Ugh.........

[Therk]

Earlier today I was playing some Need For Speed: Most Wanted and I was experiencing a problem which has been happening for ages. The screen would basically freeze and display all sort of errors for about a second every 10 minutes or so... today it started ocurring more frequently, every 5 min, 1 min then 20 seconds and then my monitor just turned itself completely off. I restarted my PC and I got a pop up saying:

Problem Report:

The NVIDIA System Sentinel is reporting that the NVIDIA-powered graphics card is not receiving sufficient power.

To protect your hardware from potential damage or causing a potential system lockup, the graphics processor has lowered its performance to a level that allows continued safe operations.

Therefore should I assume my PSU is going buggery or could it be a GPU related problem?

My system specs are:

A64 3200+
1 gig ram
200 gig HD
Nvidia 6800 GS

The PSU is a Icute 400W and has 19A on the 12V rail.

 

[mpilchfamily]

19A on a single +12v rail is a bit on the edge of your system's power requierments. How old is the PSU? As PSUs age they are unable to supply as much power as they once could. Your system's peak loads shouldn't be more then about 18A or 19A but like i said the PSu may be strugaling a bit.

If you need a budget replacement i would recomend this FSP PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?Item=N82E16817104953

It offer 25A on the combined +12v rails and is more then enough for your system.

 

[Therk]

I live in New Zealand so I can't buy from newegg. How would a 500W with 28A on 12V rail do? (Raidmax)

 

[mpilchfamily]

Well then maybe this list will help you out.

http://www.xcpus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208

I don't know if they will deliver out your way but they are basid in AUS. Any of those PSU will be more then enough. Heck most any PSu that can offer about 20A or better would suit you fine.

 

[Therk]

thanks

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: Therk
Problem Report:

The NVIDIA System Sentinel is reporting that the NVIDIA-powered graphics card is not receiving sufficient power.

To protect your hardware from potential damage or causing a potential system lockup, the graphics processor has lowered its performance to a level that allows continued safe operations.

Common NVidia driver message if the 4-pin power plug isn't connected properly, or one of the four fragile connectors between socket and PCB is fractured. Check you have a continous connection from the 4-pin plug through the socket to the PCB.

 

[Therk]

Originally posted by: betasub

Originally posted by: Therk
Problem Report:

The NVIDIA System Sentinel is reporting that the NVIDIA-powered graphics card is not receiving sufficient power.

To protect your hardware from potential damage or causing a potential system lockup, the graphics processor has lowered its performance to a level that allows continued safe operations.

Common NVidia driver message if the 4-pin power plug isn't connected properly, or one of the four fragile connectors between socket and PCB is fractured. Check you have a continous connection from the 4-pin plug through the socket to the PCB.

Im not much of a PC wiz, but what should I be looking for?

If one of the connectors is fractured are they fixable relatively cheap or do you need a new video card? How is the 4-pin power plug supposed to be plugged in (what should I do to make sure its plugged in properly)?

 

[betasub]

Looking at AT's reveiw of the 6800GS, it appears to be a PCIe (only) card, and power socket is the six-pin (PCIe, 2 rows of three) black connector to the upper right of this image.

Your PSU should have a power cable running to this six-pin socket. Without it the drivers will switch the card to low-power mode.

The six traces to the PCB are much more solid than the old-style 4-pin traces (required re-soldering if broken), and are unlikely to be fractured.