EVGA GTX 260 -- Are my problems being caused by my PS?

[msdss]

I bought an EVGA GTX 260 over the weekend, and ever since I installed it my system has grinded to a hault. The hard drive spools down for several minutes at a time, my optical drive has difficulty reading discs, and just general lethargic behavior. The box on the card said it required a minimum of 500 watt power supply, so I thought I was ok with the Antec 550w that I bought. Do these symptoms sound like a PS problem, or could the card just be faulty? Putting my old EVGA 7950 GT KO back in my system seems to solve my problems, so it has to be one of the other. My system specs are:

Asus P5N-E SLI
2.4ghz E6600 Core 2 duo
4gb Mushkin DDR2 800
1 western digital 75gb raptor
1 plextor SATA DVD-RW drive
Antec Neo HE550 550w PS (http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NTU=)
the 3-4 fans that came with my antec nine hundred case
and of course, the GTX 260 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370)

 

[mi1ez]

I would have said that the PSU should be enough. Incorrect drivers can slow the system down a great deal. I would suggest uninstalling all graphics card drivers and downloading and installing the latest from the NVidia website.

 

[delluser1]

Should be fine with that psu.
Don't know if sigs are working so, my specs
P5N-E SLI
3.0ghz E8400 @ 4.2
4gb Ballistix Tracers
3 x 160 WD hd's
1 DVDrw
4 x 120 mm fans ( 2 led )
2 x 12 inch cathode light tubes
GTX 260 oc'ed
Gigabyte Odin GT 550w

 

[mi1ez]

Q6600 @3.6
4GB Ballistix Tracers
2x80GB HDD
1x750GB HDD
1 DVD
7x 120mm LED fans
1x 200mm LED fan (yes, it's an Antec 1200)
AMD HD 4870 (mild OC)

Corsair HX520

 

[msdss]

I would have said that the PSU should be enough. Incorrect drivers can slow the system down a great deal. I would suggest uninstalling all graphics card drivers and downloading and installing the latest from the NVidia website.

This is on a clean install of Vista 64 ultimate, with all of the latest drivers from nvidia's site.

 

[delluser1]

Did you do a defrag after the clean install ?

 

[msdss]

No need to defrag, the drive was formatted, so there is no fragmentation on the drive.

 

[delluser1]

Formatted or not, a clean OS install, including all of the neccessary drivers is enough to cause fragmentation.
Had a similar issue a couple of years back when I got my 7900 GTO.
Installed the card after a fresh install of XP Pro and things were a little out of sorts, a defrag cleared it up.
Wouldn't hurt to try it.

 

[msdss]

Just ran a defrag, system said my disk did not need defragmenting at this time, but I went ahead and ran it anyway. Still having the same problems. =(

 

[mi1ez]

Graphics card in the second PCIe slot?

I'm sure that PSU should be enough but running low on ideas now. You got a mate or something can lend you one just to try?

 

[delluser1]

I can't see what would cause the issues you are describing. Typically if there is not enough power for the card it shows up in the form of system crashes and low fps in games, not hard drive slow downs and optical drive misreads.
With no overclocking your system could run on a good 430w/30a power supply.
What bios version are you running on the mb ?

 

[msdss]

afraid not, and sadly the closest electronics store has an exchange policy, but not a return policy. so don't want to go buy a PS if thats not going to fix it. bleh...

 

[msdss]

Bought an Antec Earth 650W, worked like a charm.

 

[delluser1]

Great that you got it working, rather disappointing that the 550 didn't work for you though.
How old is it ? If under 3 years I'd get in touch with Antec and request a replacement.

 

[msdss]

It was only 3 months old. I don't have the receipt for it though. It works great, too bad its pretty much a paper weight though at this point.

 

[delluser1]

Even without the receipt you should contact them, they're a decent company, they may do something about it.
PS; read on another forum that you were using a molex to 6 pin adapter, if it only came with one modular 6 pin cable it means wherever you bought it from had pretty old stock because they were eventually equipped with 2.