un-sufficient power message from nvidia

first i am going to start out by telling you all my complete system so it will be easyer for anyone to help me

CPU: amd 64 x2 6000+ 3.0Ghz
Motheboard: Asus M2N4-SLI
Graphics: 2(SLI) EVGA 8600GTS 256MB
Hard drive: 250GB seagate barracuda
basic dvd burner
PSU: antec earthwatt 500watt

im running 2 120mm fans, 1 80mm fan, Zerotherm Cpu cooler BFT-90, 2 Zalman FS-V7 vga coolers, and one pair of Red Cathodes.

Now that you all know my setup i will tell you my problem

i have two problems, the first one is related to my vga cards. not all the time but once in a while when i turn on my red cathodes an error message pops up saying that my vga cards are not receiving sufficient power and that the graphic settings have been reduced to save power...i dont see how this can bee because my power supplie should be able to hold everything i have.

im not sure if this belongs here but my second problem involves my OS, but it could be related to my power problems

in the past month my OS has crashed twice, the first time i had to do a complete reinstall, and start from scratch. and the second time witch was about 3 days ago i was able to repair and keep my files. i dont know how i can be having these problems, my computer is used moslty for gaming. I use Winaso and AVG. so i know my computer is clean..

i hope theres someone out there who can help me... im also new to this forum so im hoping it comes in handy for me

You have a power hungry CPU and 2 vid cards, You need better power supply.

I checked specs on Your PSU. It has 2 17A 12V rails. one of therails feeds CPU and 17A for thatt is more than enough. And then you have 2x 8600 GTS and all the other stuff(HDD,CD ect) on the second rail and 17A is not enough to feed all of that. You should be getting single rail PSU like Corsair VX550 with a single 41A 12V rail or even a VX450 with single 33A 12V rail would do but I would recommend VX550

ainarssems,

"I plugged in the 8-pin EPS12V connector and proceeded to put a 30A load on it. The PSU did not shut off, which confirmed that my visual observation that all of the +12V leads were in fact coming from the same source on the PCB. The Antec EarthWatts does NOT have multiple +12V rails. It only has one +12V rail with no limiters on any of the connectors."

From the review here:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.p [...] ry&reid=35

Did you plug in the six pin connectors on the video cards?

Did not know that it has single rail. It sis advertised as dual rail. Must be cathodes than.

Also + 1 for Corsair 550VX

ive read reveiws on my PSU and people have had it powering 8800gt in sli, so i dont see how it wouldnt be enough power.

i dont know how u got that my PSU only has 1 12v rail...i read the whole article that you posted in the link and it even says...

"The back of the box tells us that this PSU meets ATX12V 2.2 specifications, has full range input voltage capability, has active power factor correction, is quiet, has dual +12V rails, a PCI-e connector (my unit actually had two) and four SATA connectors. The "80 Plus" logo is also predominately displayed on both the front and back of the box" (that came from your link)

are there any diagnostic programs that can test the whole power supplie to make sure it is working correctly?

i will run the hard drive diagnostic to see what it shows...

are you serious..... the cathodes draw so much amperage... if you have one or two of those that signicantly increases power drain.... now i wonder why you have power issues when you turn on the cathodes.... maybe not turning them on would solve your problem... they are after all only looks

How much amperage do they draw??

And thogrom - deleting a double post is super easy - just use the "Delete this reply" option.

i ran seatools and i passed the long drive self test, and both long and short generic tests. it fail the S.M.A.R.T test..(watever that does)
and it failed the short drive self test....
i have no idea wat any of this means ...is my hard drive messed or not?
i took out my cathodes and i had to RMA my second vga fan because the LEDs went out..




and thogrom i though this was a computer help forum not a grammer correction forum.

What model of Seagate250GB Barracuda do you have? 7200.11? 7200.10?

-> Not all HDDs have SMART technology but if your HDD model does it seems to show you have some type of problem.

"SMART stands for Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology.
HDD diagnostic checks are monitored for disk spin speed, sector-level faults, need for recalibration, spin-up time, head disk distance, the temperature of the drive, and various aspects of the drive motor, the media and the servo mechanisms.
The ocurrence of errors can be noted and compared to standard performance parameters encoded in the diagnostic system. Let's suppose the drive begins to take longer to reach spin speed, and that more retries are needed to attain full rpm, then it can indicate that the drive's bearings or motor are likely to fail.
Another example would be an increased need for error correction on read data. This could indicate platter surface contamination (restricted to a few disk blocks) or a read head problem (applies to all blocks on a platter).
The S.M.A.R.T. system can only detect about 70 percent of likely failures. It might not seem that smart but it is seventy times better than 0 percent."

Your dual red CCFL light kit probably draws ~ 5mA .