Diagnosing a PC Crash: My Journey from Gaming Bliss to Technical Turmoil

It all started when I was fully immersed in a raid on World of Warcraft Classic, performing an intense boss fight with a raid group of forty. Just as the excitement peaked, my gaming rig unexpectedly went dark. There were no indications of power – no fans whirring, no lights blinking; it seemed my computer had completely shut down. Faced with this unexpected nightmare, I set out to diagnose the issue, suspecting a potential malfunction in either the power supply unit (PSU) or the graphics processing unit (GPU).

My Setup

To give you context, here are the specifications of my current system:
– CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X (recent upgrade, used)
– GPU: RTX 2070 (Inno3D TwinX2, approximately 1.5 years old)
– Motherboard: MSI B450 Pro Max (2 years old)
– RAM: 32GB DDR4
– Old PSU: 600W
– New PSU: 750W

Despite the dramatic crash happening while I was playing a relatively low-demand game, the intensity of the raid and the many simultaneous animations likely caused stress on my graphics card.

Initial Troubleshooting

Upon the sudden blackout, my first step was to check the wall socket, which was still operational, as other devices remained powered. I quickly tested another cable on the PSU, but it yielded no results. With the PSU being over six years old, I initially assumed it was the culprit. To confirm, I purchased a new 750W PSU.

After connecting only the CPU and motherboard to the new PSU, I was relieved when the fans began to spin up. Confident that I was on the right track, I connected the rest of the components. However, when I attempted to power on the computer, it was again met with complete silence – no signs of life whatsoever.

I disconnected the GPU, and to my surprise, re-plugging the PSU into the wall ignited the fans once more. This led me to believe something was definitely amiss with the GPU.

Discoveries with a Backup GPU

To investigate further, I installed an old GT 9800 GPU that I had lying around, which, contrary to its decrepit status, managed to get my PC up and running. With this temporary solution in place, it became evident that my