HELP! possible power supply to vid card problems

Let me start by saying about a week ago our PC decided it was no longer going to run games (of any type)And this problem occured in an instant overnight! We have a p4 1.4 ghz (wich we know is old but still good for the games we play) we run a ATI Radeon 9200 agp vid card. Ok not even microsoft pinball will run. We repeatedly get crashes un-specified EXE errors causeing the game to close. This all occurs after title screens and when actual graphics need to be drawn --BOOM-- crash. So as directed by ATI tech support we have deleted drivers removed Reg keys and reinstalled drivers to no avail we've updated the MOBO drivers agp drivers etc. About 6 months ago our powersupply fan failed.
due to financial constraints we couldnt replace it. Off and on we'd smell the odor of heat or hot metal. Now due to lack of repair i fear this has damaged the system, only one thing thats weird is the comp runs everything else fine. even the cinematics for games will play. My question is, could the power supply have suffered enough damage to cause the vid card to not have ample power to run these games?
I have heard of cards not being able to push games without the proper power, regardless we are going to replace the PSU
Im just curious as to if this is the cause of the problem?

any help is greatly Appreciated.

 

Are you saying your pc is powered by power supply that has a fan that is burned out? result will be overheat, and total failure.
Your power supply is a critical componet of your system, failure of such can or will result in possible failure of all componets.
Suggest turn off system untill PS replacement.

 

THX ASUS one more question...

although the power supply thing was stupidity on my part. What i really want to know is
could i have damaged my cpu, and vid-card or will these components go back to normal with a new PS??

 

Yes, it could have damaged them. A failing supply can put out unstable voltage, with an alternating current component in what is supposed to be straight DC voltage. This can cause instability, but may not cause damage. It can also provide low voltage, which will cause components to draw higher amperage and run hotter. Too hot, and things in the system start to fail, although it may just crash the computer and cause instability before anything gets damaged. But a failing supply can also put out HIGH voltage in the low voltage channels, which can destroy components instantly. Won't know until you power it up with a good supply.

Gambling on a questionable power supply is false economy; it can cost a lot more than just the power supply.

 

Thx im out, gotta shop tomorrow and keep my stupid newb fingers crossed

 

Great answer from G.T.

Signs of dammage too componets would be burn or singe marks, but if none are seen doesent mean that there is not dammage.

 

Not only will the voltage be unstable as GT said, but your power supply fan is probably the only extraction fan you have in the case. So the case temperature may be rising considerably above ambient, causing the temperature of the components inside to go up corespondingly.

 

problem persists even with new PSU

thanks for all the info, but, even tho i needed a new PSU, installing a new one didn't solve my problem. games are still glitchy and crash. i removed the ati vid card and installed the old vid card that came with the comp, and the problem still persists, so it's not the PSU and its not the vid card. i discovered a missing reg key, i posted under software to see if i could get some help with that.

thanks again

 

the only way to truly see if it is hardware or software conclusively would be to wipe the drive and reinstall windows.

 

problem solved

ya, i was hoping it wouldn't come to that.... i finally figured out what was causing all the damn problems with running games... the damn sound card. i disabled the sound card.. and voila.. games are running great! go figure!!