PSU Testing Question

[Setral]

I recently had a run of video card issues, my 6600GT of 20 months died on me, I RPLed it from LeadTek and received a bad RPL, so I RPLed it again and got what I thought was a good RPL, after a month though, it started acting up badly to the point now I don't trust the card.

However, I was told to check my PSU, so I borrowed a meter from a friend.

I have a ThermalTake 420watt PSU, have had it slightly longer than the original 6600GT Card.

I used the Molex to test with, as I wasn't to sure of reaching in and plugging directly into the power block on the MBD to test. The molex I tested, was T-ed off to the HDD, and then my side case fan plugged in, so while both of those were running, and I was testing World of WarCraft, the readings on the 12V line I got were 12.16 - 12.25, and on the 5V line I got were just over 5V the entire time. Is there anything else I can test to make sure my PSU isn't a problem?

 

[Navid]

If you want to be picky, and worry about the resistance of wires, you should make the measurement on a 12V connector on the graphics card also.

You should make the measurement while running something that stresses the card as well as the CPU.

You can test ripple. But, you will need an oscilloscope for that!

 

[Setral]

Pardon me if I'm obvlivious, but there is no 12V connector to the Graphics card, its a PCI-E card, with no power connectors on the card itself.

Hmm... any suggestions on something I can do to stress the CPU and Video card at the same time?

If everything tests out fine, do I just assume that my PSU is fine and I'm just getting crappy replacements from LeadTek?

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Setral
Pardon me if I'm obvlivious, but there is no 12V connector to the Graphics card, its a PCI-E card, with no power connectors on the card itself.

Hmm... any suggestions on something I can do to stress the CPU and Video card at the same time?

If everything tests out fine, do I just assume that my PSU is fine and I'm just getting crappy replacements from LeadTek?

If there is no dedicated power connector to the card, it gets its power directly from the motherboard. It may not be as easy to identify the power track. But, it is possible.

If the problems manifest themselves when running a particular game, test it when running that same game. That should stress the GPU and GPU both.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: Setral
Pardon me if I'm obvlivious, but there is no 12V connector to the Graphics card, its a PCI-E card, with no power connectors on the card itself.

Hmm... any suggestions on something I can do to stress the CPU and Video card at the same time?

If everything tests out fine, do I just assume that my PSU is fine and I'm just getting crappy replacements from LeadTek?

If there is no dedicated power connector to the card, it gets its power directly from the motherboard. It may not be as easy to identify the power track. But, it is possible.

If the problems manifest themselves when running a particular game, test it when running that same game. That should stress the GPU and GPU both.

Right, the power to the card is coming from the board. Check for bad capacitors on the motherboard as they could be providing bad power that could cause instability, artifacts, and easily kill the card over time even though the PSU itself is outputting good power.

 

[Setral]

Ok, for an electrical noob, the easiest way to check the capacitors is to just look for splits, bulging, and cracks right?

Its a Gigabyte K8 Triton, I've not personally heard of people having an issue with capacitors, but I'll check into it. Still think that maybe LeadTek just gave me a crappy replacement card this last time, since the first replacement was messed up out of the box. Gotta love refurbished replacements.

 

[Navid]

Is your system stable?
Have you run Prime95 for a few hours at least with no errors?
Have you run memtest for a few hours at least with no errors?
What's the card temperature under load?