Game crashes--- Power supply?

[GFBeach]

I recently upgraded my video card from an 8500LE to an ASUS 9600XT. Things worked fine for the first few days, but since this past Wednesday I've been having somewhat frequent problems with game crashes. I need to test it on other games, but the main game in question here is FFXI. Sometimes it'll just lock up (though the hard drive light keeps blinking), and other times it'll completely restart.

I've tried upgrading my video card drivers to the Catalyst 3.9s, but that gave me other problems so I bumped back to the drivers that came with the card. The display driver is version 6.14.10.6378; I'm -guessing- that's comparable to the Catalyst 3.7's as I don't have a VPU Recover tab anywhere.

But there're a few things that have me scratching my head: The crashes only happen during games; I know I haven't had any crashes during normal Windows navigation. Another thing that gets me is how come the crashes didn't start happening until three or four days after I got the card? I played a lot of FFXI during those first few days and didn't have any problems.

Anyway, I've been trying to narrow things down and the closest explanation I can come up with is that my power supply might be too weak. I don't think FFXI is at fault because I had absolutely no crashes on my 8500LE, but I suppose it is possible... My computer only has a 300 watt power supply, which I'm pretty sure is lacking considering what all is in there. Click here to see my system hardware information.

So here're my two questions:

1) Does it sound like my power supply is at fault?

2) Can any of you recommend a good 350 or 400 watt power supply? I'm leaning towards Antec, but I'm not sure which wattage I should get.

 

[SaintTigurius]

what games are u playing if u are playing Call of dtuy download drivers 3.7 from ati.com website

 

[GFBeach]

I dont' have Call of Duty. The main games I'm playing are FFXI and UT2K3. I've also been playing the Deus Ex 2 demo lately and haven't had any major problems with it.

 

[SaintTigurius]

yeah the new drivers are not as stable but, i would recommand u get catalyst 3.7

 

[GFBeach]

I did some quick looking and it turns out that the ASUS drivers seem to be the Catalyst 3.7s for all intents and purposes.

 

[SaintTigurius]

well if ur runnin 3.7 and still having problem s than just try to upgrade to 3.9 becasue after 3.8 VPN (or somthing by that name) the VP or VPn had a program that , if ur pc crashses while playing a game it will open up a popup form the drivers stating the problem.

 

[GFBeach]

I already said in my first post that I tried the 3.9s but they caused other problems... :frown:

 

[GFBeach]

Well, I did some more research and more than ever I'm convinced that my 300 watt power supply just doesn't have the juice. I ordered a ThermalTake 420 watt from Newegg; hopefully that'll do the trick. Anyone have any other pointers they'd like to mention?