8800GTX suddenly has low power warning on boot?

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Buztafen

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
238
Hey all,

So my comp (see sig) has been working flawlessly for around 6 months till the last week or so when its started to give a 'low power' warning on boot up. The warnings from the nvidia control panel and basically says its being downclocked to stop it from frying. This is evident in games such as Fallout 3 where when i get the warning it bearly get 10fps where as all other times its nice and smooth.

Im puzzled as too why its doing this all of a sudden?

My PSU is a 600w Tagan Force II with 2 dedicated gpu power cables (1 x 6 pin, 1 x 8 pin) and its less than a year old?

If i fiddle with the power cables going into the 8800 before boot up it more often than not works as normal but after a couple more bootups starts with the warning again.

The only thing i can think is the cards on its way out, its almost 2 years old and for its first year had a hard life processing digital terrain models pretty much 24/7 before i liberated it from work, but that doesnt explain why its intermittent? When it boots up without a warning the card still works great, no gliches or artifacts?

Anyone have any pearls of wisdom? :rolleyes:

EDIT: One other bit of info, ive tried updating the drivers to the latest 182's.....still the same problem....
 
Try reseating the card. Then try re-installing drivers. Unfortunately it looks like you have a bad 12v rail or two... Call Tagan and troubleshoot it with them. Sometimes on some of the "off-brand" power supplies, the 12v rails that power the video cards will go bad, if not be inconsistent with the amps it provides.
 
Hmmm, guess its better if its the £60 psu rather than the £100 gpu :)

Strange hows its intermittent though?
 
Buztafen said:
If i fiddle with the power cables going into the 8800 before boot up it more often than not works as normal but after a couple more bootups starts with the warning again.
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I had a 8800GTX that would do that also. Use cable ties to limit the cables movement and clean up the airflow in the case.
 
There's a review of your PSU here. Among other things, they state:

The rear of the unit is also a bit different with a large on/off switch which is protected by a clear rubber guard. There is also a switch which can be moved from “Normal” to “Turbo”. This switch is something which is unique to Topower-built power supplies and we have seen something similar on the Mushkin power supplies we have reviewed, except Mushkin calls it “Rail Fusion” (which the user cannot control) while Tagan calls it “Turbo”. Basically, this switch is supposed to either split the +12V output into 4 distinct 20A rails when in the “Normal” position or combine the 4 rails into a single 48A +12V rail when switched into the “Turbo” mode. Topower has done this with their units in order to adhere to ATX specifications for multi-rail designs while giving the consumer the ability to have a single-rail unit as well.

It is important to note that ALL of the testing we did with this power supply was done with the Turbo mode active since we found that switching to normal mode did not impact performance in ANY way. Indeed, it is this reviewer’s opinion that the Turbo feature is nothing more than a gimmick.
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I'm just curious if flipping that switch the other way helps your situation. The article also criticizes the EM filters on the PCI-E cables - they might be weighing the cable down and slightly out of the sockets. I'm also curious about what cables you've plugged into the 8800GTX - you've plugged in both the 6-pin and the 6-pin part of the 6+2pin connectors?

I'm generally inclined to think it's the PSU, not the video card.
 
I had the same problem crop up with my 8800gtx seemingly randomly after a year or more of good service; the problem turned out to simply be that the wires had vibrated themselves loose. Now, in my case, it was because i was using molex to pci-e adapters (had a nice zippy/emacs power supply w/ plenty of power, but it was made before pci-e power :() and those molex adapters worked loose. In your case it'd have to be the pci-e connectors directly off your PS causing it IF that was the cause. I'd try re-seating everything first.
 
Its your powersupply, I had this happen with a clear logisys 550 that was a great looking unit but performed terribly. Get a good Thermaltake, Corsair or PCP&C and never look back. Your computer will thank you for it.
 
gstyle99 said:
Its your powersupply, I had this happen with a clear logisys 550 that was a great looking unit but performed terribly. Get a good Thermaltake, Corsair or PCP&C and never look back. Your computer will thank you for it.
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I can't recommend Enermax enough... The Corsair of PSU's imo.
 
silent-circuit said:
I'm pretty sure Corsair is the Corsair of PSUs... while Enermax is the well-specced, high-performance, overpriced, unreliable shit of PSUs.
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I dunno, I have read all about enermax failures, but then again I have read about every other brand of psu failure, I pesonally use enermax in all my rigs and have not once had any problem with them, that cant be said for many other psu brands that I have used in the past.

For me enermax has always been good regardless of other people who have had problems with them, because people are ALWAYS going to have problems with something regardless of who makes it, I personally would buy enermax again for the sole purpose that none of my enermax psu's have caused me any problems and are rock solid reliable and if they suddenly fuk up now I would still buy enermax again because they have given me years of stress/failure free usage.
 
Ok, as originally posted a few months back im getting these intermittent low power warnings from my 8800GTX again after they went away for a while following some wire pushing and cable management. Though i'd reuse this thread rather than create another.

Anyone anymore info on why its doing this?

The Tagan 600w power supply i have has a Turbo switch on the back as described from the post above. Will flicking this make any difference? Will it affect any other components in my comp.

Cheers all.

EDIT: Also in answer to evilsofa's question, i have both the first 6 pin cable and second 6 pin cable (minus the extra 2 pin section) plugged into the card. When the warning doesnt appear on bootup i get great performance out of the 8800GTX.
 
i'd say it's pretty obvious that it's a loose or loosening wire somewhere if you pushed the wires around and it went away for a while. My problem was a loose ATX/MOLEX to PCI-E power connector adaptor; i taped it to the plug and the problem went away. Spending 5$ on a new one would be a less ghetto fix.
 
headless said:
i'd say it's pretty obvious that it's a loose or loosening wire somewhere if you pushed the wires around and it went away for a while.
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Loose connection from removing/re-attaching cables, or tolerances being on the loose side. One part is on the large end and the other on the small allowable size.
 
Had same problem on old evga 8800gtx few months back on hx1000, RMA took care of it.
 
Ok, im going to 'last ditch attempt' a fix for this low power problem by going ghetto and breaking out the sticky tape on the 2 x PCI-E 6 pin power cables that power this 'bane of my life' 8800GTX. If this doesnt work, its going to be a new PSU.

Price not being a issue, what would be recommended as the best PSU or (atleast make of PSU) to get for my sig setup?

Cheers.
 
Corsair PSUs are good; check prices at buy.com as well as newegg.com; buy.com is often quite a bit cheaper for the same PSU. The Corsair VX550 would be a good inexpensive choice at $66.24 on buy.com.
 
I had a Enermax Liberty for about 2 years. It never died, I just needed more power. They are great power supply units. I can also recommend Corsair and Antec. I haven't had the best of luck with Thermaltake but I usually don't recommend any of their products anyways.
 
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