the_gamer

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12vnz9.jpg
 
Best way to measure it is with a multimeter.

I would test the memory with memtest86+, which is free, before replacing the power supply. It could be memory related.

Please list your system components.
 

aziraphale

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8.5 is awfully low; I don't think that could work. Therefore I suppose the reading isn't accurate. But since you get crashes I'd consider replacing or upgrading your PSU...
 
Two different programs are telling you two very different things. PC Wiz is telling you that the 12 volt bus is actually 11.92 volts (good). You need to measure the 12 volt output to see what you actually have.
 

the_gamer

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Using a 4 pin connector from the PSU I got 12.10V (12.12V peak), and 5.17V. These would change slightly while gaming but usually stay withing 12.10V to 12.06V. I should also stress how random the crashes are, sometimes I'll get one within 5mins of starting the game and one again 5mins in on reboot. Other times I can play a 2 hour session with no problems. Usually there will be buggy graphics for some time before it crashes (white dots and weird triangular black bits that appear for a second or less). Sometimes the crashes give a BSoD after some time has passed saying that the driver nv4_disp got stuck in an infinite loop, and sometimes my screen goes to 16bit colour and I get a popup saying the same as the BSoD and that I should reboot. I've already got the graphics card replaced once, since I used to have much more regular problems with lots of coloured triangles extending into infinitity, and apparent dead pixels. I've tried to talk to BFG about it again but they just asked for my power supply specs and then gave me an RMA number again. I'm not sure if I can send it back (and I'm not sure if it needs to be sent back), because I had to take off some white plastic from the graphics card fan connector to connect the 3 pin zalman fan to the 2 pin slot.
Here are my specs

Conroexfire-esata2 motherboard (20pin power). This has the newest version of bios on it, mostly default settings although I've changed bus latency to 128 from 32 since the nvidia website said it's recommended to make it more stable, and I've turned off floppy as I don't use one and turned off other stuff that I don't use.
Core 2 duo e6300 @1.86GHz. Idles at ~40C with zalman fan on it controlled by zalman fan-mate.
2GB (2x1GB) geil RAM (4-4-4-12) with heatsink on both, I've had this replaced once because another set were faulty. The current ones pass memtest so don't seem to be a problem. These sit in slots 0 and 2
BFG 7900GT 256MB OC with zalman fan on it (37C idle fan-mate on full). Replaced once before, it no longer had the random 'dead pixels', but it locks up randomly during gameplay. This has the power supply's only PCIE connector connected to it and has the newest drivers (94.24 forceware). I've tried reinstalling these.
160GB western digital SATA hard drive. This has freshly installed windows xp on it as well as all my programs. Re-installing windows xp sped up my computer a little bit, but didn't stop the crashing.
80GB maxtor drive, I only use this for putting stuff on when I reformat
3 case fans. 1 connected to the motherboard, 2 that originally were 3 pin but I only had 1 case fan connection on my motherboard so I re-wired them so that the are in paralell, splitting after connecting to a PSU 4 pin connector to a random connector that both the fans go through. The quality of the wiring is questionable, but both fans spin so I assume it's ok.
480W Xilence psu.
+3,3V +5V +12V +12V -12V -5V +5VSB
32,0A 31,0A 15,0A 16,0A 0,8A - 2,0A

I wouldn't mind spending some money on upgrading or replacing components, I'd just like to find out if it's at all necessary and what part would need replacing.
 
Xilence...hmmm, I don't think that one is on anyone's quality list, but I have no experience with it myself. Is another known good-quality PSU available for testing? The one you have may not be providing enough juice, or may be choking under load.
 

pmr

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Just a speedfan bad reading. Take a look at my reading

68i7r84.jpg


Maybe your psu is going down and in fact that is the problem, but that number is just a bad reading
 

the_gamer

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I tried switching monitor but it didn't make a difference, although I still had to use a special adapter to connect to the DVI plug on my graphics card. I ran memtest for 36mins but that didn't show up any errors either.

I've also hooked up the multimeter to the back of the PCIE power connector in my graphics card and unless a sudden fluctuation in voltage causes the error then I can't see any abnormalities on the meter (usually around 12.12V). Considering that I've had different problems after getting a replacement card from BFG, how likely is it that they sent me another faulty card?

Also, if I close the game before I crash after the buggy graphics start then the buggy graphics will still be there when I start the game again and won't go away until I reboot
 

the_gamer

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So what PSU should I get?

I'd preferred meshed wires with 2 fan connectors if anyone know of any good ones with those 2 things..