A weak PSU does not damage anything per se. It just makes the CPU run unstable. So just fire up any game you want and see if it crashes or not. If yes, you can still buy a new PSU, if not you're fine.
Finally decided to go for it as the computer has been working perfectly for several days. I hooked up my wheel and pedals, fired up R3E and hit the track. About 10 min into my practice session, I had what I have called a mini freeze for a few seconds, and then everything is back to normal. I've had these before my major freeze issues, so it's not related to any software conflicts this time. With my very limited computer knowledge I had assumed that it was caused by a bottleneck in the RAM as it cleared up as fast as it came. Maybe over an hour or so of driving I would get two mini freezes max, but never more. Now I'm pretty certain that it's from a Voltage drop in my PSU. I don't have a meter, but will be getting one just to test, and if it's less then 12.0 volts under load, I'll take the drive to Micro Center and buy a Corsair 650 watt modular unit. Just not sure which one. Looking to stay under $150. Joel
To be honest I doubt that freezes come from the PSU. When the PSU fails to deliver you should encounter severe crashes, BSODs or even complete lockups without any further sign of life until you hard-reset the PC. But not little freezes. While it is certainly possible that some weird hardware failure is causing your issues, I think it's software related. It's just by far more probable. Are your CPU/GPU coolers clean and are your fans spinning, when the PC is running? Do the fans get faster with load? If the answer to all of this is yes, it's probably also not an overheating issue. I could imagine freezes when the CPU/GPU needs to throttle itself down due to heat. But other hardware issues after only one year of use seems odd. Well, this is as long as the PC wasn't the cheapest of cheapest... What I usually do when a PC shows random issues, is to re-install Windows altogether. The time it takes to do so normally doesn't come close to weeks of fiddling with uncertain results. I save most of my stuff on a NAS, apart from files that should reside on a certain computer - like i.e. the RaceRoom config. So a complete re-install takes me about a few hours and it's done. Maybe some Steam downloads take a little longer, but the next day my PC is fresh and everything going again. And one more benefit: if - after the re-install - the PC still acts up, I can be sure it's hardware related.
Thank you for your reply. It certainly does make a lot of sense. Since I deleted Bitdefender and am just using Malwarebytes Professional, I haven't had a single freeze nor BSOD. So I'm going to stick with my PSU for now. All my cooling fans are clean and running with no issues nor weird sounds. 3 case, 1 cpu, 1 gpu, and the PSU fans. The case is cleaned about once per month to try and stay on top of the dust. I've Googled this dozen of times and there's many vids on this issue where most have different answers. All I've done is to change the Power setting from Optimal to Performance, turn off V sync, and will test again. Previously, I did do a reinstall of windows without loosing any of my data or apps. Like I said, I've had this issue with the mini freezes for a while. I'm thinking that maybe win ver 1909 could be an issue. as long as I'm not damaging any of my hardware by keep on firing up R3E and testing, I'll keep on trying everything that makes sense. Thanks for your responses, as they're a great help to me. Joel
just a heads up that if I have my chrome browser window open in the background when gaming I sometimes get micro freezes in the game which I suspect is when the browser is automatically refreshing a website. I close the browser and the problem disappears
Matt, Thanks for the info. I use Edge and it's always closed. However, I do have Crew Chief and Dash exe. open and running. I've disabled everything that auto starts that I don't need to fire up windows. Also have watched Britec09 video on maximizing the Nvidia Control panel a few times and have followed his settings. I only have Malwarebytes Professional installed now as Bitdefender's last update was the cause of all the major freezes, and it's always running in the background. Going to disable Internet explorer as well, since I never use it. I've also toned down several of the video settings. I do use FRAPS to see my fps at times. I'm running the G sync option with a Display port cable, refresh rate of 144hz and V sync turned off. FPS are generally 100-120 or so with a visible field of just 18 cars max. Hopefully, I've stumbled onto a fix. Thanks so much for your continued help, as I can assure you it's greatly appreciated. Joel
One more thing: you should never use 2 different antivirus programs at the same time. If you're lucky they go side by side, but in a lot of cases they interfere with each other while trying to do the same job. Sometimes it even happens that the virus detection patterns of one program are detected as viruses by the other one. This is also the reason why the built in antivirus of Win 10 deactivates itself automatically as soon as you install another antivirus program. Just don't do it...
Arthur, I thought that I could run both, but found out the hard way that there were conflicts. I'm just running Malwarebytes Professional and deleted Bitdefender. I do use the Windows Defender Firewall since Malwarebytes Professional doesn't come with one. I just tweaked all my Nvidia Control settings and then practiced at Indy for nearly 2 hours. Just one mini freeze which I use to get all the time. I'm leaning towards my graphics gpu getting out of sync with my Monitor (144hz) for second. Snapped right back and nothing else for the session. Gotta say that it felt great to finally get back to racing. Truth be told, I race off line these days against the AI at 98-100% and I'm competitive, Unfortunately, I'm just to slow to race online these days. The programmers have really done a great job with the AI and it's amazing at how they all race differently, and now actually seem to know where you are. Again, thanks to you and Matt for all the help you've given me. Joel
Kevin, Yes it did, and thanks for asking. The issue was caused by the latest updates from Bitdefender security suite and Malwarebytes Professional which always worked well together. Since my yearly subscription was up shortly, I deleted it, and the problem was gone. Everything was back to working perfectly. The only issue I had was that i was only using Malwarebytes Pro, which isn't a full security suite. After reading about this and compatibility issues on their site, I decided to go with Windows 10 Defender for the basic Virus, Trojan, etc, and let Malwarebytes Pro take care of the rest. Both are updated to stay current, and I haven't had a single crash, freeze, or any issues to date. Joel