Sempron 2800+, EVGA 6800? What's wrong?

[servcarpenter]

I have a Sempron 2800+, EVGA 6800 128mb, Chaintech 7NJL6, 1GB of 400mhz ram, and a Raptor 400w power supply. Now for some reason if I put everything at it's normal speed it will only boot sometimes. When it doesn't boot it makes a long and then stays at a black screen. If I get it to boot it is fine as long as I don't run any high end gaming or graphics programs such as 3dmark. If I do try to do high end gaming it will go for about 15minutes before shutting the computer down and reseting it. If I put the Processor at 133mhz FSB then it runs at 1600mhz and I can run 3dmark and high end games but it's slower. Anyone have suggestions?

 

[servcarpenter]

bump

 

[PingSpike]

Is the external power connector plugged in for the 6800? How about that 4pin extra power connector? Does the motherboard need one and does the PSU provide one? Can you pass prime95 for a reasonable amount of time?

Raptor power supply? I've never heard of them. My gut sort of says the PSU might not have enough juice to handle this task, but what are the amps on the 12v line?

 

[servcarpenter]

Well it came with the case so I wouldn't expect you to know the PSU. Anyway it says +12V and below that it says 17A for output then on the -12V it has .8A on the outpit and below that for the -12V it says 9.5W for MAX.

 

[PingSpike]

Do you have another known solid PSU you could try? Honestly thats the quickest way to rule that out.

 

[servcarpenter]

I have another but it's connected in another computer and it is being used constantly. I don't want to take it out and mess with it.

 

[servcarpenter]

bump

 

[servcarpenter]

Help me please! Any other Ideas?

 

[Budman]

you need to get a better QUALITY power supply.

 

[LTC8K6]

How do you have the vid card's power hooked up?

You want it on a line all by itself.

 

[servcarpenter]

It's on a line of it's own.

 

[Powermoloch]

I'm saying it's the PSU. never heard a raptor brand before.

 

[kmmatney]

First, check all connections. My wife's computer kept rebooting spontaneously, and it turned out that the molex connector on the hard drive was a bit flaky. I would also try another memory stick, or the other memory slot - some motherboards are picky. I had some problems with my setup (also Sempron 2800+) where I couldn't use both memory slots. It turned out that it was difficult to seat the memory in the second slit, and it wasn't making good contact, even though it had it "snapped" in.

A decent power supply is also a good investment - I've had mine for 4 years, kept through many cpu changes.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Relax the ram timings, bump its voltage, and give it a 2T command rate.

 

[PingSpike]

If I were you, I'd just bite the bullet and swap the PSUs. The pc shutting down spontanously during stressful situations stinks of one of two things: heat or bad power. The fact that lowering the speed reduces the problems frequency points even more to that. Check the temps, make sure everything is seated correctly and if those are good try the other psu.

I'm running a similar setup as you, overclocked, off a psu with 16a on the 12v line. But its a fortron. A lot of cheaper manufactorers tend to overrate their components and a lot of people say fortron underrates theirs. But swapping PSUs is a quick way to figure out whether I'm barking up the wrong tree with this one. You don't even have to take your old one out of the case, just unhitch it and plop the other one down beside the open case and hitch it up.

Also, were these components all known to be good and working before being installed?

 

[servcarpenter]

yes they all were fine. I've only had the problem since I upgrade my card from a Radeon 9250 to my Geforce 6800. Everything is connected by the way I am sure. It's all put in right the power supply seems the most logical solution.