I bought a board off of EBAY and pulled my old computer apart. The Power supply on my current computer is 300W but the new board says it recomends 350 for stability. I need to see if this board is even going to work, and long story short, we are snowed in for the next two days at least. Will it hurt my board/memory/cpu if it is underpowered?
Current Power supply just under recomended wattage
- Thread starter caliskier
- Start date
If the 300w has only a 20 and not 20+4pin main power connector it may not even run. What make and model is the board itself? A look over of the specifications will show what type of power connection is required. Otherwise it will mainly depend on the hardwares you have installed on the system there. sata array? video card? other devices? These items either would need a heavier supply or additional power connections.
Oh thanks for the help... The 300w has 20 pins. It also has a four pin plug separate probably for the cpu. The board is a ATI RS482/RX480 + SB450 Express Chipset based Says RS482M4/RX480M4. Athlon 64 processor. Anyway the booklet does say:
"You may use the 20 pin ATX power supply as you like" and then gives directions for that.
I will be using an old HD for now and will be using onbaoard video. I will soon upgrade to a SATA HD. I also have a CD rom. This purchase was to upgrade my wifes computer and for now I just want to get it running for some gameing and so she can use it while I shop for accesories. I can purchase a power supply if necessary. Am I going to screw it up using 300W supply to test it and do a little gaming? Thanks again.
Do you have a full install disk onhand? Now that you know the supply will run the "basics only" at 300w the major swapout of hardware is the main reason for not seeing Windows loading properly even in safe mode. The master boot record is also worthless for the new board along with all of the drivers for the old board and any other items like video card, sound card, and other devices. But before performing a clean install of Windows and deletion of the current installation to see Windows running properly the supply issue has to be resolved.
The underpowered supply is the main reason why you are seeing the constant restarts. When first powering up a system the largest demand for power on average is seen at that time. OCing and other things loaded will pull down a supply after Windows is fully loaded. The supply there is simply strained and too weak to meet the minimum power demands placed on it.
The underpowered supply is the main reason why you are seeing the constant restarts. When first powering up a system the largest demand for power on average is seen at that time. OCing and other things loaded will pull down a supply after Windows is fully loaded. The supply there is simply strained and too weak to meet the minimum power demands placed on it.
Wow buddy, you are very helpful. Well I am a little clueless when it comes to this stuff, but I saw a friend do it once long ago. Last night I told BIOS to load run in failsafe. It recignized the drives after that. Then I made some adjustments to drive order, enabled some ports (I guess), told it boot off the CD and put window xp home in the drive (is that the full install disk you were refering to?), it gave me a blue screen with this
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Windows Install
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It looked like it froze because HD LED and noise stopped. I left it there to surf on this PC and try to figure out what was going on and 10 min later the HD cranked on and it began installing itself. So it works now but starts a little slow, but each time it is installing critical updats for windows, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Does this sound like an under power issue? Also the screen lightly flickers a bit right when it changes from the windows title screen to the blue windows is starting up screen.
I guess this might be premature because after all installs are complete it may start up faster, but am I going to hurt the board or anything in any way if it gets underpowerd at some point? Thanks again for the great help.
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Windows Install
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It looked like it froze because HD LED and noise stopped. I left it there to surf on this PC and try to figure out what was going on and 10 min later the HD cranked on and it began installing itself. So it works now but starts a little slow, but each time it is installing critical updats for windows, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Does this sound like an under power issue? Also the screen lightly flickers a bit right when it changes from the windows title screen to the blue windows is starting up screen.
I guess this might be premature because after all installs are complete it may start up faster, but am I going to hurt the board or anything in any way if it gets underpowerd at some point? Thanks again for the great help.
I was able to get into windows, but internet exploere was causing the same exicute error, then IE was completely gone, replaced it and now can't get into windows, more exicution errors Are these problems due to powersupply? I am not able to set BIOS to run in optimal mode because of the power issue you talked about earlier I believe. Is the fact that I cannot run BIOS in optimal mode causing the exicuting issue?
The exicution issue is sparatic too, it will let me into windows and I can run some applications, but then it eventually craps out with the same error.
Monitor also squeels now on different startup screens.
The exicution issue is sparatic too, it will let me into windows and I can run some applications, but then it eventually craps out with the same error.
Monitor also squeels now on different startup screens.
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Now you are seeing the obvious results of not having adequate power to run the system there. Once you get a good supply in you will see a world of difference where there are no sudden drop offs. You are trying to run an updated set of hardwares with a dinosaur for power there. The last time I saw a 300w supply I was running a K5 AMD 500mhz cpu with a pair of 256mb PC100 pieces of PNY crap memory and a 13gb dirve many moons ago!
(well at least I still had a Sound Blaster card installed there.
)
With all of the problems being seen what "lack of power" and amps on the 12v rails as well tell you? You won't see good results until you have the adequate power needed to run the combinations of hardwares that make the system there. One thing to remember is that a good solid stable supply is the very heart of a good running system. Without it...
now what?
(well at least I still had a Sound Blaster card installed there.
)With all of the problems being seen what "lack of power" and amps on the 12v rails as well tell you? You won't see good results until you have the adequate power needed to run the combinations of hardwares that make the system there. One thing to remember is that a good solid stable supply is the very heart of a good running system. Without it...
now what?I can't tell you how much better I feel hearing that. Actually this PS powered a AMD Duran 800 w/ 256 meg of SD ram so yeah you are right about it being a dinosour. This new setup is a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with 512 MB of DDR corsair ram. After being extreamly frustrated I started to put the pieces together in my mind and was hoping that the solution to the problem was a better power supply. If you don't mind me asking, CompUSA has a 600W supply on sale for $50. It is a Cooler Master 600-Watt eXtreme Power supply. Is that a good brand?
Is it possible to over power a system? Have the connectors all changed in the last 5-6 years? Still need it to power my old HD and cd rom at least.
The book that it came with says the following:
1. The two connectors (24pin and 4pin) have to work together to ensure stable operation.
2. Power Supply of 350W and above is highly recommended for system stability
3. ATX 12V power connection should be greater than 18A.
The wattage is obvious, but how will I know that the powersupply I am buying meets the other criteria?
Thanks again in advance you have been a super help!
Is it possible to over power a system? Have the connectors all changed in the last 5-6 years? Still need it to power my old HD and cd rom at least.
The book that it came with says the following:
1. The two connectors (24pin and 4pin) have to work together to ensure stable operation.
2. Power Supply of 350W and above is highly recommended for system stability
3. ATX 12V power connection should be greater than 18A.
The wattage is obvious, but how will I know that the powersupply I am buying meets the other criteria?
Thanks again in advance you have been a super help!
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Cooler Master fortunately made the "good" list of supply brands to go with. If you are planning to run an SLI or Crossfire setup with twin video cards you would need the extra kick a 600w will throw your way. With the 3000+ there you would never use the full potential since you are not setup to draw as heavily on the supply itself. A supply that large usually warms the sir up inside the case a little more however.
The current build here runs the Antec True Power II 480w supply with the TP II 550w still not in yet! So far it has done well for the additional drives and expansion cards along with sound card installed. Regardless you won't cook the system having more power onhand. The main power connectors now seen on all supplies have either the 24pin main power connector like models for server cases and the usual 20+4pin for standard atx cases. The old supplies were strictly limited to the 20pin connectors and no four wire 12v additional power feed for cpus like now seen on 939 model boards and newer including the Intel Socket 775 models.
The current build here runs the Antec True Power II 480w supply with the TP II 550w still not in yet! So far it has done well for the additional drives and expansion cards along with sound card installed. Regardless you won't cook the system having more power onhand. The main power connectors now seen on all supplies have either the 24pin main power connector like models for server cases and the usual 20+4pin for standard atx cases. The old supplies were strictly limited to the 20pin connectors and no four wire 12v additional power feed for cpus like now seen on 939 model boards and newer including the Intel Socket 775 models.
Ok, I got the new power supply finally and the noise in the monitor stopped, and it alows me to change to optimum bios settings with out going into a 5 second restart loop. but this is what is happening now. It won't let me set the drive boot order floppy first (didn't before either), if floppy is before HD it will not startup, (blank screen w/ cursor).
Next once I get it to start up it wants to check drive c for consistency. Sometimes during this it gives me a ---.sys truncated statement or windows/memory truncated statement, but the last time it didn't give either. The most frustrating thing is that it is still showing me a blue screen I have never seen before that I can't get past. Let me summarize:
A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. An attempt was made to execute non-executable memory.
Then it gives instructions for disabling newly installed hardware and bios memory options. Then it gives technical information:
*** STOP: 0x000000FC (0xF6FF1778, bla, bla, and some other stuff)
Then it says beginning physical memory dump, dumping physical memory, counts up to what ever and restarts. I am watching it while I type this. So now it is starting the process over from checking the disk for consistency, now it shows the screen that lets you select user, then boom to the same blue screen about unexicutable memory. It is in some strange loop. Do you know how I might fix this? Once again, thank you for all your help.
Next once I get it to start up it wants to check drive c for consistency. Sometimes during this it gives me a ---.sys truncated statement or windows/memory truncated statement, but the last time it didn't give either. The most frustrating thing is that it is still showing me a blue screen I have never seen before that I can't get past. Let me summarize:
A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. An attempt was made to execute non-executable memory.
Then it gives instructions for disabling newly installed hardware and bios memory options. Then it gives technical information:
*** STOP: 0x000000FC (0xF6FF1778, bla, bla, and some other stuff)
Then it says beginning physical memory dump, dumping physical memory, counts up to what ever and restarts. I am watching it while I type this. So now it is starting the process over from checking the disk for consistency, now it shows the screen that lets you select user, then boom to the same blue screen about unexicutable memory. It is in some strange loop. Do you know how I might fix this? Once again, thank you for all your help.
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When you were installing Windows you were going through some bad power dropoffs and probably a number of goofs when files were being copied to the drive as well as a lack of proper hardware detection. In other words you rushed the installation before you had enough power onhand to run the system.
As far as the floppy error there you only set that first when you are ready to boot from a floppy for some reason. You might boot from a 98 startup floppy to enter the "fdisk /mbr" command to repair the master boot record or run memtest off of a floppy. The rest of the time the search for option is certainly disabled here so you don't here that being searched at every boot.
The boot errors seen are most likely going to need a fresh install of Windows to see corrected. The disk checking process is generally only seen after a bad shutdown of the system where that tool inspects the drive for any damage and to repair any minor errors. With the system flaking out whenever you were in the middle of installing updates later more goof ups were seen with bad/impartial installs there. With the good supply now in you should see a fresh install of Windows and the updates go on "much easier" and reliably.
As far as the floppy error there you only set that first when you are ready to boot from a floppy for some reason. You might boot from a 98 startup floppy to enter the "fdisk /mbr" command to repair the master boot record or run memtest off of a floppy. The rest of the time the search for option is certainly disabled here so you don't here that being searched at every boot.
The boot errors seen are most likely going to need a fresh install of Windows to see corrected. The disk checking process is generally only seen after a bad shutdown of the system where that tool inspects the drive for any damage and to repair any minor errors. With the system flaking out whenever you were in the middle of installing updates later more goof ups were seen with bad/impartial installs there. With the good supply now in you should see a fresh install of Windows and the updates go on "much easier" and reliably.
Ok, thanks again, I will try to work that tonight. Could this "non-executable memory" error mean I have bad ram...Say it isn't so, I am concerned about that.
Oh, I think I have a windows 98 startup disk, but I am using xp, should I just tell the computer to boot off the cd rom drive as I did before, or should I try to find my 98 startup disk?
Oh, I think I have a windows 98 startup disk, but I am using xp, should I just tell the computer to boot off the cd rom drive as I did before, or should I try to find my 98 startup disk?
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The problems there seem a little too extensive from a possible bad install of Windows along with problems seen trying to download/install all of the updates. Something trashed the boot sector there. Simply using the XP disk to boot up to the recovery console you can try the "Fixmbr" and "Fixboot" commands there to see if that does anything. If not the installation disk is already in the drive ready for you! The floppy method is generally adivised for those without an installation disk onhand.