Do I need more JUICE?

[Earwax]

I've got an i7 920 D0 running at stock with 12GB of ram, a Coolmaster V8 HSF, and a Radeon 4890HD along with 4 80mm case fans and a pair of WD 1TB Caviar drives.

Specs that I could find on the hardware listed power consumption at:
CPU: 155W
Vid: 150W
HSF: 180W

System boots fine and installs Windows 7 x64 with stock options. I run stress testing at stock (Prime95) and the RAM gets fairly hot but the CPU doesn't get over 65C. If I reboot after doing a stress test, I can hear the 120mm fan on the Video Card go into high speed at boot-up. I get error codes 3F and 7F, no video, no boot. I'm thinking I'm right on the line for power consumption because of the video card spinning its fan up. Reset CMOS does nothing, neither does F1 or del key. System just hangs after a reboot. Runs completely fine after a fresh install but will not reboot after a stress test.

Any suggestions? I'm a little strapped for cash but if this just means putting in an 850Watt for a higher power clearance I'll probably do that.

 

[theAnimal]

Your PSU is more than enough power. (BTW the HSF does not consume anywhere near that much power, probably about 5W max.)

 

[Earwax]

Well that's good to know, but there is something really strange going on. The only common factor I've found in the failures is that the 120mm fan on the Video Card comes on full blast. I've had three different hang codes on the mobo, 2 of them aren't even in the manual (just listed as "RESERVED"). The North Bridge on this thing gets pretty hot, and unfortunately it's directly above the primary PCI Express slot where my video card rests. I'm wondering if that heat has anything to do with the problem.

I still haven't found a work-around and it seems to happen at random now. Loud fan at power up followed by an exceptionally long post beep and then no video.

[EDIT] The mobo elongated BEEP occurs through the 2D code for Video Memory Testing. This combined with the HSF on the vid card going crazy at boot leads me to believe there is a problem with the card.

[/EDIT]

 

[yh125d]

The high fan speed at boot is normal. Until a driver tells it to slow down or it posts safely, it goes 100%

 

[lopri]

Sounds like something is.. well, stressed. Overheated RAM can refuse to work until it is cooled enough, so can motherboard's mosfets/VRMs, and so can the PSU. If you can, check to see how hot the CPU socket area gets.

 

[mlc]

depending on the board.. the 5F could be PCI related... so try removing and reseating any PCI cards.... and ensure that your video card is properly seated....

check to see if a bios upgrade is available for your motherboard....

reintall the mobo and videocard drivers.. making sure you have the most current versions.

 

[CurseTheSky]

As others have said, it doesn't sound like a power problem. 650w should be plenty for what you're running, and Antecs are generally trustworthy units (except some older ones, someone else can comment on that; as long as you bought it in the past year or so you should be fine).

What are the video card temperatures at idle, and at load? Does it only refuse to boot after running a stress test like Prime95, or is it any time you run something that draws more power (like a game or Benchmark such as 3DMark or Vantage)?

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: Earwax
The North Bridge on this thing gets pretty hot, and unfortunately it's directly above the primary PCI Express slot where my video card rests.

That area is probably designed to be cooled by the stock type cooler (blowing down at mobo). Your cooler blows across so not much air gets past that area?

Maybe you need additional fan blowing at that area?

See if you still have the problem with the side of case off.

 

[Earwax]

There is an additional 80mm fan I added to the North Bridge area which has dropped the temp of the north bridge about 15C to a respectable 60C. I think I've arrived at the conclusion that this problem is video card related though. I checked my event viewer, as I've been having several dead crashes in Win 7 x64. No BSOD, just straight to POST out of windows with a quick mobo beep. There have been 18 critical errors and all of them have been ID 41: Kernel-Power. I ran across a post by another user who had a nearly identical system having the same issues who upgraded to an 850W PSU, only to get the same error messages. He had a 4870 manufactured by Sapphire as well.

[EDIT] I should also mention that this system has been running Prime95 and Linx about 18 hours out of the day for the last 5 days and it has not crashed once while under load. The only crashes have been on it using basic applications, mostly with some sort of 2D windows animations, so I think the RAM/CPU are fine [/EDIT]

Apparently the ID41 critical error is pretty popular in Win 7 RC, but this other person's experience (once the card was replaced everything for him worked fine) seems to indicate that I have a faulty vidcard. I would install XP and give it a whirl, but the boot issues I have with video really seal the deal for me. I'm pretty convinced this is a hardware problem with the card itself. I've tried two other PCI slots and had the same boot problems.

The really odd thing about all of this, I've played 10+ hours of intense 3d gaming. Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 at 1920x1200 with all of the AA and other settings at their maximum values and have had no crashes in game. All of my crashes have occurred while using 2d video animations. Skype tried to animate a window and the system crashed, iTunes cover flow has crashed the system about 8 times etc.

Anyhow, I think the next step is to get the card RMA'd. I've put all my system values down to stock for the time being to see if the crash occurs again. I have a feeling it will. If it does, I'll probably fire up winXP for the hell of it, but the semi-frequent video loss I have during boot-up is enough to convince me this card has to go back.