Computer reboots when using vid card

[Check]

I'm currently running:
Asus P5B deluxe wife
2GB Corsair xms2 pc 6400 800mhz
core 2 duo e6600
Enermax 460watt psu
windows xp x64
sound blaster x-fi (probably not relevant)
lite dvd-rw
3 seagate hard drives (2-400GB 1-320GB)

BFG Tech 7950gt 256

I received this card last night as an RMA for my 7900gt that was artifacting. Boots into windows no problem. Installed the drivers still no issues. rebooted and tried running 3dmark06 and the computer reboots, no lock up or anything just like I hit the reset button. Tried running Fable same thing. Computer doesn't even get to the splash screen. Next I tried running an MKV that I had that was encoded with x264 and same result. I can run prime95 on the computer for as long as I want but the second the video card is used for anything other than normal 2d acceleration it reboots. I reseated the card and even tried putting it in the second pci-e x16 slot (runs at only 4x) and the same result. Right now I have an x300 sitting in the machine and it runs perfect (as perfect as an x300 will run at least).

I tested the video card in another machine and it ran COD4 without any issues at all.

any thoughts?

 

[merk]

Do you have another power supply you can test with? That would be my first guess - maybe when you fire up those graphic intensive apps, the card starts sucking power and the PSU can't handle it.

Or maybe you could try pulling out everything but your boot HD - pull the other 2 HD's, the dvd drive and the sound card, to minimize power usage, and see if it still crashes. Although i dont know how much power those items pull. I'm guessing if the HD's and dvd arent spinning, they probably dont pull much power at all.

 

[Check]

I'm going to test the PSU tomorrow when I can get my hands on a spare one. 460 watts should be more than enough to take care of everything I have. I'm probably going to reinstall windows tomorrow as well to see if that does anything.

 

[merk]

460 sounds like it should be enough ... there's a web page out there somewhere that'll give you an approximate wattage after you plug in all the stuff you have installed. if you google for it you can probably find it. Might want to give that a try and see what it says.

Plus it's always possible the PSU just might be going bad.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

460 Should be enough, but its been my experience that with older power supplies they dont supply the same power they did when they were new. The OP has quite a power hungry system, multi cpu, multi gpu (albeit on one card) 3 hdd etc. Thats getting to be quite a draw.

My suggestion would be a newer psu. preferably stay with enermax or another high quality brand

 

[Check]

Reinstalling windows did the trick.
Passed the 3dmark06 test with flying colors.

edit:
BTW the 7950gt isn't a multi GPU card, only the 7950gtx GX2 is. My card is essentially a 7900gt with a high core clock and a lower (yeah lower) memory clock.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: check
Reinstalling windows did the trick.
Passed the 3dmark06 test with flying colors.

edit:
BTW the 7950gt isn't a multi GPU card, only the 7950gtx GX2 is. My card is essentially a 7900gt with a high core clock and a lower (yeah lower) memory clock.

In other words, you had a driver issue.

The next time that happens, instead of wasting hours reinstalling Windows, read my web page, debug your memory dumps, and post the results of '!analyze -v' and that will tell what the problem is --- in under 10 minutes of work.

 

[Check]

I think there was more to it than just a driver issue. I cleaned the drivers and it was still doing it.
Also there was no blue screen or error messages, I checked my event viewer and there was nothing in there either.

At any rate I don't consider reinstalling Windows a waste of time. I reinstall every year or two (typically at hardware upgrades but occasionally if windows isn't running as fast as I would like it to) just to clean everything up so it runs smooth. yes I know I can probably get the same results by running hijackthis and some other utilities but I would rather start clean.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: check
I think there was more to it than just a driver issue. I cleaned the drivers and it was still doing it.

What does "cleaned the drivers" mean? Using drivercleaner? The method for fixing a driver issue is to debug a dumpfile, not run drivercleaner. I'm not completely clear on why one would run DriverCleaner on a PnP OS like Windows is, assuming that the person running Windows uninstalls related programs having to do with the hardware in question (since that wouldn't be PnP'd), the driver itself will PnP and not 'run' or start once the hardware in question is gone.

Also there was no blue screen or error messages, I checked my event viewer and there was nothing in there either.

You may have had a disk driver issue that didn't permit the stop code/event log update that would normally happen.

At any rate I don't consider reinstalling Windows a waste of time. I reinstall every year or two (typically at hardware upgrades but occasionally if windows isn't running as fast as I would like it to) just to clean everything up so it runs smooth. yes I know I can probably get the same results by running hijackthis and some other utilities but I would rather start clean.

Ouch.

Anyway, if a Windows reinstall fixed the issue, it *must* have been a software issue (typically a driver issue, since only drivers can BSOD a box, with a rare Stop21 Symantec issue or an even rarer Microsoft coding bug being exceptions I can think of right now). If it were a hardware issue you'd still have the problem.

 

[Check]

If I'm having a driver issue, and I know which driver it is messing up, I'm going to try reinstalling the driver in question or try installing a different version of the driver so it works properly. Why would someone use DriverCleaner for Windows? Because it gets rid of all traces of the driver you are trying to reinstall.

If you want me to uninstall all related programs which use the driver (in this case a VIDEO driver) then I'd rather reinstall the OS since it will be just as fast.

Again I'm going to say this. There was no BSOD. I can't remember the last time I got a BSOD, but I would guess it was somewhere around the time I was using windows 98.

What the computer did, was a hard restart (just as if I hit the reset button on the case). Screen would go blank and the computer would POST and load into windows again.

It doesn't really matter at any rate since the computer now works fine.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: check
If I'm having a driver issue, and I know which driver it is messing up, I'm going to try reinstalling the driver in question or try installing a different version of the driver so it works properly. Why would someone use DriverCleaner for Windows? Because it gets rid of all traces of the driver you are trying to reinstall.

The typical way to do this is via Device Manager, not DriverCleaner. I don't know how DriverCleaner does things, but Device Manager is the normal, Microsoft-approved method of doing this, and it works very, very well.

If you want me to uninstall all related programs which use the driver (in this case a VIDEO driver) then I'd rather reinstall the OS since it will be just as fast.

I don't understand. You're saying reinstalling the entire OS (plus all your programs) is as fast as going into Control Panel and selecting 'uninstall' and then rebooting (once) when it finishes!?!?

Again I'm going to say this. There was no BSOD. I can't remember the last time I got a BSOD, but I would guess it was somewhere around the time I was using windows 98.

What the computer did, was a hard restart (just as if I hit the reset button on the case). Screen would go blank and the computer would POST and load into windows again.

It doesn't really matter at any rate since the computer now works fine.

Awesome!

 

[robisbell]

I agree with the OP, it was not a driver issue.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: robisbell
I agree with the OP, it was not a driver issue.

Why do you say that, and what do you think the problem was, if a Windows reinstalled fixed it, just out of curiosity?

A driver (of some sort) caused the issue, else a Windows reinstall wouldn't have done anything - the hardware (either it's a hardware problem or a software problem, folks...pick one....) hasn't changed.

 

[Check]

It was a software problem, but it wasn't a driver problem.
I installed multiple versions of the forceware drivers without any change.

I will say that I decided not to reinstall Windows XP 64bit but instead went back to 32bit. I chose to do this because there really isn't any benefit to me having a 64bit OS when I don't have 4GBs of RAM or many programs that are optimized for 64bit (I will say HL2: Lost Coast did look nice in 64bit). Not to mention that my sony ericsson isn't compatible with 64bit.

I doubt that the transfer from 64 -> 32 really made that much of a difference since my 7900gt worked fine with 64bit.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: check
It was a software problem, but it wasn't a driver problem.

FYI, software (save drivers) won't cause a reboot. Only drivers run in kernel mode; the worst a user-mode process can do is slow down the machine or cause a memory leak (with a few rare exceptions). Only drivers have direct access to hit hardware.

 

[robisbell]

I'd look into replacing the psu with a 500 or 550 watt one, as well.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: robisbell
I'd look into replacing the psu with a 500 or 550 watt one, as well.

Why? He reinstalled Windows and changed all of his drivers and the issue went away - his hardware is the same now as it was then, and there is no issue now. What could spending more $ on a power supply (which he doesn't need, incidently - look at his system) do for him?

Can you please supply reasoning for why you believe this?

 

[Check]

Originally posted by: dclive
Can you please supply reasoning for why you believe this?

I'd wager it's because of the advent of "SLI and CrossFire ready" PSUs which are 600 and 700 Watts. For some reason everyone seems to think that you need a 500W psu these days to run a decent machine. I realized that it was all pretty much garbage when I saw a Dual Opteron system with three hard drives and a 6800 ultra running on a 350W power supply.

At any rate, I don't plan on upgrading my power supply for at least a year or two unless this one starts to flake out on me. At that point I'm going to get a nice Seasonic with modular cables.