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Psu or gpu (possibly both) failing.
For the past 2 weeks I've noticed some lines/tearing appearing on my screen when windows loads. It normally last a few seconds and goes away. I would think it's just the video card, but I've also noticed my g15 keyboard acting up(screen goes blank, freezes, etc.). So now I'm thinking it's possibly the psu as well. My setup is
CPU: core 2 duo e8400
MB: p35-ds3l
Ram: 8 gigs
GPU: radeon hd 5770
PSU: Antec earthwatts 500w
HD: seagate 320 gig
Monitor: 27"
I built this back in 2008, so it has some mileage. The only thing I've ever had to switch out is the video card 3 years ago(stopped working). I can't afford a total upgrade right now, so I'm guessing I'll need to replace the psu and gpu. I mostly play world of warcraft, web browse, etc. What would be the cheapest/best value replacements? My budget would be a max of $150.
Comments
Does your G15 use an external power supply or is it powered by USB? If it is an external power supply, your power supply probably isn't the culprit. Try a different USB port either way.
You might have two separate problems. Screen lines could be your connection to the monitor or the monitor itself. If you are getting those lines in games, then I would worry about the GPU or PSU being bad.
I agree with Syntax here - your probably fine.
G15, if I recall, is USB powered. Even so, your power supply would have to be so bad for it to be affecting USB power that nothing else would even remotely work right. If, and only if, it becoems a huge problem, it's either the USB socket (which changing the spot it's plugged into to would tell you), or the entire motherboard proper - which may be solved with a cheap $25 USB add-on card.
Lines while windows load could just be from a driver update loading differently than your used to. Syntax is right here too - if it's fine while playing games under load, it's probably fine as well. If you start to see problems in games, or hear high pitched squeals coming from it, or the Desktop starts getting lines - then it may be a problem.
Apart from that, yeah, you could get a decent video card (R7 260 or 650Ti or some such) and 450-500W PSU for $150, although I don't think that you need to just yet.
Monitors can do weird things while booting up without being symptoms of serious problems. Until Windows has loaded, it doesn't have the proper video drivers loaded; that's one of the (many) things that Windows does as it loads. If the weird lines are gone by the time you've finished loading and never come back until you shut the computer down, I wouldn't worry about it.
While a power supply could fry a keyboard, it would take quite a bit of doing. Keyboards are very low power devices and the circuitry in them isn't terribly complicated (at least compared to other computer parts). It's very unlikely that a bad power supply will damage a keyboard without damaging anything else first.