Power Problems

[drakon]

I am currently getting system crashes when I run games. Sometimes the games run fine and then after a while they crash the system. I am unsure as to where the problem is occurring. I was using one of the MSI tools and the 12V rail was registering as being only 1.5V (would have thought that games wouldnt even start with a 12V rail that low). I checked the connectors and all seems to be set up correctly. I have update all drivers and BIOS. Any ideas? Replacing the power supply would be a pain so Id like to see if thats really the problem first.

System Specs:
MSI K8N SLI Platinum, nForce4 SLI, ATX Socket-939, 4xSATA2, GbLAN, Firew, PCI-Ex16
Hiper PSU ATX 580W Black
HPU-4K580 Dual Fan, Silent, 20/24pin
Crucial PC3200 DDR-DIMM 2048MB CL3 KIT
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0GHz Socket 939
Gainward GeForce 6800GT 256MB 2ns GDDR3

 

[Crashman]

It's reading the wrong sensor, that's all. The system wouldn't even start with 1.5v on the 12v line.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[shawnlizzle =]]

LOL +or- 1volt causes extreme system instability.. think about 10.5v difference!!! @ other dude: give us specs?

<font color=red>gforce mx100/200 @ 230/440 =]</font color=red>

 

[Rugger]

Sound like heat/memory to you?

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[Crashman]

Yes, it's funny but it could actually be both: I once had a module that would quit working after it reached a certain temperature.

I'd say his problem is most likely heat alone.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Rugger]

LOL - you've had just about everything happen to you!

Drak: Try opening the side of your case and point a regular house fan into the case. Create the circumstances that normally cause the crash and if you don't get the crashes, then it is a heat issue. If you still get crashes, then try removing one stick of RAM and create the crash circumstances. If it remains stable, then swap RAM sticks and try with the second stick.

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[Crashman]

It was very frustrating! The module would work fine for hours under Memtest86, but as soon as you did anything that really heated the system up, it would crash, and a reboot would show the module missing! And then you could get the module back by letting the system cool down a couple minutes. I tried the module in several systems with the same result!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[drakon]

Thanks for the tips. I dont have a house fan to use(no need for one in Ireland :/) but the case is cool to the touch and the CPU is registering at 31C idle and hasnt gone past 42C that I can see (cant tell with crash :/) The GPU is also running at 55C. I ran memtest86 on the ram and it passed okay. I know thats not a guarantee. I think that the problem may be related to one of the driver updates I did as the system was running fine a while ago and I updated because Fable Lost Chapters used to crash to desktop sometimes. Since then its gotten worse.

Is there any chance that my video card has bought it (I overclocked it at one stage and was getting artifacts so switched it to low settings again)? Any utilities I can test with?

 

[Rugger]

With your symptoms I don't think it is the GPU. Typical GPU is artifacts like you witnessed when OCing the card. Have you taken temp readings after the crash to desktop? Do you/friends have any spare RAM that you can use in the system?

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