x800xl and Far Cry, disasterous!

[Phil Weldon]

'Al Kaufmann' wrote in part:
| I found out sometime ago that by taking the side off my case, I can
| lower the speed of my cpu fan to minimum and the temperature reported
| by Motherboard Monitor drops by about 5~10C. To top thing off I
| reason enjoy the reduction in noise.
_____

What I've found to be very useful is to arrange for the CPU heatsink fan to
blow down into the heatsink, then cutting a 120mm hole in the Tower case
side and mounting a 120mm fan to blow outside air directly into the
motherboard area that contains the CPU heatskink/fan, DC-DC voltage
convertors/regulators, memory, chipsets, and the back of the display
adapter. Two 80mm fans blow blow out the back. The power supply has two
fans that exhaust through the rear. All air intake is through the front
across the hard drives and removable media drives. With this arrangement
the temperatures go UP when the side is removed.

The cases I like best (if bulky isn't a problem) is a tower that is deeper
than is usual, the EN-8950. This Enlight case is convertible to use either
as a tower or a rack-mount case, and has the dimensions of 25.6" inches high
by 8.6" wide by 19" deep, deep enough for the drives to be nearly a foot
from the motherboard. There are 9 slots with rails for 1 inch hight hard
drives and/or removable media drives that can be removed and isntalled
through the front door. It isn't fancy, but the extra room inside promotes
good air ciruclation and makes component changes easier. It comes with or
without power supplies (including redundant supplies, up to 2 X 600 Watts)
as well as a hot swap module for 5 X 1" height drives. Electrostatic
filters are provided for front intake and rear exhaust. The price is bad, ~
$100 US last time I bought (no power supplies or hotswap module included at
that price.) The one I have up and running at the moment has 5 hard drives,
a floppy, a DVD +R/W, a CD R/W, and a zip drive, leaving one slot free. The
system is a 'Northwood 2.6' GHz @ 3.510 GHz with 640 MBytes RDRAM and the
display adapter varies.

As you experiment with air flow, you might want to invest in a small digital
indoor/outdoor thermometer with a probe. A store like RadioShack will have
one for ~ $15 US.
_____

Phil Weldon

| On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 05:41:59 GMT, "Phil Weldon"
|
| >'Al Kaufmann' wrote, in part:
| >_____
| >
| >| I bought the Antec TruePower supply and I knew that the power supply
| >| fans run at the lowest speed appropriate to load and conditions. I
| >| guess they do not speed up until the power supply gets hot. Not a
| >| good idea if you are into overclocking.
| >_____
| >
| >Power supply fans that speed up when the power supply gets hot are a fine
| >idea. The manufacturer will choose fan speeds to keep the Power Supply
| >operating within specificatios. But ONLY IF the temperature of the air
| >ENTERING the Power Supply is enough lower than the specified operating
| >temperature range. It is reasonable to allow the power supply to choose
a
| >speed for other case fans since the power supply heat output will pretty
| >well track the over all heat output (its all heat in the end - very
little
| >energy is stored a magnetic orientations in magnetic media!) And are the
| >temperature set points for the fans adjustable?
|
| No the case fan speeds are not adjustable as far as I know but the fan
| on my cpu heatsink is adjustable and it is set at maximum - very
| noisy. The 4 case fans are connected to special fan connectors and
| they are pushing very little air.
|
| I found out sometime ago that by taking the side off my case, I can
| lower the speed of my cpu fan to minimum and the temperature reported
| by Motherboard Monitor drops by about 5~10C. To top thing off I
| reason enjoy the reduction in noise.
|
| >Cooling a computer system requires adequate interchange of cooling fluid
| >between the inside of the case and the outside of the case.
| >The cooling fluid (ambient air) must be sufficiently lower than the
desired
| >operating temperature for reasonably sized heat exchangers and
blowers/pumps
| >to transfer the heat generated.
| >
| >The thermal resistance between the high thermal density components
| >(CPU/GPU/chipset/Memory chips) must be sufficiently low.
| >
| >Air flow WITHIN the system case is important. This is not a trivial
| >problem. Systems run coolest and quietest when air from outside the case
is
| >directly applied to the CPU heat exchanger, the GPU heat exchanger and
the
| >PSU, then exhausted diredtly outside the case. An additional air stream
| >should idealy be used to cool hard drives, memory and motherboard (along
| >with the hotspots - chipsets, DC-DC convertor/regulators, and memory.)
You
| >can either go with a well designed completely solution (manufactured
| >computer where supposedly the design is reasonably good) or experiment
with
| >fans, flow directions, accessories, baffles and case apertures. The same
| >equipment arranged differently can make marked temperature differences.
| >However, starting with a 15 C ambient room temperature trumps all.
|
| My case is well designed Lian-Li PC60u with 2 case fans in front
| pulling air in and one at the top and back for exit. I will connect
| these fans to the regular connectors and then see what happens to the
| temperature inside the case.
|
| Ak
|
|

 

[Phil Weldon]

'AAvK' wrote, in part:
| Phil, power I am using, 375 watts plus 20% adds up to exactly the same as
my
| PSu is rated, 450 watts.
_____

Looking back over your posts, it sounds like a heat problem, but where? If
the power supply is involved, then poor air circulation is possibly the
culprit, otherwise the power supply might just be poorly built. Certainly
450 Watts is more than sufficient.

One easy diagnostic tool is MotherBoard Monitor 5.
It is a free utility and very well respected, available at
http://www.3degs.net/ .
It will log and display three or more temperature sensors as well as fan
speeds and voltages. Install this utility and log the reports as you
operate your system at various crunching levels. The log should give you an
idea of what's going on. Also use an indoor/outdoor digital thermometer
with a probe to check air temperature inside the case and especially the
temperature of the air leaving the CPU case. Removing the side from the
case may make some areas hotter and some areas cooler. Check the PSU intake
air temperature and output air temperature. It may be that the power supply
is getting air that has already been heated by the rest of the system.
Also, before buying a new power supply, try removing the power supply from
the case, but keep the cables plugged in. This should determine if poor air
circulation is the cause of your reported problem.

You say you found a capacitor in the bottom of the case. There are so many
capacitors on the motherboard it would be hard to determine if one were
completely missing. I think it highly unlikely that a capacitor could have
escaped from the PSU box. A description of the capacitor you found would
help. If it is a tubular electrolytic capacitor, about the size of a 1 inch
length of pencil, with a value of 10,000 microfarads or so and a working
voltage of 20 Volts or so, and it fell off the motherboard or Display
adapter, then it likely is from one of the capcitors in a DC-DC
regulator/convertor, and that is a serious problem that likely will make the
DC voltage it supplies sag under high current draws. If it is smaller, say
a 1/2" length of pencil, with a capacitance of ~ 100 to 1000 microfarads,
and with a working voltage of ~ 7 Volts, then it likely helped eliminated
noise on the power traces on the motherboard or a card. But those are just
guesses.

By the way, I have a system with a 450 Watt power supply
'Northwood' 2.6 GHz @ 3.51 GHz
640 MBytes of RDRAM
5 hard drives
1 DVD +R/W
1 CD R/W
1 SCSI Zip drive
1 3.5" floppy
SCSI PCI card
Sound Blaster Audigy
1 wireless LAN
1 USB2.0 PCI card
1 Television Tuner/Capture card
1 AGP slot with varying contents, usually about a 40 Watt card

Worked fine with a 350 Watt supply, works fine with a 450 Watt supply.
However, I don't play games demand a lot of GPU power. I do run high CPU
usage applications.

Good luck. Please post as you gather more information.

The shortest, easiest path to identifying your problem might be to
#1. remove the case side and place a 20" box fan blowing directly into the
system case and try to recreate the problem
#2. swap in another known good Power Supply and try to recreate the problem
#3. then swap in a known good identical graphics card and try to recreate
the problem
Oil squeaky wheel.

Phil Weldon





|
| > ATX power supplies DO NOT SHUT THEMSELVES DOWN IF TOO MUCH POWER IS
DRAWN!
| > ATX power supplies DO shut down if a dead short develops. ATX power
| > supplies will begin to overheat if to much power is drawn, but this
takes a
| > relatively long period of time, much longer than the period of time for
| > drives to spin up. The overload protection fuse is to protect the AC
wiring
| > with in the case and the AC wiring between the case and the building
breaker
| > box. This fuse is a safety feature, not an overload protector. An
overload
| > of several times the rated power is necessary to blow the fuse within a
few
| > minutes.
| >
| >
| Phil, power I am using, 375 watts plus 20% adds up to exactly the same as
my
| PSu is rated, 450 watts. You say this is sufficient, I have enough cooling
definitely
| as the whole case is internally exposed... the side cover is off. Only Far
Cry shuts
| the computer down, doesn't matter if anything is drawing too much power,
so the
| PSu must have some kind of short?
|
| I did find a small capacitor on the floor of the case one time over a year
ago. I
| examined the whole mobo and the cards, no place could be found where it
would
| be missing from. Do you think the cap could have lopped out of the PSu
through
| the fan??? This PSu has a fan on it's bottom face and another on the face
that is
| the back, where the power switch and cord are located.
|
| --
| Giant_Alex
| cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
|
|

 

[AAvK]

What power supply do you have in this rig? sounds too low end.
McG.

It's an "Avus Premier Performance Pro Gold 450w"...
really a damn good one so far, 'cept fer the damn problem
I've got.

 

[Reggie Hillier]

Yes I am using the Logitech driver and I was not impressed. The
first thing I found was a bug that their driver does not work properly
when the games are installed on drive D:. That has been reported an
maybe they will fix it. I uninstalled and installed my games on drive
C: but that did not cure the problem I had with Far Cry.

I just tried the above calculator and it says I need 398 Watts of
power and if you add 20%, it is 477.6 watts. My Antec True Power is
480 watts.

I run Motherboard Monitor and everything there shows normal. If there
were fluctuations I would expect to see them there. I'm not convinced
that my problem with Far Cry is my power supply. My system does not
crash with Far Cry, it just stops recognising mouse commands. I may
try a MS Mouse and see if it work better.

Ak

I am using an MX700 Logitech mouse with Logigamer and the latest drivers
and have no problems at all.

 

[Alfie [UK]]

2. A display adapter using the nVidia 6800 uses far less power (perhaps
half) compared to one using the nVidia 6800 Ultra.

Yes, the PSU calculator shows a vanilla 6800 as drawing 49w and an Ultra
drawing 77w.

3. New GPUs aren't 'requiring their own power'; some display adapter have
several connecting pins for +12V DC; this connects to the same +12V DC rail
that drives use. This replaces power that was previously drawn from the +5V
DC and/or +3.3V DC rails. The display adapters have on-board DC-to-DC
down-convertor/regulators that work more efficiently with +12V DC input than
with +5V DC or +3.3V DC input. The connecting wires and traces can be
smaller. The higher input voltage provides more stable operation. There is
power wasted and less heat produced using +12V DC than with the lower
voltages. Just because a display adapter requires a +12V DC connector
doesn't mean it draws more power than one which does not - it may even draw
less for the reasons just given. Using multiple +12V DC connectors SAVES
power because less in wasted in contact and conductor resistance.

I've not delved too much into how they work, but I was under the
impression that they needed their own power connectors because they draw
more watts than can be supplied directly through the (lower voltage) AGP
slot. I know they have step down converters to turn the 12v back into
vcore usable voltages, and that step-down is more efficient than
step-up.

6. | Hmm, yes, questionable. The calc suggested 310w used, so I put in a
350w
| cheapo and when it got hot it would power down. Using the mobo power
| check, when it was hot the PSU delivered less power, to the point it
| would trip. I bought a more expensive 350w dual rail PSU and it was much
| more stable.
In all probability your system was inadequately ventilated, though it may
also be that your power supply was falsly rated. What was the room ambient
temperature and the temperature of the air leaving the power supply? Did
you check, or did you just rely on what you were told? Power supplies are
rated at a specific temperatures. At higher temperatures they must be
derated. A power supply that is more than adequate at 60 C can be
inadequate at 75 C.

At the time I was measuring typically ambient temperatures around
26-28c, CPU 28c, GPU 30c, case 34c, PSU output 32c, drives 35c. I put an
extra fan blowing out in bottom rear and the case temp dropped to 30c
and the drives 32c. Seems the GPU being a long card and placed roughly
in the middle of the case cut the airflow bottom to top, so the extra
fan helped the airflow in the lower half of the case.

The cheapo PSU would often be outputting air at 42c+ and the case temp
was a few degrees higher, it also did not deliver stable 3.3v/12v when
it ran hot (for some reason the 1.5v and 5v always stayed stable, the
3.3v would rise to around 3.6v and the 12v would drop as low as 10.5v).
The new PSU runs a lot cooler and is more stable in it's power delivery.

 

[AAvK]

Sounds like it might be power supply related. If you can, borrow a PSU
from a friend or pug the card in a friends machine and try it.

Got no one around that has it going on actually, gotta buy a new one.

Don't know what ATI recommends, but I'm sure it takes at least 459w or
better.

I will check that out... I just did, and the ATI site mentions no system requirements.

 

[patrickp]

I bought the Antec TruePower supply and I knew that the power supply
fans run at the lowest speed appropriate to load and conditions. I
guess they do not speed up until the power supply gets hot. Not a
good idea if you are into overclocking.

I have enough case fans and a very good cpu heatsink and fan but still
my system gets about 10C hotter than a similar system with an Enermax
power supply and I have been scratching my head about that for a long
time now. I even thought I had faulty case fans because they were not
pushing much air. I finally read the fine print in the power supply
manual and the "special fan only connectors" the power supply provides
also regulate the case fans to the lowest speeds! I just wonder how
the power supply can tell what temperature I want inside my case.

Guess I will be disconnecing those fan only power connectors and using
the regular connectors.

Ak

TBH the one problem I have with Antec PSUs is that their fan speeds
(both for their internal fans and fans on the fan only leads) seem to
be set far too conservatively: even when things are getting pretty
hot, the fans are still not running very fast. Using the PSU
temperature to set case fan speeds seems a bit daft to me anyway.

I don't use their fan only leads for those reasons, and on my Antec
PSU I've connected the fans directly to 12V - I've changed them for
better fans, as well. It's a little bit on the noisy side ATM, so at
some point I'll probably put a resistor in to reduce the voltage to
them, and the noise, a little.

Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[Al Kaufmann]

I am using an MX700 Logitech mouse with Logigamer and the latest drivers
and have no problems at all.

Old story, you are not using their G5 Laser mouse and if are, do you
have your games installed on drive d:? Other players besides myself
with this hardware have the same problem. Logitech knows about this
bug.

I just don't know if it is a Logitech bug or a Microsoft operating
system bug. Another usb device I have exhibits the same behavior.

Glad that you have no problems.

Ak

 

[McGrandpa]

It's an "Avus Premier Performance Pro Gold 450w"...
really a damn good one so far, 'cept fer the damn problem
I've got.

That doesn't mean it will supply the needed current to either the 12v or 5v
rails. Another thing is that the motherboards own voltage regulators may
not be enough to supply the needed current to the card. Remember, this is a
1.5v card. The mobo has regulator IC's for PCI/PCI-e bus or PCI and AGP
buses. Your problem may not show up until the IC is loaded and hot.
I haven't heard of Avus. I have heard of and use Thermaltake and Antec. I
have a 420W and 430W in use on 2 different rigs, no problems with the cards
I'm using. It isn't so much the wattage, but the actual current each rail
is designed to supply. Both my PS's have all this info on a label on the PS
itself.
McG.

 

[Al Kaufmann]

Sounds like it might be power supply related. If you can, borrow a PSU
from a friend or pug the card in a friends machine and try it.

Don't know what ATI recommends, but I'm sure it takes at least 459w or
better.

I just downloaded Far Cry again, re-installed and everything seems to
be working in the game. Hardware wise the only thing I changed now
was to buy a USB 2.0 powered hub ($28 at Wal-Mart) and plug most of my
USB devices including the Logitech G5 mouse into that.

Ak

 

[Doug]

Switching PSU have to have a minimal load to function, but as long as that
minimal load is met, it shouldn't be a problem. Your load is more than
enough to meet the minimal load it would need.

 

[Knight37]

It'll definately be the power supply - we had a problem with an nVidia
card and a 450W PSU, the games ran OK but when playing Far Cry for two
hours the PSU blew up (obviously the PSU was being overdriven and wasn't
regulated poroperly) !

We now have a 750W PSU and everything is fine - If you wish to maintain
cutting edge performance without continually replacing PSU you're
probably better getting a 1KW PSU

holy ****

 

[AAvK]

That doesn't mean it will supply the needed current to either the 12v or 5v
rails. Another thing is that the motherboards own voltage regulators may not be enough to supply the needed current to the card.
Remember, this is a 1.5v card. The mobo has regulator IC's for PCI/PCI-e bus or PCI and AGP buses. Your problem may not show up
until the IC is loaded and hot.
I haven't heard of Avus. I have heard of and use Thermaltake and Antec. I have a 420W and 430W in use on 2 different rigs, no
problems with the cards I'm using. It isn't so much the wattage, but the actual current each rail is designed to supply. Both my
PS's have all this info on a label on the PS itself.
McG.

http://www.avus.com/default.asp?PageNo=DEFAULT ... looks like they don't make
this PSu anymore. It does have the big sticker visible on the side, but I can't understand
most of the tech garble like you can. This mobo is an Abit IS7 ("regular" apart from
other model types), know anything about it, or where I can read about those IC details?
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=79

Thanks for the help tho...

 

[McGrandpa]

http://www.avus.com/default.asp?PageNo=DEFAULT ... looks like they don't
make
this PSu anymore. It does have the big sticker visible on the side, but I
can't understand
most of the tech garble like you can. This mobo is an Abit IS7 ("regular"
apart from
other model types), know anything about it, or where I can read about
those IC details?
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=79

Thanks for the help tho...

Usually I find this stuff in the back pages of the user manuals, when it is
there to be found. I've dl'd the manual for the ABit IS7 series and they
don't show this information. 'White Paper' specs are harder to get for
consumer items like add in cards and motherboards. Actual schematics are
nearly impossible to obtain. I know what the regulator IC's look like and
it's usually easy to tell if one is blown. It will have a burnt sooty
looking spot near the case on one or two of the legs. This is getting way
deeper than any normal consumer will ever go though. Troubleshooting at
this level is very difficult for anyone outside the manufacturers production
facility.
I probably shouldn't have gone this way with you. There are other "likely
suspects" to look at and account for first. And, at best, the most
thorough process of elimination you can perform will not identify the actual
problem. It may get you to the basic section, such as vid card or something
in the PSU.

Your problem can also be the video card itself. It can still be the PSU.
Have you tried to use a different power cable connector than the one you
have plugged into the card now? If it were simply resetting the system
(arbitrary restart) would have me thinking video card. That it is shutting
the system down has me thinking power. The only place you can really look
is the PSU itself and any of its connectors.
My thoughts on this include that you have already turned off some features
that are known to cause stability problems with some ATI cards.
I really hope this turns out to a simple problem with a simple solution,
like a poor connection of the power cable to the vid card. Let us know what
you find, ok?
McG.

 

[Phil Weldon]

Actually, the active components that may fail in DC-DC
downconvertor/regulators are not ICs, but power transistors. The associated
capacitors may fail if subjected to prolonged overheating. Obviously a
failed power transistor in a DC-DC downconvertor/regulator is not the
problem for the original poster as after shut-down the system can be
restarted successfully.

Phil Weldon

|
| | >
| >> That doesn't mean it will supply the needed current to either the 12v
or
| >> 5v
| >> rails. Another thing is that the motherboards own voltage regulators
may
| >> not be enough to supply the needed current to the card. Remember, this
is
| >> a 1.5v card. The mobo has regulator IC's for PCI/PCI-e bus or PCI and
| >> AGP buses. Your problem may not show up until the IC is loaded and
hot.
| >> I haven't heard of Avus. I have heard of and use Thermaltake and
Antec.
| >> I have a 420W and 430W in use on 2 different rigs, no problems with the
| >> cards I'm using. It isn't so much the wattage, but the actual current
| >> each rail is designed to supply. Both my PS's have all this info on a
| >> label on the PS itself.
| >> McG.
| >>
| > http://www.avus.com/default.asp?PageNo=DEFAULT ... looks like they don't
| > make
| > this PSu anymore. It does have the big sticker visible on the side, but
I
| > can't understand
| > most of the tech garble like you can. This mobo is an Abit IS7
("regular"
| > apart from
| > other model types), know anything about it, or where I can read about
| > those IC details?
| > http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=79
| >
| > Thanks for the help tho...
|
| Usually I find this stuff in the back pages of the user manuals, when it
is
| there to be found. I've dl'd the manual for the ABit IS7 series and they
| don't show this information. 'White Paper' specs are harder to get for
| consumer items like add in cards and motherboards. Actual schematics are
| nearly impossible to obtain. I know what the regulator IC's look like and
| it's usually easy to tell if one is blown. It will have a burnt sooty
| looking spot near the case on one or two of the legs. This is getting way
| deeper than any normal consumer will ever go though. Troubleshooting at
| this level is very difficult for anyone outside the manufacturers
production
| facility.
| I probably shouldn't have gone this way with you. There are other "likely
| suspects" to look at and account for first. And, at best, the most
| thorough process of elimination you can perform will not identify the
actual
| problem. It may get you to the basic section, such as vid card or
something
| in the PSU.
|
| Your problem can also be the video card itself. It can still be the PSU.
| Have you tried to use a different power cable connector than the one you
| have plugged into the card now? If it were simply resetting the system
| (arbitrary restart) would have me thinking video card. That it is
shutting
| the system down has me thinking power. The only place you can really look
| is the PSU itself and any of its connectors.
| My thoughts on this include that you have already turned off some features
| that are known to cause stability problems with some ATI cards.
| I really hope this turns out to a simple problem with a simple solution,
| like a poor connection of the power cable to the vid card. Let us know
what
| you find, ok?
| McG.
|
| >
| > --
| > Giant_Alex
| > cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
| >
|
|

 

[McGrandpa]

the 3 leg 7905 regulator 'IC' contains power transistor(s). I know what
you're saying, but i haven't seen any of the power transistors actually on
the board in the traces to the slots. I have seen several of the regulator
ic's.
McG.

 

[Phil Weldon]

'McGrandpa' wrote:
| the 3 leg 7905 regulator 'IC' contains power transistor(s). I know what
| you're saying, but i haven't seen any of the power transistors actually on
| the board in the traces to the slots. I have seen several of the
regulator
| ic's.
_____

A 7905 is a +5V three pin LINEAR regulator, NOT a switching regulator or a
DC-DC down convertor/regulator.

Phil Weldon

| the 3 leg 7905 regulator 'IC' contains power transistor(s). I know what
| you're saying, but i haven't seen any of the power transistors actually on
| the board in the traces to the slots. I have seen several of the
regulator
| ic's.
| McG.
|
| | > Actually, the active components that may fail in DC-DC
| > downconvertor/regulators are not ICs, but power transistors. The
| > associated
| > capacitors may fail if subjected to prolonged overheating. Obviously a
| > failed power transistor in a DC-DC downconvertor/regulator is not the
| > problem for the original poster as after shut-down the system can be
| > restarted successfully.
| >
| > Phil Weldon

 

[Al Kaufmann]

My case is well designed Lian-Li PC60u with 2 case fans in front
pulling air in and one at the top and back for exit. I will connect
these fans to the regular connectors and then see what happens to the
temperature inside the case.

To anyone that is interested I disconnected the fan only connectors
from my Antec power supply and connected the case fans to the regular
power connectors. Motherboard Monitor now shows my case temperature
about 10C less than before and the CPU temperature about 7C less. I
now have my cpu fan set as slow as possible so it is quieter too.

The temperature shown by the ATI video card is only 1C less but there
the fan is also temperature controlled. Maybe I will give the
Overdrive utility a chance and see what happens.

Ak

 

[AAvK]

Phil,

I figured out why it's correct of others about the power supply not being
enough... It doesn't have a short because it works fine as it is without playing
games... (found where that capacitor fell off from, the Ti4600) it is when a
game uses the capability of taking over all the hardware as is possible via
DirectX and OpenGL... the game will fill out all RAM that exists on the
mobo and the vid-card, as much as possible. When that happens, the game
as active is not a consciencious entity that is controlling what it does conc-
erning all resources of hardware, it's just acting as directed and set. Too much
software running when the game is full of it's own activities of animation,
and there simply isn't enough power, the computer then shuts down as a
failure because the game is not designed to control the resources. Therefore
the game goes too far itself. A bunch of games I have will shut the computer
flat off so a new 550 watt is on it's way. But I thank you for your great efforts
to help, much appreciated, dude.

 

[Phil Weldon]

I'm afraid that you rexplanation isn't correct.
Good luck with your new power supply.
Let us know the results.

Phil Weldon

|
| Phil,
|
| I figured out why it's correct of others about the power supply not being
| enough... It doesn't have a short because it works fine as it is without
playing
| games... (found where that capacitor fell off from, the Ti4600) it is when
a
| game uses the capability of taking over all the hardware as is possible
via
| DirectX and OpenGL... the game will fill out all RAM that exists on the
| mobo and the vid-card, as much as possible. When that happens, the game
| as active is not a consciencious entity that is controlling what it does
conc-
| erning all resources of hardware, it's just acting as directed and set.
Too much
| software running when the game is full of it's own activities of
animation,
| and there simply isn't enough power, the computer then shuts down as a
| failure because the game is not designed to control the resources.
Therefore
| the game goes too far itself. A bunch of games I have will shut the
computer
| flat off so a new 550 watt is on it's way. But I thank you for your great
efforts
| to help, much appreciated, dude.
|
| --
| Giant_Alex
| cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
|
|