Save me from this unexplainable crashing...

V

Vergel

New Member
Alrighty...this is really pissing me off. I built a new rig, updated all the drivers the graphics card/mobo bios, etc. yet whenever I try to play a game, or watch a movie, my computer freaks out and freezes/locks up. At first I thought it was because my video card was under powered. I was using a BFG Nvidia 7950 GT (which required 22amps on the 12v rail) but I returned it and got a EVGA Nvidia 7950 GT (which uses 18amps on the 12v rail). The PSU I am using is a 580w psu, with 20amps on the 12v rail. I popped in the EVGA card that arrived today, installed the driver and updated it with the latest ones from Nvidia. Everything ran like butter until I booted up World of Warcraft (to test the card). Ran for about 2-3mins...then locked up, with the sound coming out of my speakers as a constant buzz, just to annoy me more.

Granted, this is my first build, so I might have f***ed something up along the way, but I am pretty sure I havent.

Some Specs~
Mobo: Asus M2N-E SLI (currently using 0701 bios) http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131096
Memory: 1gig http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820220088
PSU: 580w http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817128002
Vid Card: EVGA Nvidia Gefore 7950 GT (currently using 93.81 forceware) http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130061

Any input would be appreciated, and I will supply any info that could help solve this mystery
 
Why would you have spent that much money on such as a crappy PSU? For $100 you can find ones with quad rails at 40A+.

If the power requirement is the problem, you cant use the entire 12V rails for the video card, after all, the system has to run doesnt it?
 
thats good and all...but i really dont think it is a power problem any more. i chose this psu because of the way the cables are situated, and because of the booklet that explains how to properly wire the internal components. a friend of mine pointed out that the freezing could be in part because i was using beta drivers for my video card. i rolled back to the official latest ones, but it still freezes ><

EDIT: is 40amps+ recommended for a vid card of this caliber?
 
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I like this PSU, and it's in the same price range.

Corsair has engineered the HX520W with features such as whisper quiet thermally controlled 120mm fan, up to 84% high efficiency, combined 40A on triple +12V rails, and modular cable connections with enhanced flexible cables to provide sustained 520W output even at 50ºC to the most demanding of systems.
The HX Series is the ideal power for high performance and gaming PCs, Audio/Video workstations, and file servers.
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001
 
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Vergel said:
ya...that psu is actually worse than what i have. if you goto the specs and look at each individual rail, i have 20amps, that one has 18amps

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817103437
now this one has 36amps on the 12v rail. i think im gonna get this one, once i receive the refund for my old video card later this week
Click to expand...

What it says and what it does is 2 different things.
The PSU I posted is quality. ;)

Also the last one you posted is single rail, so everything 12v in the computer still feeds off of that 36 amps, so it's still less of a PSU than the one I posted.
If you don't like the Corsair I posted take a look at seasonics, they are also quality.
You can't go by all the glittler, all that glitters is not gold. ;)

You'll come around after you've fried half of the componants in your computer using those garbodge psu's. ;)

Just for the record, your backing up with that enermax, the Hiper is better, but neither touch the Corsair.
 
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alright...that sorta makes sense. moreover, if you look at the psu i currently have, it has 2 12v rails, 20a/18a respectively. I take it your triple rail of 40amps total is better? If so, does that mean more rails = more amps/power? Granted, I am running a high end gaming card, 4 fans (including cpu fan), dual-core am2 socket cpu, 230gig sata HDD and 160 ide slave, soundblaster live! card, dvd burner and cd reader drives... I thought that the psu i bought would suffice. everything works fine. I just cant play games for more than a few mins, or watch movies, before it shuts off/freezes.
 
It could be the mobo, more specifically the PCIe slot could be messed up. If you had two cards not work, but most certainly use quality PSU's.
 
wow... I didn't know you were running all of that, I was questioning in the back of my mind weather it was a psu problem or not.
I'd say it probably is now.

try running your specs through here and see how you do.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

You gotta watch how they rate PSU's often that big bad 600 watts (or whatever) is peak, not constant, and trying to run them at a constant peak causes them to heat up and start breaking down.
 
i just ran my stuff through that site freedom and i got 447w as the calculated value. also, etsa has a good point about the mobo and pci-e sockets. this is the 2nd vid card i have tried, in both sockets and it still does the freezing/sometimes restarting. but it could be a power issue as you said.
 
Yea, ETSA could be right, it might be that mobo.
Hard to say.
I believe the PSU is the most important single piece in a computer, if it's not stable nothing else will be either, and I've seen electricity do some strange stuff when the voltages are jumping up and down.
My background is in Industrial control systems
 
well if the pci-e express cards were messed up, would they not read the graphics card at all? because everything works fine and dandy until i hop into a game, then system must become unstable somehow for it to freeze or restart after a few mins of play time...
 
The Corsair will power your system if it's an issue. If it was a motherboard issue surely it wouldn't boot? The Corsair unit has 3 12v rails with 18A on each.;)
 
okay...so i went back to www.extreme.outervision.com that freedom suggested, and paid to 4 bucks to get a month access. with this month access, you get to see the recommended amp ratings suggested for the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v rails. I must have messed up the first time I did the free calculator, but this time I came up with the recommended stats of:
406w, 3.3v~6.3a, 5v~12.8a, 12v~26.8a

so... my current power supply http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817128002 is rated at 20amps on the 12v rail...im guessing im gonna go with the corsair that freedom listed http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001 ...since im almost 7amps underpowered o.o that would explain the odd freezing/shutting off...
 
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