Is this a psu problem?

[Teal3800]

I've been looking through the forum and haven't found anything that answers my problem so figured I'd post it in hopes of getting some opinions. I have recently upgraded my video card and converted to water cooling, Since doing this my computer will crash to a black screen at random, even while it is just idleing. Sometimes it'll run for a couple days without doing anything other times it will only go for a couple hours. I've checked my 12 volt rail in the bios and it will fluctuate between 11.9 and 11.8. I haven't checked it under load but considering Control Center gets the same readings when windows is idleing I don't think that matters. I have used the wattage calculation site but it doesn't allow for how many watts water cooling uses and can't seem to find a site that will tell me that. Here is my systems specs, nothing is overclocked.

MSI Neo2 Platinum
A64 3000+ Winchester
AIW X800XT
Audigy 2
CD burner
1 120mm fan
Thermaltake Bigwater
80 gig Western Digital hd
160 gig Samsung hd
400 watt Enermax

So is my psu overloaded?

 

[rise]

doesn't really sound like it as its happening even at idle and you're not even oc'd. have you checked the rails with a dmm? what are the specs on that enermax anyway?

you're just getting a shutdown, no re-boot? anything in your log files?

 

[Teal3800]

Just looked at the psu for the specs, turns out it's a 460...the shop I bought it from said it was a 400, oh well not complaining. Anyways the specs on it are

+3.3V = 35A
+5V = 35A
+12V = 33A

It doesn't shut down just the screen goes black and I end up with a buzzing noise coming through the speakers. The reset button won't work when it happens, I have to turn the system off in order to get it going again. I've had problems with power saving features before so have them turned off to make sure it's not that. I haven't done a dmm test on the rails since I don't have one. I have tested the ram before I upgraded the vid card, incase someone thinks it might be that and nothing came up.

 

[rise]

well, your psu looks fine certainly. do you have another vga you can try?

 

[Teal3800]

I got rid of my old vga card, only other vga card I have around here is a super old matrox with 4 megs of ram on it or something like that. It is agp though. Sounds like you'er suggesting what I feared.....I thought it might be the vid card so I've reinstalled the drivers for it, even used driver clean to get rid of them off of the hard drive. Guessing this wouldn't be a driver problem though.

As for the event logs, I never knew about those, I can't remember when exactly it crashed, I'll let you know what it says next time it does which could be tonight for all I know.

 

[Teal3800]

Well it crashed last night and I checked the events log. From what I can see there are no errors that happened while it was idleing, even the boot up log says it was a normal shut down. The last log it recorded was a tcpip warning that I had hit the max limit of TCP connections.

It also turns out that the old card that I have won't fit in the agp slot, it won't even fit in a pci slot, so guessing it's some proprietary garbage.

 

[rise]

did you try that other card?

 

[Teal3800]

Ya I did, thing is it won't fit it's out of an old P3 compaq system. I thought it was an agp card but the card is wierd it won't fit an agp, pci, or even isa slot. So unfortunately don't have another card to try. Was trying to avoid having my computer out of commision for a few weeks but seems like I'll have to RMA it and hope they get the same problem out of the card, Unless you got any other ideas.

 

[rise]

maybe someone else will come to the rescue but it looks like your card is messed up. i'd tell you to try running rthdribl to see how the temps go but if its happening in 2d even.... well, you may want to anyway, it wouldn't hurt. i'm assuming you put a waterblock on the gpu too, is it seated well?


and sorry, i didn't notice you had already tried the other mongrel card.

 

[Teal3800]

No problem, happens to everyone.

Ya would be nice if it was only 3d that it messed up. I haven't bought a water block for the gpu yet, been having problems finding one that will work with an AIW, so it still has the stock hsf. Air flow should be good around the card I would imagine with a 120mm fan sucking air in the front and 120mm fan from the Bigwater cooling kit and the fan on the bottom of the psu sucking air out. I'd like to get some fans that fit into the 5 1/4 bays to suck more air in but all the ones I find blow out. I currently have my side off my tower to see if it is a heat problem. I also reinstalled windows today, just to make sure that it isn't a software problem, and just as it got windows booted for the first time it crashed to a black screen like it normally does when it crashes.

 

[rise]

any chance of borrowing an agp card for a couple days to see? may want to try reseating the cooler as well but i really don't think its a heat issue.

 

[Teal3800]

Unfortunately the closest person to me that I know has one available is an hour and a half away, which sucks.

Wouldn't reseating the heatsink void my warranty?

I really doubt it's heat too, I did have a program that monitored my vid cards heat and it was always around 50 celcius at idle, can't remember the name of the program though and not sure how accurate it really was.

 

[rise]

yes, it probably would so you'd need to check.

some manufacturers are a bit looser on this though. i've had a card go bad after using an aftermarket cooler and i guess because the rma reason wasn't anything to do with my "mod" they happily exchanged the card for a new one. and yes, i told them exactly what i had done. i was really just looking for them to fix the cap that snapped off.

but again, i doubt its heat. if its new maybe you can get an advanced rma? save you some down time.

 

[Teal3800]

Well it crashed again last night even with the case open so I called up the place that I got it from and they want it back to test it, I can just see them getting it and it not messing up, that seems to behow it goes goes with anything that doesn't work. So I did an RMA. but won't get it sent off till monday. Unfortunately they don't have anymore in stock and are not sure if when they will get another in, so I'll have to pick out a different vid card, guess it's not all bad after this experience I'd like to avoid an AIW, I just have no clue what another good option would be for equivalent performance to an X800XT and similar price range. Seems like according to many you can never get an honest review and everyone favours one or the other manufacture, which sucks since ati havs, it seems, like a dozen model lines and trying to compare them to nvidias few can be just frustrating. I know most ask do you play opengl or direct3d games? but I play anything and everything so that just doesn't work for me. lol I think I've read too many reviews and have just confused the hell out of myself.

Also thanks for trying to help me out, I appreciate it.

 

[rise]

anytime, good luck!