Power Supply has a single 4 Pin 12v, Motherboard has 8 pin slot?

[Trizzay]

I'm trying to rebuild an old machine for a family member and have hit a problem. I bought this cheapo Coolmax V-600 - http://www.coolmaxusa.com/productDe...etails=spec&subcategory=140mm&category=single

As you can see, it only has a single 4 pin adapter for the 12V (assuming that's what the one named P4 mainboard is at the above link). On my motherboard, there are 8 pins available for the 12v. I plugged in just the 4 pins and the machine turns on, but locks up during the Windows install. I'm guessing it's not getting enough power. What are my options here? Should it run off the 4 pins, or do I need to buy a new PSU? The machine is an E6600 Core 2 Duo with 4 GB of RAM on a Gigabyte board.

Thanks!

 

[lehtv]

Why'd you go with a cheapo PSU? First off, 600W is way too much for that PC (though you didn't mention the GPU), but that particular unit is probably not capable of more than about 500W, judging by the specs. You could probably get a good quality 400W unit for the same cost.

It is possible to use a 4-pin plug in an 8-pin slot, I've done this myself. The 4-pin plug along with the main motherboard connector should be good for well over 100 watts of CPU power. However if you're getting a lockup then I'm not so sure, it may depend on the motherboard... Which side of the 8-pin slot did you plug the cable in?

 

[Trizzay]

I plugged it into the left side. It seems it would only fit in one direction, but I can check it out again later.

And yeah, I shouldn't have gone with a cheap PSU. Was just trying to get the thing up and running without spending too much of my own money. I don't remember what model the GPU is, but it's pretty low end. Nothing that requires much power.

 

[Torn Mind]

The lowest quality of PSUs I'd buy is the Cooler Master Elite 460W/400W. The Cooler Master Elite 460 W can't deliver more than its 400W sibling; it is overspec'd and is exactly the same as the 400W model. It also has noise/ripple control that is terrible; it does only the bare minimum to stay within the 5% tolerance allowed by the ATX standard, but it is better than CoolMax any day.

Next step up are the Antec Basiq PSUs.

Next step up from the Antec Basiqs is the Corsair Builder 430 watt version or Ebaying something high end for at a deep discount.

 

[Ketchup]

The PSU may have enough power, but it may not be continuous power delivery. Your symptoms do sound like what one would see on a failing PSU. Power requirements can be pretty high during OS installation since everything is running at 100% until drivers are installed.

I would replace the power supply with one from a reputable manufacturer and see how it goes.

 

[VirtualLarry]

No one asked the OP what GPU he is using?

If he is using onboard video on the mobo, then disregard that.

But that's the only thing that I can think of, unless the PSU is outright defective, that would cause this issue.

A C2D and some fans and HDs shouldn't be drawing over 150W by itself. (My 45nm C2Q draws that at full CPU load, without any GPU load, with an HD4850 GPU installed.)

Edit: Rule of thumb, don't buy any power supplies with "max" in their name (except for Enermax).

 

[Blastman]

That psu is more than enough (easily) for that Core 2 Duo even with using only a 4 pin +12v CPU connector.

If you have another PSU available (may have to temporarily pull one from another machine) try using that and see if it solves your problem. The fact that it runs (boots up) makes me lean towards thinking it's not the psu and might be a problem with something else like the memory. So try a different psu to try and eliminate the psu as a source of the problem. If it's not psu then maybe try swapping out memory sticks and move on to testing other possibilities.

 

[lehtv]

No one asked the OP what GPU he is using?

If he is using onboard video on the mobo, then disregard that.

I did ask, and he's using some low end card.