Rather annoyed nerd! System Instability

Hey, my rig is an OEM (yeah I know) Compaq and has a 285Watt (yeah I know) Lite-on PSU. For my birthday I recieved a 9700Pro and a 425Watt Hiper PSU. I could not install the PSU as I have an M-ATX motherboard and the power connector on the PSU is ATX. I had no idea that they had different mobo power.

I have had the 9700P installed nearly a month and my system has been more unstable as a result as the PSU is groaning. Today I inserted a 512mb PC3200 stick to replace a 256mb PC2100 stick. The BIOS recognises it but I can't boot with it in. Do larger capacity sticks use more power? and if so do you think this has pushed the system over the edge?

Also the graphics card is running at lower clockspeeds than it should - 325/552 instead of 325/620. Is this an issue of a dodgy card or is the GRAM downclocking because of lack of power?

I have also tried using my new 425W psu outside of the case to power just the VGA card but then I did this and turned on the rig and the mobo bleeped violently so I haven't really tried this again.

I am rather annoyed and having stability issues is embarrasing... So what do you think I should do, I'm not that happy at the moment because I leave my computer on near 24/7 and I want it stable.

Seems to be because of the crappy power supply, i think Radeon reccomend you have a 330w or higher for the graphics card to run properly, and yes larger ram needs more power

I believe that mATX and ATX have the same power connector. Perhaps you have some sort of compaq-specific connector. If so, could you get the pinout (maybe from the compaq website) and build an adapter? All you'd have to do is get an ATX socket, cut off the plug from your current PSU, and wire it correctly to the atx socket. Hen you plug one end into the board and the other into your new PSU. Provided the board doesn't need anything special, it shouldn't be too hard (I've heard of people powering Imac guts from an ATX PSU).


edit: and yes, the bigger stick probably draws more power. I have no idea about the slow video ram though...

http://www.hipergroup.com/technical.htm - hmmm do you think if I break off the other 4 it will fit? Ermm (this is my only working rig so I hate to have to shut down unnecessarily.) I have found a pin diagram for the motherboard's MATX power but I can't find one for the Hiper PSU (there's one in the manual but I can't find one online)

edit: The two power connectors look the same only with the one on the Hiper PSU having 4 extra connectors at the end. Tomorrow after school I will try installing it and see if it'll work with the four extra pins connectors removed.

I think that is a standart 20-pin ATX pinout, your PSU must be EPS12v (24-pin). You can buy adapters that will make your psu work. I think newegg.com has them for $4 or so.

Well I removed the extra 4 pins by detaching them and I installed the PSU in about 5 minutes and well my 425 Watt goodness is giving me power to my 512mb PC3200 stick and my 9700P without crashing (oooh!) I have overclocked to FSB 145 and Processor 1677mhz (1700 crashes it). AIDA32 reckons the PR would be 2000 so that's good as it is an 1800. If I get like an NF7, a case and some decent cooling then I should be able to get a LOT more out of it though I think. The reason it can't get any higher is that there are no AGP/PCI locks (I don't have any PCI cards but my video dies) as it is a POS OEM mobo.

Oh well, I now have a pretty solid system and I can OC my VGA semi decently now:
350/320 from stock of 325/276. This is with no additional cooling and I have noticed a definate improvement in performance in Half Life 2.

willkill1337 said:

Well I removed the extra 4 pins by detaching them and I installed the PSU in about 5 minutes and well my 425 Watt goodness is giving me power to my 512mb PC3200 stick and my 9700P without crashing (oooh!) I have overclocked to FSB 145 and Processor 1677mhz (1700 crashes it). AIDA32 reckons the PR would be 2000 so that's good as it is an 1800. If I get like an NF7, a case and some decent cooling then I should be able to get a LOT more out of it though I think. The reason it can't get any higher is that there are no AGP/PCI locks (I don't have any PCI cards but my video dies) as it is a POS OEM mobo.

Oh well, I now have a pretty solid system and I can OC my VGA semi decently now:
350/320 from stock of 325/276. This is with no additional cooling and I have noticed a definate improvement in performance in Half Life 2.

Click to expand...

Glad to no you happy with your system!

>_<

Man, I need a new computer.