Diagnostics for power supply?

[sdsumike619]

Are there any good diagnostic tools to determine if my power supply is underpowered for the components of my system? It was suggested to me that the reason a particular program keeps freezing is that the power supply doesn't have enough power. So my question is if there is some software tool that can tell me how much power my system needs, ideally, realtime while I'm using the program that freezes...?

[aedipuss]

you can buy hardware that will measure the current used by the computer.
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/measure.html

[pandy]

http://www.ocbase.com/

[jagabo]

Run a PSU calculator to see how much PSU you need.
http://psucalc.tk/

Beware that many cheap PSUs can't output half their rating.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/low-cost-psu-pc-power-supply,2862.html

[Bjs]

Better psu calc

If the psu was under powered which cause the program to freeze you'd end up with a lot more problems.

Freezing in this manner always points to either too many memory cycles and the system is busy so everything ends up in a que or memory speed not set correct in bios. I'd say its the memory cycle issue, in this case all you can do is shut down no essential back ground apps and see if it improves.

[nic2k4]

It would be interesting to know what is that "particular program" that keeps freezing. What is so special that only that program is affected?

You can see if the PSU really is the problem with a hardware monitor program and check the voltages. Your PC might already have one or you can use Speedfan or HWInfo; both programs let you graph monitored values. You can start the offending program or run a stress test to check for changes in voltage. OCCT is a good stress tester and it can test the CPU and GPU separately.

If the PSU is really too small, you would see that the voltage would drop with an extra load. As long as the voltages stay within the tolerance, the PSU is alright. Also, if the stress test runs without freezing the PC, then most likely the problem is with the program. Something else could be causing your problem; playing video files would freeze my PC, it ended up being due to the video card driver. I replaced the video card with a more up to date and powerful card and I can play videos.

[Nelson37]

It would be helpful to know the name of the particular program, and the wattage rating of your current PSU.

However, it is EXTREMELY UNLIKELY that a particular program is using additional power to the point that your PC is freezing.

The problem is ALMOST CERTAINLY something else. Heat, bad memory, bad software, HD issues would all be higher on my list.

Simple tests, play a video game or encode a movie with some other software, see if it freezes. Boot to the BIOS and just wait. Boot to windows and just wait. Get some useful diagnostic information.

Or you could continue listening to idiots and buy software and/or parts for no good reason.

The diagnostic procedure for a suspected bad power supply is to replace it with a known good one and repeat the same conditions which caused the error, at least twice. There is no other acceptable procedure, unless you have some software which will tell you exactly what the PSU is doing, at the moment the PC freezes, and have that information available AFTER the freeze. Oh yes, it needs to cost less than $50, which is what you can replace the PSU for.

The required first step would be observing conditions which would lead you to believe that the PSU is the problem, which you are nowhere near to at this point.

[sdsumike619]

Sorry, the software in question is Sony Vegas Pro v10

I used the regular Windows performance monitor while I used the software and memory usage never went over 2.5GB (I have 8GB), and CPU usage was also minimal so nothing was "maxed out" The program just hangs sometimes, more often than not

[Nelson37]

Amazing.

Do any other programs hang? Can the PC sit for hours or days, doing nothing, and not freeze?

Did you notice the two other, similarly intensive, usage tests I suggested, such as playing a recent, high-end video game or using a different Video encoder?

The following questions require actual numbers for answers, a guess is acceptable. "sometimes" is a completely useless answer.

Roughly how many hours is the PC on for in a typical day? How many of those hours are spent running Vegas? How many times in a typical day will it freeze? What is the longest, and the shortest, observed time period that it ran successfully? How many hours are spent running other programs, in a typical day? How long has this problem been going on? How long did the PC successfully run the SAME software, BEFORE the problem began to occur.?

Also, when it freezes, what do you do to resolve this problem? End task, start button-shut down, hold the power switch? Do you still have mouse and keyboard control, can you run another program? This will answer if just Vegas has frozen, or the whole PC is locked up.

If it's just Vegas, then the PSU is off the table. The very first thing to do is to establish if the problem is linked to a particular program, OR a particular heavy usage, OR if it is just random.

I'll make a wild guess that whoever "suggested" a PSU problem had something to do with the software purchase. If you specifically told them that the lockups are ONLY in Vegas, and they suggested PSU without checking similar other software usage, then they are a clueless idiot.

oh, I forgot - THE WATTAGE RATING ON YOUR CURRENT psu WOULD BE A NECESSARY PIECE OF INFORMATION, THAT WOULD BE TO ANSWER YOUR ORIGINAL FREAKING QUESTION ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT YOU NEED A NEW psu. It will be printed on the side in big print, you may need to take of the side of the PC case.

[sdsumike619]

I haven't had any other programs hang. PC can sit forever and it doesn't freeze, it's just Vegas.
Sometimes I can go 5 minutes and it'll lock up, sometimes much longer, it's completely random.
When it freezes, it doesn't lock up the whole system, I can do ctrl alt del and kill it from the task manager, no issue with that. The freeze is isolated to that program.
And I'm not the only one complaining about freezes. In the Vegas forum, others are complaining even about the latest version that just came out. So yes, I think you're right it's not the power supply too.

[jagabo]

That's obviously a software problem.