Looks like I may need to upgrade my PSU

[KiltedFool]

Had an opportunity to grab an upgrade to my video card, more a want than need. Went from an 256 MB 8600 GT to a 512 MB 9800 GT OC.

Imagine my surprise when the screen kicked down to 640x480 with 4 bit color at startup. Called BFG tech support, apparently that means my PSU hasn't got the stones to get it done. It rquires 26A to run.

My existing PSU is a Coolermaster 600W (Model RS-500-PCAR) I bought a while back when I was stuck in a "if you want to be up and running today you have to buy something from this store" situation.

Turns out this thing is apparently more or less crap, it's labeled 600 W but only really provides 500. Has 2 12V rails listed at 18A in theory, but I tried as many variants of connecting two separate molex connectors to the adapter that came with the card to feed the 6 pin socket. No go. tried the 6 pin connector the PSU comes with. No go. I think it may have been barely getting it done with my old card since my optical drive tended to get squirrelly. And the manual is long gone, but the "manual" I found on Coolermaster's website doesn't list which connectors come from which rail anyway, just the pinouts. Most of the molex are labeled, is there a standard convention that would tell me which is which?


The main pieces of my rig:
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard
XFX GeForce 8600GT XXX 256MB Card
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz S Dual-Core Processor
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
XP Pro
An old Audigy 2
A DVD burner combo drive
2 160 GB 7200 RPM HD

It's looking like I may end up spending as much on an updated PSU as I did on the card, defeating the purpose of buying the card in the first place.

Any recommendations? I have the old card back in and running fine now, but would like to deploy this damn thing.

edit: Just to add, I don't overclock, I primarily surf and play WoW. I'm updating my vid card to improve multboxing performance, though somewhat on a budget.


edit2:
Turns out not to have been a PSU issue, it was driver conflict. See post below.

 

[KiltedFool]

Looking at some PSUs in the Hot Deals forum here, including the BGF ES-800 deal, wondering which would be best suited for me.

Also sorting through best Buy's selection and prices (which make me want to heave) because I pass one on my commute home.

Any recommendations? The only addition to the load I see is the outside chance of swapping in a quad core, but that's a ways off.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Yeah, the Cooler Master eXtreme Power 600W that you have is really a 500W (hence the part number RS-500-PCAR). It's not even that good of a one (rated at 25°C and only 75% capable of that when running at operating temperature). So what you have is really only about as good as a decent 375W PSU.

Best Buy's good in a pinch, but you have to consider that they're making 40 to 50% margin on PSU's (hey... big B&M's have big overhead).

 

[KiltedFool]

Cool, i was hoping you'd drop in JG, I used to be much more active on these forums years ago and recall your expertise, now I come back years later and you're a BFG guy and still the power supply guru.

I'm resisting the Best Buy approach, it's somewhat how I got where I am now with this Coolermaster (which let's be honest is apparently more POS than PSU), the only reasons I would consider taking the gouging would be instant gratification and I can buy there from cash from an expense check, kinda "off the books".

I've been reading your site and tinkering on newegg off and on all day, and am seriously considering that ES-800, though I have minor concerns about the rebate. I do have a minor aversion to rebates but can stand it if the dollar amount merits it.

When I last knew PSUs to any degree, Antec was good, Sparkle too, BFG was mainly vidcards and motherboards, Corsair was for quality memory. Now it seems everything's changed.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: KiltedFool
...though I have minor concerns about the rebate. I do have a minor aversion to rebates but can stand it if the dollar amount merits it.

Well, the new rebate is done by WorldWideRebates and that's a Systemax company and as far as I know they're not filing bankruptcy any time soon *cough*CPG*cough*. They're also processing rebates a lot quicker than back when they were OnRebate. I just got a $20 Visa card from them after only waiting three months (I know it sounds like a long time.. but rebates usually take longer!)

 

[AzN]

The coolermaster has 30A max on 12v rail. I don't see why your power supply is not pulling enough power.

Did you uninstall drivers correctly? I had this happen one time on my windows system only showing 4 bit color because driver conflicts by incorrect installation. It has nothing to do with power supply.

When BFG says 26A they are over estimating.

http://techreport.com/r.x/radeon-hd-4830/power-load.gif

9800gt use 218watts at full load on a quad extreme.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Azn
The coolermaster has 30A max on 12v rail.

Right, but...

#1 it is rated at peak
#2 it is rated at 25ºC

So, under normal operating temperatures and running continuously, it may put out less power.

 

[AzN]

Even if it put out less power and pull about 75% it still enough for his system.

His problem sounds more like a driver problem than anything else. I've never heard windows switching to 4bit color @ 640x480 because it couldn't pull enough power to g92 chip in 2D mode.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I agree with azn, if anything, if it didn't have enough power, then it should throttle down it's speed, but there's no reason for the PSU to cause it to run in 4-bit color. That does sound like a driver problem.

 

[KiltedFool]

I wouldn't expect a major driver issue with the switch, seeing as how I'm going from an nvidia card to an nvidia card with the unified driver architecture. I've pulled an nvidia card and dropped a new one in without touching drivers in the past without incident, should something be different here?

The PSU diagnosis was given to me by the gentleman I spoke to on BFG's tech support line, I don't recall his name. He told me that the card is configured to drop to that resolution if the power is insufficient.

I can do a driver change if needed, though that'll be a little squirrelly, either changing drivers while the old card is in or trying to install new drivers on that kind of resolution.

 

[jonnyGURU]

I'm getting my threads confused or something. I was thinking of a post where the OP had a GTX 260 and the light on the back went to red when he used an eXtreme Power to power it. You're booting up in 256 color. That's not a power issue. Uninstall the drivers and reinstall the drivers.

Your power supply sucks, but you're not experiencing power supply symptoms. A power supply symptom would be no video when in Windows or during heavy use, a hard lock, a random reboot.... not booting into 256 color.

 

[KiltedFool]

Argh!



Ok, I feel better now. Once the kids are crashed tonight I will once more into the breach and give it a try.

This does make sense in light of the fact I had to reinstall the drivers for my monitor too, it came up as standard plug and play. Will uninstall the existing drivers, put the driver disk in, shut down and swap cards, and run the install when it comes up in 256. Either that or pull the most recent drivers off of nvidia's site and have them ready when I swap, I don't want to try and go to a website at that resolution, it hurts us.

 

[AzN]

Even if you went to Nvidia from Nvidia this can happen. You need to correctly uninstall drivers first and install the card. Use uninstall function of Nvidia drivers then you might have to edit registry.

usually under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE---> CurrentControlSet--->Control--->Video

You might have to mess with it. Like deleting everthing under video except VGA drivers.

As for Coolermaster it's made by seventeam. It's not the best of supplies but it should work fine for your system.

 

[lucasautomacao]

I'd certainly get a Corsair (Seasonic) VX550, find it superb, despite being cheap...

 

[KiltedFool]

Thanks to the folks in this thread and jonnyGURU's patience in PMs I'm up and running on the new card.

Wasn't a PSU problem at all (*growls slightly at the tech he talked to on the phone last week*)

Downloaded most up to date nvidia drivers and chipset drivers for the mobo.

Add/Remove Hardware to uninstall the nvidia drivers, which apparently also hit the nForce functionality, since I didn't have internet after.

Shut down, swapped cards, started back up, booted into a lower res (something like 1024x768 I didn't check) but not that horridly low res and 256 colors.

Canceled out of all the hardware wizards and ran the nvidia drivers, rebooted.

Since Xp was griping to activate and couldn't find the internet I ran the chipset drivers again too. Reboot.

Xp activated and here I am on the internet again. So thanks to those on this thread.

And to remain pertinent to the PSU forum, I am thinking of asking the wife for that ES-800 from Newegg for christmas. is there an equivalent BFG product that includes modular cables? My case internals are a mess. I am open to suggestions on the new PSU, though I am starting to get a loyalty to BFG obviously.

Thanks again jonny, and everyone else.

KF

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: KiltedFool
...is there an equivalent BFG product that includes modular cables?

Not until all of the fixed-cable ones are gone.

That said, there is a modular BFG. It's called the "MX". It's essentially a modular version of the LS.