High current spike, tracking the source?

[arus2001]

Over the past few months I've been plagued by a crash issue that I couldn't quite seem to find the solution for. Typically it manifests when playing more resource intensive games, while some show no issue at all. In this long span of trying to find help elsewhere and troubleshooting various odds and ends, the current culprits I have narrowed down to my power supply or motherboard. Problem is, I don't know where to take things from here.

To specify my issue, I'll be playing a game like Rift or Tera and my screen will flicker and then ultimately the program will crash. Sometimes the crash is completely fatal and I'll need to restart, but even then, I'll have to restart anyway because any game I'd try to play after would come up garbled. There was a point where I had been entertaining my video card was the issue, but it was when running a program called CPUID Hardware Monitor that I finally got a better idea that something might be up with the power flow in my tower.

The following is a capture of me just letting my PC idle:

Next is me taking a reading after running Rift for 20m or so:

Finally, this is a capture I managed to take when the glitch kicked in:


Primary culprit seems to be in the Current tab with the amps seemingly more than double other use times. Trouble is, even when running the program after a reboot or resetting the min/max values, I seem to be getting periodic spikes. My guess is just running the resource intensive games up the frequency of these spikes leading to my inevitable crash.

So, just wondering how I might further diagnose and if there might be something I can do to prevent the spikes. Otherwise, I'll basically be in the position where I'd be better off buying a new PC once this one finally keels over.

[Sup3rB4d]

I had a funky power problem recently that was caused by a faulty razer keyboard. Computer would boot semi properly (min/maxing windows aero animation would produce lag), but any kind of game would as you said "come up garbled" and ultimately crash. It was also giving me incorrect CPU clock (never checked current). Anyways, I'd personally try disconnecting everything I could and keep working my way down. I went through a huge ordeal of trying alternative video cards and PSUs and it turned out to be something as stupid as a faulty usb device.