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Computer Issue - Video Card or Power Supply?
walerian
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey all -
Just a few months ago I upgraded my 8800gt 512 to this: PNY GTX 460.
It worked fine for a few months, then I started playing some Portal 2. After a few days of playing, I noticed severe artifacting when I loaded it up and then it would immediately crash. Same for any other 3d game I loaded.
So I exchanged the gtx 460 at best buy, with no questions asked. I managed to finish Portal 2, and then decided to move on to Witcher 2. I managed to play for about 30-45 minutes, when the game froze and required a hard boot.
Now Windows won't load. The computer posts, starts to load windows, hangs, and then gives me a blue screen thats says the display drivers failed to initialize. I'm running the most recent Nvidia drivers (270.61) and have been for awhile. I managed to load the computer into safe mode and redownloaded those drivers and reinstalled - does the same thing.
Could my power supply be causing issues with the 460? I thought it ran more efficient than my 8800gt, but it had dual power connectors instead of a single 6 pin.
My power supply is this: CoolMax 550CX
And just to make sure, that power supply is powering my video card thru four 4-pin peripheral power cords that I plugged into these: 4 to 6 pin adaptor. Should I have used something else?
Or am I just really unlucky and have another bad card? Wanted to post here before running back to Best Buy again. But I really want to get back to playing Witcher 2.
Oh, Vista Home Premium 64-bit. Thank you all.
Just a few months ago I upgraded my 8800gt 512 to this: PNY GTX 460.
It worked fine for a few months, then I started playing some Portal 2. After a few days of playing, I noticed severe artifacting when I loaded it up and then it would immediately crash. Same for any other 3d game I loaded.
So I exchanged the gtx 460 at best buy, with no questions asked. I managed to finish Portal 2, and then decided to move on to Witcher 2. I managed to play for about 30-45 minutes, when the game froze and required a hard boot.
Now Windows won't load. The computer posts, starts to load windows, hangs, and then gives me a blue screen thats says the display drivers failed to initialize. I'm running the most recent Nvidia drivers (270.61) and have been for awhile. I managed to load the computer into safe mode and redownloaded those drivers and reinstalled - does the same thing.
Could my power supply be causing issues with the 460? I thought it ran more efficient than my 8800gt, but it had dual power connectors instead of a single 6 pin.
My power supply is this: CoolMax 550CX
And just to make sure, that power supply is powering my video card thru four 4-pin peripheral power cords that I plugged into these: 4 to 6 pin adaptor. Should I have used something else?
Or am I just really unlucky and have another bad card? Wanted to post here before running back to Best Buy again. But I really want to get back to playing Witcher 2.
Oh, Vista Home Premium 64-bit. Thank you all.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
walerian on
0
Posts
PNY's specs on that card say, "•Minimum 450W or greater system power supply (with a minimum 12V current rating of 38A)"
then coolmax's specs on that power supply says there are 3 12V rails (12V1@17A, 12V2@17A, 12V3@15A) with a max of 420W on the +12V rails combined. which is odd (someone help me out here), because I thought you'd take the 17+17+15*12 and get the wattage on the 12V rails combined, but that number does match what they list (the 420W) on their site.
Regardless it seems that the powersupply is underpowered for that video card especially considering the video card isn't the only thing you're running.
The specs refer to a total 12V amperage of 38A, and the Coolmax actually has a total 12V amperage of 35A. For multi-rail PSUs you just take the maximum rated 12V wattage and divide by 12 to get the total 12V amperage for the PSU. I'm not sure that would make much difference, as power specs are often overstated to be on the safe side.
However, 420W figure on the 12V rail likely means that the PSU is over-rated, in the sense that the 550W rating it claims is actually not the wattage the PSU was intended to sustain. It seems likely to me that your supply is of pretty low quality and hasn't held up well under the new loads. My recommendation would be to pick up a good supply from a reputable manufacturer and try things with that. Something like this would be sufficient. If, with the new PSU, it gives you the same message, trade the card in again (or do it now if you have to, to stay in the warranty/trade-in period) and try again. Hopefully if there is damage, it's limited to your video card.
Battle.net
They do slow down then not having enough power, but they also can be damaged, slowly, but yes, it is not uncommon for underpowering to severely damage not just your card, but all your components.