NEw PSU needed? Which?

[Modred189]

Ok, so after a conversation over in the video card forum, I may need a new PSU, but I am pretty retarded when it comes to this kind of thing.
The reason I came to this conclusion is that, when loading the latest catalyst drivers, I got a random blue screen that was so fast I couldn't catch what it was about... And the MBR of my HD was hosed.

It was suggested that my power supply, the BFG 650GS may not be enough for my system.
Which is:
Q6700@3.0ghz, Scythe Ninja, copper on a P5B Deluxe wifi/ap
4gb crucial ballistix DDR2800 running at 600mhz
1 raptor X 150gb, 1 WD caviar black, 1seagate 500gb
2X ati 4850
Creative XfiGamer

First, do you all think this PSU is enough for this system? Could it have hosed my MBR?
Second, if it needs replacing, I was hoping for a modular PSU for ~100-140 (on sale). But the BFGES800 stuck in my mind after the [H] review...
Any ideas?

 

[Zero82z]

Your current PSU is still very capable of handling the power draw of your entire PC. I think it's more likely that whatever issues you're having are caused by something else.

 

[Modred189]

That's not the same psu

 

[JonGerow]

I don't think that's PSU related. I mean.... if it worked up to the point to where you upgraded the graphics card drivers.

Now you say the MBR is hosed too?

So you have to reinstall Windows? Have you started this process yet?

 

[Modred189]

Already did it.
Yea, when I was running the update, I got this super fast blue screen and the computer rebooted.
When it got past the POST screens, it stuck at a screen that said something like;
"no MBR found, press ctrl-alt-del to restart"

 

[JonGerow]

Ok. So you already reinstalled Windows and then what?

I'm confused with your timeline.

Your computer was working, you updated the graphics card drives, you got an error, rebooted and then got a "no MBR found" error. You then.... reinstalled Windows or did all of this happen after you reinstalled Windows?

It shouldn't happen while you're installing Windows because the install is going to try to re-write the MBR. You wouldn't get the error during POST because to reinstall Windows, you need to boot from the CD first, so you wouldn't get an HDD error regardless of the condition of the drive. If Windows couldn't write to the drive during install, that would be a completely different error.

So if you could please layout the timeline of what happened, we can probably figure out what's happening.

And I still don't get the connection between what happened and the power supply. The PSU is more than enough for your system and I don't see how even a bad PSU could specificaly target your MBR to fail... at least not without other symptoms/problems occuring first or at the same time.

 

[Modred189]

No prob.
- ATi 8.11 drivers released/downloaded, no problems with the system as is, it was on a fesh install of windows from some other ATi driver related issues.

-Tried to uninstall old 8.10's but got some kind of "failed to load detection driver' error.
-During driver install, I get the blue screen, reboot and MBR message

-Format and reinstall OS

-Working fine now... *knock on wood*


The PSU suggestion came from some folks over in the Video Card forum (linked above) suggesting that my PSU's 12v rail amperage was too anemic for an overclocked (albeit lightly OC'd) Q6700, 4sticks of ram, 24850's and three HD's...

I'll be honest, I don't know much about PSU's or electrical measurements etc (college physics sucked, I was a biology major), so it's kinda greek for me.

Could it be due to the older 965 chipset and CFX?

 

[That Linux Guy]

Your hardware shouldn't have a problem powering that load. If I had to say something's wrong with your PSU, it's because I've never been a fan of BFG. When I worked for Best Buy, saw so many of their cards get returned. PC Power&Cooling, Seasonic, and Corsair make great units. Antec, Enermax, and OCZ have nice units but they have a couple notoriously bad ones (Antec NeoHE 430 anyone?). The total wattage should be just fine for your rig.

It sounds to me like your ATI drivers are causing your system to go bonkers, or it could be something with your drive controller. Your harddrive could be going, or it could be some other app you have installed. MBRs don't screw up for no reason.

 

[Modred189]

Your hardware shouldn't have a problem powering that load. If I had to say something's wrong with your PSU, it's because I've never been a fan of BFG. When I worked for Best Buy, saw so many of their cards get returned. PC Power&Cooling, Seasonic, and Corsair make great units. Antec, Enermax, and OCZ have nice units but they have a couple notoriously bad ones (Antec NeoHE 430 anyone?). The total wattage should be just fine for your rig.

It sounds to me like your ATI drivers are causing your system to go bonkers, or it could be something with your drive controller. Your harddrive could be going, or it could be some other app you have installed. MBRs don't screw up for no reason.

See, that was my first/second guess; a bad HD. But the questions remains; why would a video card driver trigger an MBR being lost? Hrm...

 

[That Linux Guy]

I have no idea how a graphics driver could affect anything but graphics, to be honest.

The only time I have screwed up MBR, it's because I'm quad-booting 4 different OSs, so I'm much more bound to run into problems

Honestly, I think it's something in the chain of your drives. I think the culprit is between the southbridge and the one of the drives itself.

What type of setup are your harddrives? RAID5? RAID0? JBOD? RAID1+hot spare?

 

[Modred189]

I have no idea how a graphics driver could affect anything but graphics, to be honest.

The only time I have screwed up MBR, it's because I'm quad-booting 4 different OSs, so I'm much more bound to run into problems

Honestly, I think it's something in the chain of your drives. I think the culprit is between the southbridge and the one of the drives itself.

What type of setup are your harddrives? RAID5? RAID0? JBOD? RAID1+hot spare?

HD's are not RAIDed at all.
The 150gb raptor is for my OS and primary (and microsoft) apps.
1TB black edition is for my games, video editing/storage and secondary apps
The 500GB Seagate is for storing data and important docs only. I don't even put my music on it.

Too much I/O you think?

 

[Modred189]

Ok, new issue: Twice today when I plugged in a flash drive it errored. Once it just restarted, the second time I got a BSOD. hrm...

Could it be the mobo?

 

[Silent.Sin]

Ok, new issue: Twice today when I plugged in a flash drive it errored. Once it just restarted, the second time I got a BSOD. hrm...

Could it be the mobo?

Sounds like it could be a problem with overclocking and I/O stability also. I've seen plenty of supposed MBR errors that were really just the result of a bad OC. What kind of voltage are you giving the Northbridge? If it's not maxed out, try to bump that up a notch and see if that helps anything. Also try relaxing the FSB settings or just set everything to default before you go buying a new PSU only to find out that wasn't really the problem.

 

[pc299]

First thing you should do is drop everything to stock... you're never going to get to the bottom of the "issue" if it's related to your O/C and not a piece of hardware/software. It's rather amusing how many times there are help my PC blew up threads when people think component X or program Y "killed" their PC when it was their O/C settings all along.

 

[JonGerow]

When I worked for Best Buy, saw so many of their cards get returned.

LOL! You don't think that has anything to do with their customer base or the lax return policy? Of what BFG gets back on RMA from Best Buy, 95% of it tests good. For power supplies, everyone returns 2% or less. Best Buy returns over 10%. Go figure.

 

[Modred189]

Agreed, customers are retarded. I worked there too. The thing that sucked is we couldn't resell openboxed internal components.