Need help...

[EliteABombAZ]

Today I got an Athlon XP 2200 MB/Proc.
I installed everything just fine. I used my existing case from my old Gateway. Problem... I heard that the new motherboards need a 300 Watt Power Supply. My old Gateway was an Athlon 750 and only had a 200 Watt supply. Well... I can run my new motherboard... only as an Athlon XP 1500, if I up it to 2200 in the bios, it locks up when booting Windows. Is it the lack of 100 watts in power that is causing this? I don't think the processor could be hot... I bought the good heatsink & fan. My MB is an ECS. 512 MB DDR2100 RAM. And now... lately I am even having problems booting into Windows with it running at 1500.

Help!

 

[jlanka]

get a good PS. Thats your problem.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[EliteABombAZ]

Thanks. Just bought a new case with a 300 Watt supply. Hopefully this will solve it. I will install it later... after work.

 

[Crashman]

Gateway used fairly solid power supplies in their full sized cases. Even though your 200W unit outputs about the same as an Antec 250W unit, that's still not enough. I'd recommend a 300W name brand power supply, or a 400W generic would probably work. You'll need to cut a notch in the back of your case to clear the power plug, as standard ATX supplies are a bit wider.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>

 

[EliteABombAZ]

Changed to a 300 Watt supply. Still having problems. I did buy a 512 MB PC2100 Memory when I bought the Motherboard. When I went anf bought the new power supply, I told the guy at the store about the problems I was having and he said... It may be the memory. "If you are using 'low end' memory, you might have problems. Well... the thing is... I BOUGTH THE MEMORY THERE. He acknowleged that! Don't they stand behind their products? Anyway... same problem. AMD Athlon 2200 Pocess/MOBO, 512MB Ram, 300 Watt Power Supply. Boots sometimes... while running in 1500 mode, never boots when running at a full 2200. Also... when I turn on the computer, it does the "memory check" and it says "OK", but when it detects the drives... it takes like 15 seconds to dectect them CD ROMS, HD... with S.M.A.R.T. on or off. Either way. Do you think it's my memory? I got it for only $59.

 

[Crashman]

You changed to a...generic power supply? If the voltage levels are low or bounce around a lot, you'll still have problems. Yes it could be RAM as well. In fact, ECS boards are notorious for having problems with cheap power supplies and cheap RAM, as they lack a good set of filters for power noise.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>