Need mo Powah?!

[razor2025]

I recently upgraded my AXP Tbred system to A64 along with new video card...
Here's the Spec

A64 3000+ Winchester ... 80 watts?
MSI NEO4-F .... watts?
2x Mushkin Blue PC3200 15 watts?
Radeon X800XL .... 75 watts max possible (no external connector, so PCI-E slot power only)
Audigy 2 Platinum ..... 10 watt? (How much power does sound card use?)
Floppy ...... 5 watt?
1x Seagate 200GB 20 watt? (HDD shouldn't be using that much...)
NEC 3500 DVD Burner ..... 30 watt?
5x NMB fans... 6 watt, 12v @ .1A gives me 1.2 watt each

So my total for wattage estimation is about 241 watt without factoring motherboard....
So even a well-built 350 watt PSU should handle this load.

I used to have a 350 watt Enermax PSU. That didn't power the system enough. It had system shutdown everytime the CPU went into full load. Then I got a 430 watt Antec PSU. It is stable now while I'm in desktop, but whenever I play CS: Source, or UT2004, it does random shutdown. I'm suspecting it's PSU problem again, but 430 watt? Come on.... it's not like my system sucks that much power.....

 

[sangyup81]

are you overclocking your winchester?

 

[Alex]

check your windows event log, maybe install MBM/cpucool and monitor temperatures and voltages, it could be a video problem too who knows... gl!

 

[Adul]

perhaps it is a different issue. Due check your event logs for hints

 

[razor2025]

I'll check up on event log... though I'm pretty sure it is PSU. I've ran 4passes Memtest86+ and CPU burn-in off of Ultimate Boot CD, and those went on fine. Because the problem seems to be stress related, I'm highly suspicious about the power issue. Also, everything is running under stock setting, no modding or overclock are involved. Also, the CPU tempterature seems to be fine, as it's 26*C when it's idle, and gets about 35*C under load.

 

[Amaroque]

Actually your power calculations are very high. I come up with about 200 watts total. Also, this is worst case "power draw" scenario. The Neo2, and Neo4 have some issues with RAM. If you have your RAM timings too tight (regardless if that's the SPD timings), the board will shut down under heavy usage.

Loosen you RAM timings, and I bet these problems will go away. You can also try physically moving your RAM to different slots.

 

[razor2025]

I've searched under Mushkin and they have Blue PC3200 listed as compatibile to Neo2.... I dunno, I'm going to get an Antec 480 tonight and check it, once and for all. If 480 watt has problems, then it HAS to be something else other than PSU....

I've also looked under voltage in BIOS, and the rails looked very solid, everything were within spec (1-2% different).....

 

[Amaroque]

Regardless if your RAM is listed as compatible or not, I would still try looser timings. If that doesn't help, at least you've pretty much ruled RAM timings out.

 

[razor2025]

Blah... I'm crashing in desktop now... I dunno, I've been running Memtest over and over with different timing and stock timing, and no error reported.

Now, it's either CPU, or PSU. Video Card should be fine, because if it's overheating, I would've noticed artifact before shutdown.. and besides, video card doesn't restart the whole system.

 

[BurntCpu]

CHECK HERE

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: BurntCpu
CHECK HERE

Those power calculators are complete garbage. It says I need like a 600 watt PSU. I've powered the rig in my sig with a True430 (I just didn't fire up the Geforce).

 

[razor2025]

Originally posted by: BurntCpu
CHECK HERE

Just used that to re-calculate my power needs. It says I need 342 watt minumum. It looks like all of their calculation is definitely worst-case scenario. Even with their calculator, my Enermax 350 watt should take care of it.

So, tests I've ran are
Memtest86, Memtest86+, PrimeTest for 1 hour each.

Now, I'm really suspecting PSU issue. I'm also going to borrow my friend's generic Samsung and test it out with it. If Samsung is having problems, then it's without a doubt PSU problem.

 

[razor2025]

just to let people know....

The Antec True Power 430 watt is 12v heavy.... It probably has POT inside the PSU, but that'll void the warranty...
The rails are
3.3 - 28A
5 - 36A
12 - 28A (?!)

My old Enermax has lighter rails on 12v, but it's respectable for 350 watt
3.3 - 32 A
5 - 32 A
12 - 17A

Could the lack of 3.3V and 5V range be the culprit?

 

[jaedaliu]

I had a problem similar to you (didn't upgrade computer, just crashed while in games). I thought it was the video card, the image was garbled in certain games. The computer kept breaking earlier and earlier, until the end when windows somehow got corrupted and I couldn't repair with the original disk.

Finally, the computer wouldn't turn back on unless i unseated a ram stick and stuck it back in.

That finally solved it for me. Motherboard.

moral of my story: don't forget to check the other stuff that was working before you upgraded (in my case my case was sitting in the back of a uhaul for 400 miles, and took 2 months to break completely down).

 

[razor2025]

Update....

Got my OCZ in, the good dude @ OCZ sent me a 600 watter instead of 520 watt, and the FREAKING THING STILL reboots. It cannot be PSU then, as there's no way a 600 watt Powerstream is not enough juice... I've loosened my timing to 3-4-4-8 now, and see if it's stable enough to continuous operation... otherwise, I'll need to test out diff RAM, and if THAT fails... Mobo goes back to ZZF.