shut down.  Your point about a PSU just shutting off makes sense which seems to point to Motherboard or CPU.  Neither of which is good.

Okay, I'm gonna vote for dead GPU. The screen glitchy thing suggests it, and when my kid's GPU died last year, it wouldn't do any more than spin the fans when we tried to start it, which sounds like what yours is doing. Not sure what about a dead GPU causes that, but in this case it did.

So, in order of likelihood, I say GPU -> CPU -> Mobo -> PSU.

[Sssith]

I have an old nvidia card.  Currently running Radeon (obviously I would guess given the Fury R9 comment above).  I assume putting in the old GPU will at least allow me to boot if it works.  Even if it starts in VGA, because of no drivers, that should be able prove it is or isn't the cause.

edit: Actually, if I take out the GPU it should switch to integrated.  I think I will try that first.

[Pixie]

I have an old nvidia card.  Currently running Radeon (obviously I would guess given the Fury R9 comment above).  I assume putting in the old GPU will at least allow me to boot if it works.  Even if it starts in VGA, because of no drivers, that should be able prove it is or isn't the cause.

edit: Actually, if I take out the GPU it should switch to integrated.  I think I will try that first.

Yeah, putting it the nvidia it'll boot into windows fine. At which point, windows will happily try to install drivers for it.

[Sssith]

FUCK YEAH. 

It is my video card that failed!

Still sucks.  But I took it out and plugged my cable into the motherboard and it booted up like a champ.

So...what video card should I buy?

I have a EVGA 850 Power Supply. Five to six years old but maybe it will do?

edit: Getting the damn GPU out was a royal pain in the ass.  I had to take out the CPU fan.  Stupid latch on the PCI slot wouldn't release.

[Sssith]

Damn.  Maybe I spoke too soon.  Computer shut off after five minutes.

I am going to let it chill and get the CPU fan back on.  Five minutes of doing nothing shouldn't have over heated it.

[Pixie]

Five minutes with no CPU fan? Yeah, that'll overheat it. Most CPUs won't even last 30 seconds before they hit thermal shutdown.

[Pixie]

As for what GPU to get, well... sadly this is the worst possible time to be buying a GPU. The new ones are horrendously out of stock globally, with wait lists miles long when you can even get on a list. The previous gen is damn hard to find because no new ones are being made and the rest have been scooped up.

What kind of $budget are you looking at, would be the first thing to know I guess.

[Sssith]

Not more than $500.

NVidia 2070 would be nice, I think.  If you think it would work with the PSU I have.  Ideally something that I can move to a new computer just in case something else is going wrong.

Right now it seems to be working with the MoBo graphics.  No witcher for me.

When will the new ones come available?

edit: $530 for 2070

The GTX 2060 is around $380.

[Pixie]

Not more than $500.

NVidia 2070 would be nice, I think.  If you think it would work with the PSU I have.  Ideally something that I can move to a new computer just in case something else is going wrong.

Right now it seems to be working with the MoBo graphics.  No witcher for me.

When will the new ones come available?

edit: $530 for 2070

The GTX 2060 is around $380.

Your PSU is fine for any GPU short of a 3090.

3070s are releasing on the 29th, but if availability is anything like the 3080 (that I'm still trying to get a month later) then, well, it's basically a paper launch and you could be waiting a bit. That said, Nvidia did push back the release date a few weeks to build up stock, so maybe there will be some to be had?

It's really, really hard to recommend any 2xxx card when the 3xxx ones are just *so much better* at the same price points - like, quite literally double the performance. It's one of the (if not THE) biggest generational performance leaps ever. If you can wait, I'd really say wait. Next best thing, see if you can get an EVGA card and use their step-up program to slide into a 3xxx equivalent when they're available. I think you have 90 days from purchase to step-up. But only certain cards are eligible, so check their list. Like, I'm not sure a plain 2060 is, but a 2060 super might be.

AMD's new cards are coming in a couple weeks, too, but no idea if they'll be any more available than the Nvidia ones. Also, there's not really anything to suggest they're competing on the same playing field as Nvidia right now.

[Sssith]

I will follow your sage advice and try for the 3070.  Any advice on how to get lucky enough to order one?

[Pixie]

I will follow your sage advice and try for the 3070.  Any advice on how to get lucky enough to order one?

I wish I did. I'm still batting 0.000 trying to nab a 3080.

Best chance is probably just watch for release times and have stores ready to go? Be signed in, payment info already registered, etc. (I've found that the easiest way to do this is to add an item to a cart, go 90% of the way through checkout so your payment info is in, then remove the item from the cart and back out).

Also, on EVGA's site, sign up for "Notify Me" on whatever card(s) you want (not sure if this option is up for 3070s  yet) and they'll put you in a purchase queue in order of signing up. Once your slot comes up, they email you, and you have 8 hours to buy the card or it goes back into the queue.

[Sssith]

Thanks. 

I have the page queued up in Amazon, best buy.  I have auto notify for four cards at New Egg.  EVGA is not listing the 3070 yet.  The step up program likewise does not list a 3070.  I suspect my best option will be to buy from EVGA and use the step up program to get into a queue for the 3070.

Any clue what time I should start tracking the sites on the 29th?  Is it mid night GMT?  7am EST?  Or some random ass time that helps the bots get in first?