ancientpaint

How can I tell how much power my computer is using? My computer has 300 watt power supply. I took an old 256mb ram card and placed it into my pc. When I turn my computer on, my monitor does not turn on. When I take out the old 256 mb Ram card, everything is fine. Is this because the power supply does not have enough power to run everything including the 256 ram Card? Or is this because the 256 ram is bad? I know the ram and my mother board are compatible...or at least i think so.

Mother Board

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...#c00196251_doc

Old ram

Nanya 256MB DDR 266MHz CL2.5 PC2100U

thanks

imsati

What are your system specs other than your Mobo (CPU, Optical drives, video card, etc.)? It's probably a compatibility issue with the RAM or a bad card (stick?).

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ancientpaint

here are the other specs. It is just an old off the shelf computer.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...product=426755


It is quite possible that the ram is bad. The old computer I removed it from did not work. I was told the old computer I tooke the 256 Ram from had a bad motherboard. Maybe it fried the ram to. I was just thought not enough power could be the problem. Also in the future it would be nice to know how to check how much power I am using.

ceewi1

It's highly unlikely to be a power issue, RAM uses very little power. Most likely a bad stick of memory. There's no software tools that can tell you how much you're using, although you can purchase a device such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882715001 which will do the job. There are also a number of online PSU calculators that will give you approximations with varying degrees of accuracy, all you need to do is enter your complete system specifications.

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Cheap PSUs - 2% of system costs, responsible for 28% of system deaths

Candy

Is this the sort of thing your looking for?
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...scription.html
(thanks to g25racer )

__________________
PSU:550w
Mobo:Gibabyte GA-P35-DS3
CPU:C2D E6750
HDD:Seagate 250GB SATA2
RAM:2GB DDR2 800mhz
GPU:ATi HD3850 256mb
Monitor:Asus 19" VW193T
Speakers:Logitech x-210

ceewi1

That will only give a very approximate estimate, less accurate even than some of the online PSU calculators since it can't detect and calculate all your hardware.

__________________

Cheap PSUs - 2% of system costs, responsible for 28% of system deaths