Re: Underpowered?

On Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:50:11 +0100, Philip Herlihy
<thiswillbounceback@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Gaz wrote:
Philip Herlihy wrote:
I have a machine with me whose power supply has blown. It's rated at
350W; as an expedient I've replaced with a 300W one which I had to hand.
The machine seems to run perfectly well, but are there dangers?

The machine has 2 hard drives, one CD, a floppy, two case fans.

Phil, London

more importantly, what kind of cpu and graphics card are you running? If you
have a 1ghz p3 and onboard graphics then you have nothing to worry about, if
you have a coreduo2 and a geforce 8800, then you will have problems,.....

Thanks - I'll check when the machine is back in service. It's a 2.4MHz
something, and the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard.

Should be alright. I'm running a core2@xxxxxx with a nV7600GT/256 on a
250W psu (little Shuttle box).

How could I tell if it's having power problems, if I don't see anything
overt going wrong. (I don't mind switching it to a better one, but I'd
like to be able to use the machine while I find one!).

It'll freeze or turn itself off suddenly, as the voltage bends out of
spec. You're pretty unlikely to damage anything other than the PSU
this way, which would clearly need replacing anyway. Unless it's a
Bestec PSU, in which case hurl it violently in the nearest bin and buy
a better one immediately.

Try ramping the CPU up to full with Prime95 and then starting a
graphically intensive 3D game - that should pretty much max out your
power draw. If the PSU stands up to that you're okay, at least for the
short term.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
Note that despite substantial evidence to the contrary, it is in fact possible
to delete files copied to the desktop, and you don't need to throw away the
computer and get a new one once the desktop is full. -- Peter Corlett, ASR
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Directx 9.0bcrash problem with sapphire 9600xt
    ... >I have now installed a 450w PSU and the new cpu and case fans but it> still hard resets in all the same situations previously described>. ... Could this be a problem with my graphics card or> is the cpu knackered? ... from what you're telling me it must be either a PSU or>> processor problem. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.games)
  • Re: Help a newbie out. Play find the bottleneck!
    ... never installed a mobo or CPU before. ... quite the performance I expected out of this rig. ... Graphics Card: ... PSU: The PSU is a generic thing that came with the case. ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)
  • Re: A PC question.
    ... Dave Plowman wrote: ... Did you try replacing the PSU? ... It turned out that the voltage regulator for the CPU simply couldn't ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: Help Appreciated, Upgrade
    ... >reckon that this is a CPU issue or a Graphics card issue. ... >rate problem when there are tons of monsters on screen during fight scenes ... CPU handles, but also more polygons, which the graphics card handles. ... I'd be replacing that first. ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg)
  • Re: Monitor blanks out a few minutes after boot
    ... CPU and PSU would also be running. ... Turn off the monitor for a couple of minutes, ... The graphics card, psu or motherboard is failing when it heats up. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)