Problem with Vista/Asus/Nvidia freeze-up

[SoftwareMan]

Hi !
Now I've tried mostly everything within reason, trouble and knowledge, so I need some advice here.

First for the goods:
I've got a brand new ASUS motherboard, P5Q-EM, with a Intel dual-core E8400 3GHz processor, a 500W MIST powersupply with 20A on 12V, and then the troublesome Gainwards NVidia 8800GT card.

The software:
Vista 32bii Ultimate SP1. All drivers up to date afaik.


The symptom:
Whenever I try to access the video card above anything basic, like f.e. just starting the PC Wizard 2008, the system freezes completely up. PC Wizard writes out what it does on its status line, and it stops when it says its reading the video card.
It also happens whenever I seem to trigger anything with a little bit more than basic graphic, may be 3D or something.
It freezes, and requires a cold boot to recover. And no trace of whatever happended in any logfiles I've found.

Further, if I just start up the NVidia Control (form Control panel f.e.) it freezes on the first pane, where it's supposed to show some 3D.

I've been through countless similar, but not identical threads all over the net, but haven't found anything that seems to help.
So has anyone out there experienced something similar, or have the expertise to give some solid advice ?

best regards
Terje - A "depressed" software guy

 

[Tmagic650]

What is "the PC Wizard 2008"?...

 

[SoftwareMan]

"Since 1996 PC WIZARD is among the most advanced system information programs on the market. PC WIZARD 2008 is a powerful utility designed especially for detection of hardware, but also some more analysis. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results.

PC WIZARD 2008 is also an utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, Cache performance, RAM performance, Hard Disk performance, CD/DVD-ROM performance, Removable/FLASH Media performance, Video performance, MP3 compression performance.
"

From their homepage at cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

But the same thing happens (freeze up) with any tools/program I try which access the 3D cap of the board

 

[Tmagic650]

You dear software guys As an experienced hardware/electronic repair guy, I never got excited about any "advanced system information programs". They all depend on a "healthy" hardware platform to function, and those plug in diagnostic cards are even more vulnerable to false readings due to system buss problems. Lets get down to business...

Check or replace your system memory...

Suspect motherboard/video drivers. Update drivers from ASUS and Nvidia directly. Do not use drivers supplied on discs!

Suspect power supply. Is the 8800 connected to the power supply properly?

 

[Drowsiness]

You dear software guys As an experienced hardware/electronic repair guy, I never got excited about any "advanced system information programs". They all depend on a "healthy" hardware platform to function, and those plug in diagnostic cards are even more vulnerable to false readings due to system buss problems. Lets get down to business...

Check or replace your system memory...

Suspect motherboard/video drivers. Update drivers from ASUS and Nvidia directly. Do not use drivers supplied on discs!

Suspect power supply. Is the 8800 connected to the power supply properly?

You're right. The PSU is probably the culprit here. Sure, it may sound as though I am nit-picking, but the 8800GT *needs* a minimum of 24A to power it sufficiently. Yeah, I know, ~4A doesn't sound like a huge deviation, but it's too low I suspect.

I used to have an 8800GT and the box recommended 30A on the rail for it to run well enough. I had a 550W PSU at the time, but it ONLY had 18A on the +12v rail and the machine would freeze, blue screen and fail to boot a lot with such low power. I ended up getting a PC Power & Cooling 610W with 49A on the rail and it's been happy ever since.

 

[SoftwareMan]

I've been going through a rather lengthy postings series on another board, (ozforums) and been going through mostly everything, and the conclusion also there seems to say that the PSU is the culprit.
I understand the MIST supply is rather unknown (seems it's some Norwegian brand), and even if it is known here to run rather silent, it may not have enough current, or is probably not as HQ as it should be.
The symptoms Drowsiness mentions are very equal to mine, I've also have some trouble booting - sometimes I have to try twice with the reset button to get it started - that may be related.
So I suppose I'll have to throw some more money on this problem, a supply like
the OCZ GameXStream 600W should be sufficient ?

To TMagic650: Yeah I know, I just clipped their hype - this foum doesn't allow links to be posted until I've got 5 postings...... I just metinoned this program to say it is one where the freezing is easy to get. The same happens with nTune (the NVidia Control panel), Expert Tool from Gainwards, and mostly every program that access or try to use the 3D. I found when access to IDirect7 HAL or OpenGL functions on the board where done, it froze. Probably the current requirement increases when those functions are used. Assume they start up some powersucking chips......

 

[Drowsiness]

That should be enough power... the total amps for the 12v rails is 72A according to the specs.

But before you go out and buy another PSU, just to be sure... do you have a friend who can loan you one close to the specs of the one you are thinking of buying? It would be good to test that out, just to make SURE it's the PSU and not something else entirely.

 

[SoftwareMan]

Thanks!
I'll do the friends run first , and then try to get one on loan/buy terms from a shop nearby. May work. I'll report back if this fixes the problem.