PSU Problems

[mxer394]

Okay, here's whats going on. My compy has been malfunctioning, and after around a week of asking and looking, I might have the problem at it's root. I don't know if my PSU is putting out enough power to power my compy. This thread is twofold. For those of you who know how to find this out, could you tell me if a 600 Watt PSU is sufficient to power this setup:

PSU is a Xion SuperNova 600 Watt.

(Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit

4 Gigabyte RAM (4X1 gig)

EVGA 8800GT

Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooling Fan

2 Extra Case fans

Standard Keybord and mouse

320GB HDD Drive

Running on Windows Vista

Also, would a 600 Watt be sufficient for this under large load (games, very graphics and processor intensive)

Okay, second part. Let's assume the PSU isn't large enough. What would a good brand of PSU be, and what size should it be? I don't want to spend more than 180 USD for it.

Thanks guys.

[mxer394]

Sorry for the double post, but I was also wondering if there is a program that would allow me to monitor the power consumption.

Thanks.

[George Hallam]

600w is fine for your system.

good makes include

- Thermaltake
- OCZ
- CORSAIR
- PC Power & Cooling

Im not sure you can get a program (i stand to be corrected) but the only way i know is to manually measure it by plugging in a wattometer (:p or what ever they are called)

[mxer394]

Hmmm. The plot thickens. I coulda sworn it was the PSU, cause it [I]mostly[I/] only crashes when it's under a load (games, multiple programs, etc).

Anyway, if someon has a program or can find one, it would be much appreciated.

[mjc]

After the motherboard was replaced...did you reinstall from scratch, do a repair install or what?

Did you update chipset drivers? Video? Sound?

I think your main problem here is a driver issue...stemming from the repair/replacement for the failed mobo. Of course you could have a RAM problem, if the reason the board failed in the first place was a power spike...like was a suspicion of some.

[mxer394]

Well, I can go through and check the drivers one by one, unless there is an easier way to do it.

Thing here is, in my other thread, we had a difficult time finding the .dmp files, until it came to light that with Vista (this is what someone told me), when Vista crashes because of software, it leaves a .dmp file for a debugger to analyze, but if it's becasue of hardware, it will not leave a .dmp file.

That's why we think it's because of hardware. However, I never thought of ram. Is there a way to test different pieces, because now I am going to go through and check RAM, Processor, Graphics, the whole shebang.

Update: I don't know if this means anything, but I just checked and on my system info, it still listed 4094MB of RAM.

Also, using Vista, with Aero disabled, my RAM is constantly using 30% of it's power (according to NVIDIA Monitor). Is that normal for a computer running Vista? Because that's 30% of 4 gigs, doesn't seem it should be using that much.

Oh, and one other thing. In the device manager for Windows Vista, does the "check driver software" really work? As in, does it actually find a driver if one is availiable, because I've done it since I got the computer and it's never updated drivers before. I got it around 2 months ago.

[mjc]

Last item first...

It will only check against the driver database at the Windows Update site...not the manufacturer's sites.

For the RAM the Knoppix LiveCD that you were told to grab in on of the other threads should have the option to run Memtest...

[mxer394]

Well, how often does the Windows database get updated, and is it reliable?

And also, I don't have any CD's to install knoppix on, is there a version availiable for download?

And also, big problems in little china...

My memory is running at 76%.

Wow. This can't be right...