Power supply + artifacting

I

infiniti029

Guest
I installed two new case fans and since then i've been getting artifacts occasionaly on bootup and in windows. it's not all the time, only sometimes. before i added the 2 fans everything was working fine.

is this a case of an under-powered pc? i have a 300w max power supply (connected to it: p4 2.4ghz, radeon9700 pro, 2 hds, 2 fans, soundcard, tv card, dvd burner).

also is there ANY DANGER of leaving my pc like this, will anything get fried?? i do feeling like buying a new powersupply.
 
what brand power supply is it? if its a generic than definately get a new one.

i think the problem is that when you start the computer it uses a lot more power to get the hard drives starting spinning and all that kind of stuff. a constant supply of 300w should probebly be fine for leaving your computer running, it just has troubles starting it up.

do yourself a favor and go buy an antec truepower 480w.
 
thx for the reply. however, i was also wondering if there was any danger in leaving my pc like this? (with it artifacting occasionaly)
 
over a long period of time it will probebly kill your hard drives. but everthing else is RELATIVELY safe.
 
would adding only 2 fans really mess up my pc like this?

and why would an underpowered pc cause artifacts, isnt that a videocard problem?
 
What are the other specs?

Also, does it artifact without those two fans? If it does not, i suggest removing those fans until you get more power.
 
Personally I can't believe that two fans are really running your PSU down that much. If the artifacting doesn't occur with the two-fans connected to the PSU then my guess is that you have been red-lining your PSU for some time now and the fans pushed it over some edge.

Your setup is definitely a little heavy for a generic 300w PSU. An overbuilt Fortron or Zalman could probably handle it though.

Artifacting would definitely be an odd PSU related problem. But then again most real head-scratching computer problems are caused by a bad PSU.

What are your PSU rails reading at?
 
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