Graphics Card help -- PSU trouble?

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

alaex_51

Posts: 23   +0
Hey guys,

I have had this problem for a long time with my PC now, and it has been preventing me from putting in any decent graphics cards. What has been happening is, I've put a graphics card in, played a game, then after around 10 mins of gaming, the screen freezes and the sound just goes over and over and over. I've had to reset my PC many times because of this problem, and I'm wondering what is causing it. However, when I only use onboard graphics or low-end graphics cards, everything is fine. I can game for ages and nothing will happen. For example, here's me specs when it WILL crash :

AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8Ghz
768mb Kingston Memory
(not sure about the motherboard)
250/300w PSU... I think its 300w max
Ati Radeon 9550
80gb Seagate HDD

Take out the Radeon 9550, and it works fine. For example, I used a Radeon 9200SE and it worked perfectly, no problems.

Also, when I used the higher-end graphics cards, and sometimes even with the lower-end ones, it gave me an alert during games that "Your gpu was not responding to driver commands. It has been reset..." etc. This gave me the idea that not enough power was running to the cards..

This is just an Acer T135 that I have moved to a new case and stuck some more RAM into. All I need now is to be able to put higher-end graphics cards in, like the nVidia 6 and 7 series, and I'll be completely happy.

Please help. What do you think the problem is? It isn't temperature...my case has a huge fan at the front and two fans at the side, blowing air directly onto where the graphics cards are, so it surely isn't. I think it's the power supply. Anyone think they know what it is?
 
Ok, can you give us the exact wattage of your psu and can you open up the pc, take a look at the psu sticker and tell us the amps on the 12v rail? Also, if you know what temperature things are running at can you tell us that too? Might as well rule it out as a possibility.
 
Right, heres the entire sticker... (the '==' symbols are the closest i could get to what they actually looked like)

AC INPUT : 220V -240V ~/3.5A 50Hz
DC OUTPUT : +5V == /20A MAX -12V == /0.5A MAX +12V1 == /10A MAX
+5V (5B) == /2A MAX =3.3V ==/20A MAX +12V2 == /13A MAX

Combined Power on +3.3V and +5V rails shall not exceed 130W.
Combined Power on 12V1 and 12V2 rails Shall not exceed 20A.
At ambient 25 degrees C Total Power Output shall not exceed 300W.
At ambient 50 degrees C Total Power Output shall not exceed 270W.
 
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. You need a new psu. You can get a decent one pretty cheap. I saw rage_3k_moiz recommend thi s one in another thread, looks good.
Out of curiousity what was the brand of that psu?
 
Dude, you've just made me so happy! Finally I have a clear-cut solution to this problem. Don't worry about it, I'm happy to get a new PSU. Whatever it takes to sort this out. It's good news!

It was a Liteon PSU. What was the wattage of it? *slaps self* I thought it was 300W max, but maybe I'm wrong..
 
It's 300w max (yeah right we say) but most new(er) graphics cards are powered from the 12v rail, so you'd need about 16amps mimumum on the 12v1 rail to not be pushing the psu to frying point.
 
Geez, I really do have a pretty awful PSU....6A off the minimum for the 12V1 rail....

I've been looking at some on www.ebuyer.com, you can get good PC components for decent prices there.
 
And is that why the ATi alerts were telling me that my 'GPU was not responding to driver commands', because there was way too little power running to it? Sorry about all the questions, just I'm really curious about everything that was happening before.
 
Ok, I'll do that, I guess I'll buy one in around a week, I'm going away tomorrow for a week, so I'll do it when I get back.
 
Do you think a new PSU will definitely solve the crashing problems with graphics cards? that's the only problem I've had with my computer since I bought it.
 
Yeah it will. Try getting a good brand, like Coolmax, Antec, Fortron FSP, OCZ or Thermaltake. Avoid HiPro and Q-tec. They might look cool but they're garbage when it comes to performance.
 
Cool, hmmm, I've been looking for them on ebuyer, and a lot of the reviews say that they come with '1 x PCI -e 6-pin connector' -- If I'm using an AGP motherboard, will that make a difference, or would I have to use a converter...
 
U won't need the PCi-E connector so it will be an added convenience than a nuisance, in case u ever wanna upgrade ur mobo and card to a PCI-E one.
 
Although, on most modern graphics cards, do you still have to connect them up to the power supply? Most graphics cards I've had haven't had molex connectors ON them.
 
Yeah check out the link in my previous post. It shows a Radeon 9800 with a Molex connector. Most modern cards need loads of power and the power in the slot isn't enough, hence the need for a dedicated PSU connector. Dunno about ur card though. If it doesn't have a Molex connector, it doesn't need one then.
 
Ok, I guess it just depends on the card. Thanks for all the help guys, I'll be back on this forum in a week, when I'll be buying a new PSU, and most likely a new graphics card.

Thanks guys, and talk to you in a week.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

midian182
Graphics card prices on the rise in China as demand surpasses supply, could impact global markets
Replies
5
Views
104
Starfals
Starfals
Daniel Sims
Down-binned RTX 40 series graphics cards are reportedly on the way
Replies
11
Views
201
Burty117
Burty117
Daniel Sims
AMD RDNA4 graphics cards may only receive a minor bump in ray tracing performance
2
Replies
28
Views
501
Disiw
D

Latest posts

Back