Is My Power Supply Too Weak?

[ExcaliburDragon]

Sorta been pulling my hair out on this one lately.

My machine:

Intel P4c 3.2GHz (stock speed)
Albatron PX865PE ProII Motherboard (1.10 BIOS, onboard LAN)
4x Corsair CMX512-3200LLPT (basically 2x TWINX packs), total of 2GB RAM
HIS Excalibur X800 Pro IceQ II (stock speed)
2x Maxtor 120GB IDE drives (7200rpm)
1x Maxtor 80GB IDE drive (7200rpm)
Sony DVD/CD-RW/+RW combo drive
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum (w/front panel)
Leadtek TV PCI card
3x case fans
Front panel (w/blue leds) fan control
Floppy drive
Antec TrueBlue 480 PSU

Basically, my machine is not very stable in this configuration. Sometimes it'll just lockup (usually in 3D gaming sessions). Sometimes it'll reboot. Sometimes the signal to my monitor drops (and the machine still appears to be on/running, but not responsive). Maybe an app will crash with seemingly randomish error messages. In other words, nothing easily reproducible, every time.

The X800 Pro & the second GB of RAM are recent additions to the machine. If I put in an older video board (GeForce 5900 FX), the system is still slightly unstable, but not so much with the monitor signal dropping, or outright lockups in 3D games.

If I remove the extra GB of RAM (leaving 2 RAM modules in place), the instabilities seem to go away, for the most part.

I ran Memtest86 3.1 on the RAM and when I have all 2GB in place, I get a small handful of Test #4 errors. If just use 1GB, I get no errors. If I test each module alone (512MB at a time), I get no errors on any module. (with 2GB installed, I used the -most- relaxed memory timings possible in the BIOS, which seems to diminish some of the more obvious problems, but the RAM still generates errors when tested)

Corsair is of the opinion that it's a power issue (claiming that using all four modules consumes a large amount of power; also claiming that the Antec PSUs are 'known to be problematical') and that my power supply isn't up to snuff for the job. Everything I've read about the Antec series of PSUs seems to indicate otherwise, but I don't have enough information about the very specific power needs for each component, and on what rail, to see that problem in the numbers.

With the video board (new, powerful board) and a lot of RAM, I would agree that it sounds like a possibility... but it's already a darned good PSU.

My machine is moderately populated with stuff, true. But is it likely that it's populated enough that the Antec 480 isn't quite good enough to manage it? Maybe too light on the +12V rail, for example? When the machine had 1GB & the GeForce in it, I had cause, every once in a while, to suspect that possibly the video board wasn't getting the power it wanted (it, too, has a seperate molex connector on it, like the X800 Pro does). But the machine wasn't generally unstable. Only every once in a while something funky would happen, usually when really taxing the machine.

I know that the X800 Pro is likely to need more power, especially when 3D gaming at high resolutions and such, and that's usually when the machine would start acting up - again, sounds rather like a power issue. But it's darned hard to prove without having an easy supply of bigger/betters PSUs on-hand to check.

Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[MrSmithers]

Just my opinion, but I can't imagine that Antec would be too weak on the +12V, even if all the hard drives were spinning at once and you were loading the CPU, etc. If you are truly in doubt, download motherboard monitor and configure it for your setup (really easy, it almost does it all for you for most boards now) and check the +12V rail. I would have to guess that maybe the twin packs aren't playing nice with each other, or that board doesn't like all 4 dimm slots populated would be much more likely. Good luck.

Smithers

 

[ExcaliburDragon]

How (or why?) wouldn't nominally identical RAM sticks (primary difference being lot #, I suppose) 'play nice' together? I mean, I get what you're saying, just not why such a thing would even happen. Seems to me that these are about as identical as one can get, without having gotten them all at the exact same time - and isn't it generally suggested that one purchase nearly-identical/matching-spec RAM for a machine?

As far as the motherboard not liking all 4 slots being populated... the thought occurred to me, but honestly I can't figure how this would even be possible, especially when the board's maximum is 4GB (4x 1GB sticks). I have a question in on this topic with Albatron, but whether I'll get any kind of timely response is anyone's guess.

Blah. I really hate troubleshooting vague, but bothersome, stuff like this...

 

[slpaulson]

Have you tried losening the timings on your ram? As you said, a lot of motherboards don't play well with all the ram slots filled, especially with double sided sticks.

 

[Connoisseur]

In my experience, a lot of instabilities in a system have been caused by too much voltage running through the mobo. Here's a question.... are your CPU/case fans hooked directly up to the power supply or to the mobo? If the latter is the case, then get some 3pin to 4 pin molex adaptors and try hooking up the fans directly to the PSU. In both my systems and my friends system, we NEVER have any of our fans hooked up through mobo. Problems that have occurred include: Very stuttery performance when accessing drives, program crashes, inability to access bios, low fan performance; all of which have been fixed when we moved the fan power. Your PSU is very good quality so I doubt that it's at fault. Such an error can also explain why each ram stick doesn't give problems but all 4 at the same time do. Try it out first and see if that solves anything.

 

[ExcaliburDragon]

Originally posted by: cRazYdood
Have you tried losening the timings on your ram? As you said, a lot of motherboards don't play well with all the ram slots filled, especially with double sided sticks.

Yeah, I'd actually gone so far as to loosen the timing as far as the BIOS would let me, but to no avail. Some combinations of looser timings actually appeared to result in a larger number of errors in Memtest86 (but still only maybe 6-10 errors, not hundreds).

 

[ExcaliburDragon]

Originally posted by: ConnoisseurHere's a question.... are your CPU/case fans hooked directly up to the power supply or to the mobo? If the latter is the case, then get some 3pin to 4 pin molex adaptors and try hooking up the fans directly to the PSU. Try it out first and see if that solves anything.

Hmm. To the best of my recollection, the only fans that are connected to the MB are the stock CPU fan, the little fan that came with the motherboard that sits on the chipset (I think) and... erm... actually, that's probably it. The case fans are all connected to molex connectors off the PSU. You're suggesting that I connect the CPU & chipset fan to the PSU as well? What will that do to their speeds (and any regulation of it via the BIOS/sensing and so on)?

Thanks.

 

[Connoisseur]

connect the CPU fan directly to PSU. Does not affect your speed at all, and it'll more than likely stabilize your fan speed if anything. you can leave the chipset fan alone. I have a 3 pin to 4 pin adaptor that has an extra wire for RPM sensing hooked to mobo. works perfectly fine. Also, how're your CPU/case temps reading? If they're too high that can explain the instabilities too. You have a lot of high-power, high-heat components in that system.

 

[RyanM]

It sounds like your motherboard isn't getting enough (or stable enough) voltage. Try removing some PCI cards, and disconnect the other fan from the mobo and hook it up to one of the 12v leads off the power supply.

That should free up enough juice to get you through all the memtests. If you STILL have the error, then it's possible that your motherboard simply doesn't like having all 4 holes crammed full - Not a new one on me.

But overall, I'd agree that this is likely a power issue, or a motherboard not liking 4 RAM sticks issue.