Hello,

I have an older PC, and the original video card I had was an AGP 9600. Occasionally in games ASUS probe would pop up and show that the 3.3v voltage had dropped to ~3, sometimes even as low as 2.8. I recklessly ignored it until several months later I wake up to find my video card burnt out. I replaced it with an ATI x1300 which ran fine for the following 2 years with none of the voltage problems. A few days ago I replaced the x1300 with an AGP 7600GT and I'm experiencing the exact same problem I had with the 9600. There's a power cable attached to the 7600GT so it should be receiving enough power. My power supply is a 450w topower.

Basically, I need some advice here.. is my power supply done? I don't want to rush out and replace the power supply only to have the exact same problem. What are my options here?

Thanks.

After doing some googling, unfortunately I think the problem might be with the motherboard. It's an ASUS p4800-e and I've seen people talk about the same problem with that line of motherboard. If so, it could be because the 9600 didn't use a power cable and taxed the system harder than the 1300, which did use a power cable. The 7600GT uses a power cable but it presumably requires more power than the 1300, so the problem manifested itself after installing that card.

Whatever.. I'm screwed I think, regardless. I guess I'll take it into a local repair shop.

Still might be your PSU doesn't have enough juice to supply a beefier card.

I tried out some benchmarking/stability apps and was able to bring on the problem with a simple 'memory stress test.' It seems any heavy load that at least involves a lot of memory causes the 3.3v to dip.

Actually, I was just sitting here browsing websites and the Asus Probe popped up saying it'd dropped to 3.0v, which hasn't happened before.. I wonder if all that stress testing weakened my system. Could the video card be to blame even though it was basically doing nothing?

I'd be more inclined to blame the PSU.