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Could this be signs of a Bad PSU?

L

LW07

Golden Member
I'm having some real bad stuttering issues in my games. It even locked up on me a few minutes back, and I'm wondering if this could be because my power supply might be underperforming. It's voltages are 11.43V on the 12V rail and -7 on the -12V rail. It didn't do this with my old setup:

Athlon 64 3500+
Geforce 7800GT
2 gigs of Ram at PC2700
1 80GB hard drive
17 inch CRT Monitor
CD-Drive

My new setup:
Same Processor, Ram, and monitor.
I still have that 80GB drive, but now I also have a 160GB drive.
Radeon X1900XT
DVD-Rom Drive

And before you ask, I uninstalled the nvidia drivers and used driver cleaner 5 times to make sure that the nvidias were off, but still, I'm getting this stuttering and now it's locked up, so I'm starting to think that my PSU could be at fault. Can any of you confirm this? This didn't happen with the 7800GT rig.
 
Check windows event viewer...sounds more like a harrdisk error/bad sectors to me....which CAN be caused by the PSU, but who knows.
 
Originally posted by: MrUniq
Check windows event viewer...sounds more like a harrdisk error/bad sectors to me....which CAN be caused by the PSU, but who knows.
Click to expand...


I did that and it said this where the error was:
"The HDD Temperature Enterprise Server service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified. "

Now, the game (IL-2 Sturmovik, a flight simulator), froze up just as a plane blew up when it hit the ground. It also likes to stutter alot. Especially when I close in on an enemy plane or sometimes, just because it can. It didn't do this on my old rig, so I don't know about the Hard Drive problem, since the game is still on the old hard drive.
 
the X1900XT is a power hog, so it may be your psu. Did you test those voltages with a multimeter? If so, then definitely buy a better psu that has enough power for that card.
 
11.43 volts on that 12V rail is quite low for that psu. My cousin and i both had that PSU and my ratings was like 11.95, while his is 11.87. Your x1900xtx tend to use more power than current Nvidia cards, so this rail could be the problem that wasnt there before with your nvidia card. I think I mentioned it before to you (or maybe someone else) that getting this particular psu with a good voltage reading on that rail could be a hit or miss because it seems to vary a lot...you might have gotten a bad quality one. Im not using this psu anymore since i got a better one, but my cousin is still using his to run his x1900xtx and its fine.

But before and if you decide to do something about your psu, did you defragment your HDD...this can do a lot for stuttering and should become a habit every 2-3 weeks or so.
 
i have that psu running my rig-

x2 3800 @ 2700
7800gtx @ 510/1330
2 gigs
2 opticals
1 74gb raptor, 1 250gb sata
dfi sli-dr

it should be able to handle yours without a problem.

how are you getting those voltage readings? with a dmm i hope. software readings mean next to nothing.

some people have said they needed to do a whole re-install going from nvidia to ati but i can't bellieve thats necessary. have you tried a different ati driver revision? tried just the driver without the ccc?
 
Originally posted by: rise4310
i have that psu running my rig-

x2 3800 @ 2700
7800gtx @ 510/1330
2 gigs
2 opticals
1 74gb raptor, 1 250gb sata
dfi sli-dr

it should be able to handle yours without a problem.

how are you getting those voltage readings? with a dmm i hope. software readings mean next to nothing.

some people have said they needed to do a whole re-install going from nvidia to ati but i can't bellieve thats necessary. have you tried a different ati driver revision? tried just the driver without the ccc?
Click to expand...


I get them from Everest Home Edition's sensor option that tells you your CPU's temperature and stuff. It also tells you the PSU voltages. I've tried both catalyst 6.2 and 6.3, and I haven't tried it without CCC yet.
 
I've now tried it without the CCC and with ATI Tray tools, and I have tried defragmenting the hard drive, and the games still stutter. The stutters especially occur in IL-2, Pacific Fighters, and Half Life 2: Lost Coast. I run it at 1600*1200 with 4xAA and 8xAF(plus HDR for Lost coast). I've tried the 6.4s with no luck. What should I do to make the stutters go away?
 
2 gigs of Ram at PC2700...

correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't he be running 3200 or better speed RAM?

Run Memtest even if this is correct RAM.
 
Originally posted by: Luckyboy1
2 gigs of Ram at PC2700...

correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't he be running 3200 or better speed RAM?

Run Memtest even if this is correct RAM.
Click to expand...

I ran memtest 2 months back on 2700 and it was perfectly stable, and then I tried it on 3200 and it failed memtest in a minute or something like that. BTW, would the 2700 cause stuttering, since it didn't on the 7800GT rig?
 
Have you tried swapping a friend's card in to see if that is what the problem is?

My last video card had a stuttering problem with some games. Bought a new one and never had the problem again.
 
Originally posted by: LW07
Originally posted by: Luckyboy1
2 gigs of Ram at PC2700...

correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't he be running 3200 or better speed RAM?

Run Memtest even if this is correct RAM.
Click to expand...

I ran memtest 2 months back on 2700 and it was perfectly stable, and then I tried it on 3200 and it failed memtest in a minute or something like that. BTW, would the 2700 cause stuttering, since it didn't on the 7800GT rig?
Click to expand...


Is your RAM rated for PC2700, or 3200? Is your system overclocked?

In my experience, RAM errors tend to give BSODs/crashes, as opposed to stuttering and/or freezing. However, if you are not overclocked and are running RAM rated for PC3200 at 2700 in order to achieve stability, something is not right.

Is your system Prime 95 stable? What about during other activities that place a heavy load on the CPU/GPU/HDD/RAM?

When you say stuttering, do you mean the graphics or audio? Or both? Do you have an add-in-soundcard? If so, try removing it temporarily. If not, disable onboard sound and see if that helps.

You made several changes to your original setup- see if you can undo those changes one-by-one and then test; for example, unplug your DVD-drive, and if that shows no improvement, then try disconnecting your new HDD. Checking with another video card would be helpful as well.

Despite the unreliability of software voltage monitoring, what were the readings for your rails on your old setup, if you remember?
 
Originally posted by: dawza
Originally posted by: LW07
Originally posted by: Luckyboy1
2 gigs of Ram at PC2700...

correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't he be running 3200 or better speed RAM?

Run Memtest even if this is correct RAM.
Click to expand...

I ran memtest 2 months back on 2700 and it was perfectly stable, and then I tried it on 3200 and it failed memtest in a minute or something like that. BTW, would the 2700 cause stuttering, since it didn't on the 7800GT rig?
Click to expand...


Is your RAM rated for PC2700, or 3200? Is your system overclocked?

In my experience, RAM errors tend to give BSODs/crashes, as opposed to stuttering and/or freezing. However, if you are not overclocked and are running RAM rated for PC3200 at 2700 in order to achieve stability, something is not right.

Is your system Prime 95 stable? What about during other activities that place a heavy load on the CPU/GPU/HDD/RAM?

When you say stuttering, do you mean the graphics or audio? Or both? Do you have an add-in-soundcard? If so, try removing it temporarily. If not, disable onboard sound and see if that helps.

You made several changes to your original setup- see if you can undo those changes one-by-one and then test; for example, unplug your DVD-drive, and if that shows no improvement, then try disconnecting your new HDD. Checking with another video card would be helpful as well.

Despite the unreliability of software voltage monitoring, what were the readings for your rails on your old setup, if you remember?
Click to expand...

It was rated 3200, and I have a Soundblaster Live. It's prime 95 stable at 2700 speeds, but not at 3200. I got bsods at 3200, but it's stable now at 2700. The stuttering is the picture. I mean, it freezes for 2-5 seconds and then goes back to the action.

BTW, I got a PC Power and Cooling PSU behind me, but I couldn't get it to fit inside my case. This is my case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129152

Someone on another forum told me that they heard that PSUs other than Antecs had problems fitting into an Antec Case. Is that true or false?
 
I forgot to mention this, but even Doom 1 likes to stutter alot on my computer(which it shouldn't, and it didn't do that on my 7800GT rig either). Do you guys think that a complete fresh install of Windows XP would solve this?
 
Could my video card be defective? I mean, it's smooth in COD2, but it stutters in every other game, and I don't get any artifacts that I know of.
 
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