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Hey guys, i have been really frustrated with my PC, for a while now, I have a Gforce 4 MX 420 and it would crash all of a sudden for reason, i dont know of, I installed new driver , update my PC everyime, I am running Direct X 8.1 that comes with windows Xp and i figured Direct X 9 is not good at all,
i installed NFS and it would crash, Installed Counter Strike , It would crash, This morning i swaped my card with my friends(which is a Gforce 2 mx) and my PC ran for sometime and then comes another crash,. Oh yeah , when it crashes there is a loud,,,(very annoying) So what is wrong, is it my Pc or the cards,
I am beggining to think its my Power Supply, i have a Powmax 320 watts power supply
Should i buy a more powerful power supply, or is it my RAM
I have a ASUS A7a266-A, ALi chipset, i belive(dont know much about alll this )
helps me Guys
listyour temps, it could be overheating, and it too maybe your PSU
P.S. yes, your gfx card does suck :0)
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I don't believe your PSU doesn't have enough power, but that does depend on how many devices you have attached.
How many IDE devices do you have (Hard Disk Drives, CD/DVD/Re-Writer Drives, etc...).
You have one AGP card (the Ge-Force).
How many PCI devices do you have (modem, NIC, Sound Card, etc)?There is no harm in you having a 350-400w PSU anyway.
I would definately look at the memory as a possiblity, you do have a lot in there.
When did you first notice the problem?
What was the last change you made to the system, and how long after that did you start getting this problem?
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Sorry n3985, I didn't mean to contradict you there. We must have posted at about the same time. LOL
I never thought on that...nice one n3985.
It could all be down to a heating issue...again, possibly due to device overloading?
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Okay, i have a DVD rom, Cd burner , one ethernet card , a sound card and i guess thats about, it, initially i had a 512 RAM , and it would crash back then too, The first day i got the Gforce card, i installed some game , i guess it was red faction, and boy it crashed, i thought it was probably the game and MY PC did not like it, but it has been crashing since then and i dont know what to do
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i just have one hard drive, 20 gb,
i havent made any changes to my system . since, it got, jus that i added soem RAm adn bought the dvd rom adn cd burner
thats about it ,
i was on many forums about this problem and they keep telling me to get new power supply, i dont want to spend money on something that may be working fine :)
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OOPs, i forgot to mention, my PC is normally at 50F and i believe i checked on the website and they said it was normal for AMDS to be that way :(
regards
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I would recommend upgrading your PSU for a 400w just to make sure.
You do have quite a lot of devices connected. I believe your system is just on the limit. Drops in voltage from the PSU could cause your CPU to lock up as they have to have a steady flow.
Your CPU temperature of 50 is okay (AMD claim your chip should run upto 95 but I wouldn't test that theory LOL).
But that's not to say that your RAM, or another component isn't overheating.You may also want to consider some case fans, possibly chip/RAM heatsinks just to be sure.
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okay, i am gonna get myself a higher PSU , but , you say my card is fine,
i was checking on the microsoft website to check for compatibility , but i did not find one, or may be i should look more
well, about the RAM, heatsink, where do i find one, and how much does it cost?thanks
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Okay, i went thru the list of all the display cards and i did nto find mine :(
i guess i suck more than my card LOL!!!
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There is no reason why your card should be faulty, unless it has been caused by excessive heat or incompatible AGP voltage.
Definately look into a cooling solution.
The cost shouldn't be too high, but it depends on the brand you go for and the intesity of the solution.
Check out the following link for more info...www.overclockersclub.com
But, I'd definately say a more powerful PSU is a must. It may even cure your problems completely.
Let me know how you get on.
E-mail me if you like.
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I would look into some ram...I had about the same problem and it crashing during games...so I got a different stick of ram and suprise it was all better...couldn't hur to check...
get some of your friends for a few hours and try it out... before you buy a PSU..just incase..
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Yes, indeed try the above.
Even if you try using just each of your seperate sticks of RAM one by one seeing if any show any weaknesses.But based on your system spec, a more powerful PSU is essential...especially if you ever add anything else in the future.
It won't be a total loss...there will be nothing wrong with your current one so you can therefore sell it on.
330w ATX PSU...probably worth a bob or two to the right person. :o)Definately look at airflow in your system though.
Take care.
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Okay, fine, i am gonna buy a PSU , for, sure, sounds like a safe deal and i am also gonan check with my friends RAm and will let you know, if things go fine with my PC, if not, i am gonna come back, and bug you all, ..
thanks a lot guys, you all hav ebeen very helpful
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Sure sounds like you may just be bottoming out your psu, etc, but are you sure there is no power stability problem at the wall outlet you are using?
Same outlet consistently?
Using a power strip with several other things also plugged in (printer, scanner,light, clock, speakers, monitor,etc).
No UPS for stability?
Just one other possible contributor to consider.
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