Bad PSU? Time for a new?

R

Rosewood

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 24, 2000
Messages
480
I am currently using an Enermax EG565P-VE that is less than a year old. While running w/ a S939 and an Opt 175, everything was stable as a rock.

I have (tried to) switch to a Core 2 Duo platform (Ab9-Pro, E6400, Corsair XMS2) and I just can't get stability. Stock settings, two motherboards, two sets of memory, two CPUs, with and without my 7800GT, w/ and w/o the JMicron enabled, etc. etc. etc.

I swapped out for another brand new out of the box mid range PSU I had laying around (Thermaltake 430W) and I still couldn't run orthos for more than 5 minutes w/o a BSOD.

It seems like I use a lot of power (NEC 3550A x2, WD 3200 RE x 5, 7800GT, a PCI video card for monitors 3-4) but this SLI ready PSU should be able to handle that. I mean, it did while running what should have been a more power hungry system.

Just scratching my head and trying to figure out if this is it.
 
Have you checked with the mobo manufacturer for compatibility? It's a long shot but sometimes these issues crop up.
 
Slartibartfast said:
Have you checked with the mobo manufacturer for compatibility? It's a long shot but sometimes these issues crop up.
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Unless I am completely dense (wait, I am) I didn't see anything. However, both a Thermaltake (although it only comes in at 430W) and this Enermax come in low.

I'll probably break down and get a Corsair HX620w anyways but I just don't want to spend the extra $ if I don't have to.
 
In theory, you could have gotten two bad mobos. Did you try running memtest at all and see if it was stable? By doing that you can stress some of the system and it should give you some more info to work with. Instability in windows can be the fault of windows, or the HD.
 
Slartibartfast said:
In theory, you could have gotten two bad mobos. Did you try running memtest at all and see if it was stable? By doing that you can stress some of the system and it should give you some more info to work with. Instability in windows can be the fault of windows, or the HD.
Click to expand...

Two different HDs, one a brand spanking new one. Two clean installs of XP. Memtest has never returned an error yet prime95 often gives me rounding errors or just causes a BSOD.

Not-being-an-ass-edit: I do appreciate the ideas. I've been blowing my brains out on this damn stability issue so I like having some feedback. Thanks.
 
Rosewood said:
Two different HDs, one a brand spanking new one. Two clean installs of XP. Memtest has never returned an error yet prime95 often gives me rounding errors or just causes a BSOD.

Not-being-an-ass-edit: I do appreciate the ideas. I've been blowing my brains out on this damn stability issue so I like having some feedback. Thanks.
Click to expand...

No problem, just hoping I can save ya some $ ;) Have you looked into what those Prime errors could mean? I'm not too familiar with the program, honestly. I use it to check for stability but have never had it give me an error.
 
Slartibartfast said:
No problem, just hoping I can save ya some $ ;) Have you looked into what those Prime errors could mean? I'm not too familiar with the program, honestly. I use it to check for stability but have never had it give me an error.
Click to expand...

Everything I've found says that rounding errors mean the CPU is screwing up. In the torture test it tells the computer to do calculations that it knows the results from. If the computer doesn't get the answer right, it quits and says "lol, you suck."
 
I'm guessing the answer is yes, but have you tried priming it will running bare minimum hardware? like, 1 stick of mem, 1 hd, no ide, etc.?
 
Slartibartfast said:
I'm guessing the answer is yes, but have you tried priming it will running bare minimum hardware? like, 1 stick of mem, 1 hd, no ide, etc.?
Click to expand...

Oh yes, many times. The most frustrating part:

Start with PCI video card, one stick of memory and that was it (PS/2 keyboard, no USB).

Ran memtest and then prime95 for 6+ hours each, no issues. I added it all up until I had EVERYTHING I normally use. I ran prime95 overnight and no problems! Woot. I go to make a post that everything is stable and then BOOM BSOD! I started taking steps backwards until I got back to the barest minimum configuration and ... and ... still BSOD.

Go fucking figure.
 
Right now I have everything plugged in and Orthos has been running for half an hour. Everything is stable. Temperatures are good.

E6400/Ab9-Pro/2 gigs of XMS2/7800GT/Radeon 7000/5xWD HDDs/DVD Burner/USB Keyboard and Mouse and Hubs on that PSU and ... all good.

:asplode:
 
Slartibartfast said:
Have you checked out the errors in the sys event log? Try that, also get some info off of your BSOD's and check out mikeblas' rockin' FAQ.
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Thanks for sticking with me. Sometimes I get BSODs and normally they are paging faults. Other times its just click back to desktop. The event logs just show that there was a system failure.

I'm currently 100% stable. I have my memory voltage down to 1.95 and everything connected.
 
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