Diagnosing My Gaming PC Failure: A Journey through Troubleshooting

Recently, I encountered a serious issue that left my gaming rig unresponsive. While engrossed in World of Warcraft Classic during an intense 40-man raid, my system suddenly blacked out, leaving me puzzled. Initially, I suspected the power supply unit (PSU) to be the culprit, but now I’m starting to think it might be the graphics processing unit (GPU). I could use some advice with diagnosis.

My Current Setup

For context, here are my specifications:
– CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X (recently upgraded, previously owned)
– GPU: RTX 2070 (Inno3D TwinX2, about 1.5 years old)
– Motherboard: MSI B450 Pro Max (2 years old)
– RAM: 32GB DDR4

I previously had a 600W PSU, but to ensure proper power delivery, I recently upgraded to a 750W model.

The Incident

The game I was playing isn’t particularly hardware-intensive, yet during an action-packed boss fight with numerous animations, the screen suddenly went black. After checking the wall socket and confirming it powered other devices, I tried a different power cable for the PSU, initially leading me to believe the old PSU had failed, given its 6+ years of service.

After installing the new PSU, I connected the CPU and motherboard first to verify functionality. To my relief, the fans started spinning. I then connected everything else, but when I hit the power button, nothing happened—no sounds or lights to indicate life. I disconnected the GPU, retried the setup, and after unplugging and re-plugging the PSU from the wall, the fans powered up again.

As a troubleshooting step, I tested an old GPU I had lying around, the GT 9800—a far cry from my RTX 2070. Amazingly, my PC booted successfully with it installed. This series of events has led me to strongly suspect that my RTX 2070 may be the source of the problem. It’s perplexing that it could go from functioning perfectly to completely faulty, blocking power to the entire system when connected. While a motherboard malfunction is also on my mind, it’s considerably tougher to confirm.