Computer stopped booting unless I remove the video card, is it lack of power?

Fulano5321

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Aug 10, 2015
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I have an old computer I've been messing with with a generic 420 watt PSU and an old AM3 dual core CPU.

I put an old 9800 GT video card in it and it ran for about four days. Then today the system hangs while the BIOS is detecting the hardware, usually either after it does the RAM check or after it detects the USB mouse.

I remove the video card and it boots fine.
I also noticed with the video card connected the mechanical hard drive doesn't spin up.

According to several PSU calculators I should only need about 350 watts, but I'm wondering if the video card is just too much for the generic PSU?

Is this typical behavior for a lack of power?
 
Solution
Sometimes it's not just a question of whether your PSU's total power figure is enough, but whether it can provide enough amps on a specific rail (usually the 12v rail(s)), when it concerns a video card. Also, it's possible that the PSU is degraded, or its voltages fluctuate too much when under a heavier load.

I know I didn't answer your question directly, but there are some things for you to consider as you think it over.

atheus

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Aug 2, 2010
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Sometimes it's not just a question of whether your PSU's total power figure is enough, but whether it can provide enough amps on a specific rail (usually the 12v rail(s)), when it concerns a video card. Also, it's possible that the PSU is degraded, or its voltages fluctuate too much when under a heavier load.

I know I didn't answer your question directly, but there are some things for you to consider as you think it over.
 
Solution

Fulano5321

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Aug 10, 2015
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These are what I was wondering about. Especially since the hard drive is spun by 12 volt and it wasn't spinning up with the video card installed.

I've never had a PSU die in my 18 ish years of tinkering with computer hardware, they always have the fans go out first, so I wasn't really sure if that could be the cause of the problem here.

Thanks for the reply!