Not enough juice?

[UkGamer]

Hello,
Occasionally after about an hours use my computer decides to restart, often failing to boot properly and leaving me unable to do so for about 10mins. I belive therefor that the problem must either be an overheating PSU or an insufficent PSU. If anyone has any other ideas please tell me as this is becoming really frustrating especially since it was a fairly expensive PSU.

Zalaman silent 460w PSU

Pentium D 805 @ 3.4Ghz ( was higher but reduced it to see if it would help )
2gb ram
3 HDD's
2 optical drives
card reader and floppy drive
4 120mm case fans
xfx 7600gt

[SufferWell1396]

Actually not so... could be the Hard Drive on its last legs, i would back up any data if i were you to make sure that if it is the hdd, you dont loose all your data...


If your SURE its the PSU

Could be:
1. A dying PSU
2. An Underpowered PSU

Overheating is uncommon, unless the fan doesnt work...
With those system specs, yeah, i would go for a more robust PSU, favorably one with 600-800 Watts.
Apevia 600 watt (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148025)

Eagle Tech 700 Watt (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817193013)

What im saying might seem a little extreme, so let some other people post here to say their opinions...

[azzey]

That's a pretty hefty overclock... how high is it stable at?

Anyways, back to the issue at hand. If you have an extra PSU to swap in you might want to try that (or buy one if you have the cash--it's nice to have one lying around just in case). Is that hour of use just idling, or gaming? It could be a thermal issue. Check all your fans to make sure everything is blowing properly.

Are you getting an error (ie BSOD) or is it just cutting power altogether? When the power goes off does it immediately try to reboot or does it stay off?

Doesn't seem like an undervolted PSU to me if it's been this long since the problem came along... usually that kind of thing comes up immediately after building.

[UkGamer]

SufferWell: I would have hoped the it was not a faulty HDD, i have 2 80gb - new in july and a 500gb new in january. Also there is a 120mm fan straped to them to keep them chilled. I'll run the disk check thing on them to see if it picks anything up.

azzey: I have ran it at 3.8Ghz but at 100% usage it would crash sometimes probably due to the wrong voltage settings and putting the voltage up would need a water cooler probably. For the past 5 months its been run at 3.6Ghz though.
The time when it crashes it is usually doing stuff, gaming or running multiple programs. I've not really left it on its own that often so im not so sure. I'm also pretty sure the temps are ok.
Normally it doesn't give me an error it just turns off then back on in a few secs. Although the other day it came up with the windows folder is unacessable and it had to shutdown, but that could have been due to my disc defragmenter.
I might add though I have just recently added the 500gb hdd and another 1gb of ram - maybe that was enough to tip it over the edge?

[mjc]

I might add though I have just recently added the 500gb hdd and another 1gb of ram - maybe that was enough to tip it over the edge?

With a borderline PSU...definitely.

[UkGamer]

yea i might just get a new PSU then , there just so expensive over here in UK compared to the US. What do yous think of this one, i dont really want to spend loads again, or should i go for a good make? this , (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=468732) or this? (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=375887)

[david eaton]

You could also look here (http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11259&NavigationKey=50882&CategorySelectedId=11259&PageMode=1)

[UkGamer]

So is it worth spending an extra £20-30 to get a good make or is a 700w cheap make just as good as a 600w good make. I mean of course it will be less efficent and less stable but will it endanger my components?

[UkGamer]

I am have now convinced that it is not the the PSU anymore as even at stock speed with a power saving of about 100w it is still doing the exact same. It has also started blue screening again, which by looking at other threads could be a driver issue among other things. I will do my best for now and start a new thread in a relevant section if I can't solve it.