Folding Forum

Hi,

After some time F@H crashes both of my screens and they will not turn on again.
I am not sure what kind of problem this is but I might think this is a driver issue or PSU issue.
What happens is that the mouse cursor hangs for some seconds and the screens turn off.
Project 17 works much much better but when those project 21 workunits come in it can be everything from a couple of seconds to half an hour and the computer crashes and I have to use the reboot button.
I think I remember it working better on some earlier drivers but I am also thinking it might be the powersupply or some other hardware?

When looking at the wattmeter it shows around 350 plus or minus watts with both my screens on which take about 37Watts each so I am kind of halfway to the rated power of the PSU. (yes I am running this all on a powerstrip)
It still show some watts used in the 230 plus minus range when the computer hangs and give me black screens so I think it might be some folding still going on, idle is just shy of sub 100 but I have used all 6 Sata ports for harddisks so it might be that cause such high idle consumption.
The PSU was cheap so it might not be up to snuff for workloads like these but I had a GTX 480 before this card that was much more power hungry and never had a crash.

I would be really thankful if you had some tips on how I could make this card work. Have been folding on and off for allmost 10 years now and I am participating in all the projects.

More info about my PC

Driver: Crimson 16.4.1
Windows 10
i5 4670k
ASUS Z87M-PLUS Motherboard
Asus Strix R9 380 4GB
12 GB ram
PSU- Silver Power SP-SS500 500W PSU

This review site says the R9 380 can use around 196 watts at full load.+
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/as ... iew,5.html

Another site says this:
Specifications
The Silver Power SP-SS500 gives the following specifications:
•500W Max power, 2x 12V lines, each of up to 17A


At 12 volts, that 17A rating limits each 12v rail to 204 watts. That is not enough of a margin in a power supply to run that GPU safely in my opinion.

It's almost certainly the PSU. That PSU can't output 500w, that figure is just the theoretical max of all the outputs combined. The max combined 12v output from both rails is just over 400w. That assuming that the PSU can maintain 12v at higher load levels.

If your running 6 HD's, that will be using the 12v rail via the motherboard.

It seems probable that the 12v load is too much for the PSU, when the GPU is at 100% and multiple HD's are spinning up.

Thank you wilding2004 and 7im for your replies.
One thing I wondered when I first installed this card was that it only took one 6 pin cable from the PSU.
All the other cards that I have had did need atleast two cables, the 480 GTX I had if remember correctly took atleast that cable and/or one of the bigger ones

Somehow I managed to build this PC (My second build). But I am working in a very different field than technology or electrical enginereeing so I really do not know what to do, except humbly asking you for recommendation of a new PSU.

I know I have asked for alot answers here, but if you see this and have spare time to recommend me a solid PSU I would be really thankful.

As to my knowledge we have these brands easily available for me in Norway.

Corsair
Chieftec
Coolermaster
Seasonic
Fractal Design
EVGA

https://www.komplett.no/category/10057/stroemforsyning

Really, all those brands have good, better and best models to choose from.
The pin output of your card dictates the cable requirements.
Your best bet is to consult a review site for some information on specific models and their cost benefit comparisons.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/

Just my educated opinion: from your referenced source:

Cooler Master V550 550W PSU is a great cost verses efficiency vs quality balance pick for you.

But there are many other options depending on what you want to spend for higher efficiency, more flexibility for future requirements etc. etc. etc.

Look for a PSU with a single 12V rail. If there are multiple rails, a GPU can overload one of them.

Thank for informing me on what to look for and a product-tip even.
I think I will get that Cooler Master 500W or 650W even to have some headroom, I am planning to purchase it next month with some new/fresh case fans and I will report back to hopefully tell you the upgrade worked.
I will fold on the CPU in the meantime.
Thanks again!

Hey,

I have now upgraded my PSU to EVGA G2 550W since my shop was out of CoolerMaster V550 and it still freezes and crashes on Core 21 projects.
Ill try experimenting with just having one screen plugged in at the time with folding, and if that do not work I will just keep contributing with the CPU.

Thanks for tips guys!

Are you doing anything else on the computer when it crashes? AMD GPU folding can be quite annoyingly "temperamental" when running other applications that use the GPU for anything else. Games, video players and even browsers have all caused bluescreens/crashes from time to time on my machines.

Games will not run fine in parallel with folding but video players or internet browsers can be configured to not use HW GPU acceleration then they are fine.
If you are not doing something else while folding then maybe your GPU gets too hot and needs cleaning from dust, is the fan getting loud?