5 Solutions to PC Crashes

PCs are an indispensible part of our eco-system where we use it everyday for business, paying bills, shopping, booking tickets…..the list is endless. All is well when the computer is functioning as expected, but then there are times when its not and you are clueless as to what may be wrong and how to rectify it. Most of the time its pretty much the same set of problems and are not very difficult to figure out. So, in this review we explain the most common PC problems and how to take care of it.

1: Underrated Power Supply
You are in the middle of an intense gaming session and the computer suddenly restarts. Now, how pissing off is that! You blame it on a bad copy of the game but then it happens with another game too. You then point a finger at your graphics card. So you swap it for a new replacement and it crashes once again! After blaming every single component in the computer you finally narrow it down to the power supply—one of the most important yet most neglected part of a computer system.

Lets explain the above problem. While running general applications like the internet or Winamp or Microsoft Word there is hardly any load on the processor and the graphics card. But when gaming, the processor and the graphic card are working much harder and pull more power, which the power supply is unable to provide, causing the system to restart. In fact an underrated power supply can also lead to the failure of other components, with the graphic card being the victim most of the times.

If you are running normal computing applications like Microsoft Word or watching a movie, then generic power supplies would suit just fine. But these generic power supplies bundled with budget cases (they cost around Rs. 1200-1400) are not capable of running power hungry graphic cards. If you have a mid-level graphic card like the Nvidia 6600GT or the 7600GT, you can start off with a 400 Watts Powersafe PSU costing around Rs. 1500. If you have a more powerful system you can opt for PSUs with higher Wattage from Antec and CoolerMaster.

You may be confused as to what wattage would be right for your system considering the fact that 500 to 600 Watts power supplies from Antec and CoolerMaster cost nothing less than Rs. 5000. Head over here for the power supply calculator. The Calculator covers all computer equipments including provisions for water cooling set-ups and overclocking.

You also have to remember that power supplies are not 100% efficient. i.e. a 400 watt rated PSU is not capable of giving out 400 watts of continuous power, rather it would be capable to give out 280 Watts, that’s 70% efficiency. With good brands efficiency can go up to as high as 90% but with generic supplies don’t count it more than 60%. Not to worry, the power supply calculator has the provision to choose the power supply efficiency.