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how would you know that your psu is too weak?

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yes, i had the same problem, if your hdd isnt getting enough power, it will shut down till it has enough power, then it will start back up. so i decided since my dvd drive doesnt work with win2k, id just take it out...now it works fine...but its still an inconvenience. so im going to buy a 431 watt enermax. that should be plenty big for anything i plan on doing
 
Check your 5v line. If it's 4.875v or more it probably isn't your ps giving you problems. If it's under 4.800 it probably is your ps giving you problems. In between is something of a diagnostic crapshoot, some people have better luck with less than 5v on the 5v line than others.
 
I got a audigy recently.
After installing it things seemed ok.
I would find my pc locked up after not using it for a few hours one time I had a odd line across the top of my monitor.
I thought it was my cpu or memory but after checking on the audigy irq's I found the 1394 port was using the same irq as my video card (10).
I just disabled the 1394 port and have not had any problems since.
 
yea I also found that the firewire controller (1394) was sharing the same IRQ with my vid, I fixed that but I still received the same problems

my locks up are not occassional, they are every time I play a game ..
 
If you can, back the computer way down and work it up. You should hear at some point the psu really start working. This is how I figured that my 750 duron at 1120 on 300w was just about tapped. When I upgraded I looked around here and at other forums and decided on the Antec 403. Have been happy ever since and it powers this chip nicely. Ihave or will have a full case come christmas morning and am looking to cut the 300w into a 5.25 bay to power fans at this time. The future has pelts in it and ultimately will put two power supplies in the bays.
 
I tried two PSU's but found it to much hassle trying to get them to turn on at the same time, but it was pointless anyway as my PSU was perfectly fine.

Post some pics when you're done.
 
Have a new full height case and really do not want to put two psu's in the back as I would like to put fans there. I'll have to have the psu's in the case to power the pelts so I figure to cut them down and put them in the 5.25 bays. This way I could have the three psu's inside the computer. I'll send a shot when/and if I do this.
 
Reasons for lockup, video cranked too high, bios settings wrong, maybe a psu, multiplier/fsb cranked too high, etc. We would need more info on a random lockup. Is the board/video overclocked? Is there new hardware/software? etc....

I did not see anything about random reboots....

If it is in all games only, I would look for a video/video card conflict..

Lockups by themselves do not necessarily indicate a power supply problem or for that matter do random reboots. It is not that difficult to get the computer to do random reboots.

As for the SB causing this, I have read about many problems with these and compatability. I do not (and would not) have one of these due to this problem. There is a lot of information available regarding this on the net. I know that bios revisions on occasion have cured or aided in the cure of this.
 
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