Something isnt stable...but what?

I know something is wrong with my comp, but I have no idea what it is. yesterday, I did a 25 hour run of memtest. No errors. Today I did a 20+ hour run of prime 95. no errors (although the comp did kinda freeze when I hit the log off button). 3DMark05 runs just fine. But something is still wrong. My comp rebooted when I ran S&M with both the proc and the mem set to long. Half life 2 crashed the other day. Shareaza crashes not long after I start it. My temps are low, so it could be my very low 12v rail (11.58 under extreme load, aka S&M), but I doubt that. I want to try and hit 2.45GHz, but I dont know how much further I can go with this.

Help?

Do you have another PSU to try out? Perhaps you could temporarily cut the load on that PSU to see if it improves things? Does the situation improve with only one 6800GT?

Unfourtunatly, the next most powerful PSU I have is something like 250-300W, some stock thing that barely powers the generic computer it came with. So thats a no. I'll try running just one 6800...but do you really think thats it?

I forget the power consumption numbers on the 6800GT but I think it's over 210w when loaded. You've gotta figure that PSU is under some stress. I'd probably look to test it with lower power consumption and see if your problem disapears. How about wiring up the other PSU to power the HDs, fans, opticals...etc?

These systems are getting pretty power hungry. I've got a solid 400w FSP PSU and a cheapish 500w PSU and neither of them can handle the load with my new nF4 ultra-D setup at maximum overclock on both the CPU & GPU. The vid card is only a 6600GT btw and I haven't even added the second one yet. Needless to say it was time for a new PSU with my second video card on the way.

but would a bad PSU cause lock ups when its not under a lot of load? Recently, its been locking up as soon as I logged in to windows. I'm back at stock settings now to be on the safe side and its working fine, but even at settings I tested before, it showed the same behavior (215x11 was fine before, but now 212x11 locked up on login). My PSU really does suck balls and I need an SLI ready PSU badly, but the earliest I can get one is this summer, assuming I get a job...

[EDIT] You know, the more I think about it, the more I think adding a second slave PSU is a good idea. I'll do a little research and see what I come up with...[/EDIT]

I just went through a head-banger with my system, lockups, freezes, listening to my HDD stop and restart(same sound as when it first boots). It was driving me nuts, I thought maybe the HDD was toast, ran my AVP and Trendmicro's online scan, nothing. Spyware free. I formatted anyhow. 20 minutes after a fresh format, it starts again, so I figure it's my HDD for sure. Just before giving up on it, I figured maybe it could be my PSU.

I checked my BIOS, 12V was steady as a rock, 12.35V, same in SANDRA and MBM. I still wanted to be sure. Pulled my sidecover, and noticed my CCFL's were plugged in on the same 12V line off the PSU as the HDD. Swapped the CCFL's to a line with my burner, put the HDD on a line with my front 120mm, and the prob was cured. Well, that problem was cured, obviously my PSU is on it's last legs.

So even though my 12V rail reads fine at the PSU, it's not the same at the end of the lead. Maybe it's the CCFL's, but I doubt it, it just started happening recently. Swap some wiring around, put your HDD on a line with something without much draw, can't hurt.

Brundle Fly said:

Swap some wiring around, put your HDD on a line with something without much draw, can't hurt.

Click to expand...

LOL, a line without much draw. Lets see here, line 1: DVDRW and Fan Controller on a Y connector, Front Panel and other case fans on a Y connector, EZ connector (the Asus 4 pin on the mobo to ensure that the gfx cards get enough power in SLI mode), 1/2 of my 1st gfx card, and a floppy. Line 2: the other 1/2 of my 1st gfx card, both HDDs on a Y connector, the other gfx card, and my Audigy. I have a line without much draw? I'm surprised my computer even boots!

See above for an edit I made to the last post.

I'm not nuts about spending good $$$ on a PSU either, but these boards are power hungry. That's a 24pin PSU is it not? You have the auxillary PCI-E power plugged in too no? Can you wire up your other PSU to take some of the load off your Aspire for testing?

Edit: well that answered a couple of those questions.

I believe there'll be alot of people having power issues with SLI setups. Some of these vid cards demand so much power, particularly overclocked. If you calculate the power consumption for a couple overclocked vid cards, an overclocked CPU, a Gb of ram, a raid array, opticals...etc. It's not a huge shocker that many single PSUs aren't up to the task. I have an AX500-A blue storm on the way and I'm fully prepared to wire up an old AT PSU to offload some of the burden if needed.

LoneWolf121188 said:

LOL, a line without much draw. Lets see here, line 1: DVDRW and Fan Controller on a Y connector, Front Panel and other case fans on a Y connector, EZ connector (the Asus 4 pin on the mobo to ensure that the gfx cards get enough power in SLI mode), 1/2 of my 1st gfx card, and a floppy. Line 2: the other 1/2 of my 1st gfx card, both HDDs on a Y connector, the other gfx card, and my Audigy. I have a line without much draw? I'm surprised my computer even boots!

See above for an edit I made to the last post.

Click to expand...

Man, you seriously need that slave PSU, maybe strictly for the 6800's, that's a lot of juice you're using up.

I put a post in the PSU section about a dirt cheap slave PSU...eBay has some stuff around $10-$15 shipped...

I'd be a little cautious of any $10-$15 PSUs from someone on eBay.

Slave or not it still has to provide stable voltage and keep it's cool.

True. Some people are selling PSUs about that cheap in the OCForums classifieds section...I posted a few replies, will see how it goes...

[EDIT] In the sig now too. [/EDIT]