New Graphics card, now I'm freezing up

Hi folks,

I've been lurking for a bit now, and you guys seem to be pretty knowledgeable. I was hoping you may be able to help me with a problem I'm having.

About a month ago I started getting these blue dots all over my screen. After doing a bit of research I discovered that in all likelihood it was a defective GPU, so I decided now would be as good a time as any to update to a new "ULTRA MEGA AWESOME GRAPHICS CARD (TM)". After comparing prices and whatnot I ended up deciding on a nVidia 8800 GTS 512 MB. Even though my computer stopped showing actual pictures with my old card, I was kind of excited to have an excuse to upgrade.

The problem is that now that I've installed the new card I can't seem to play any game for more than about 15 minutes without my whole computer freezing up. It doesn't stop there either. Now my computer seems to freeze all the time, regardless of what I'm doing. I usually have to do a hard reset 3 or 4 times just to get windows to finish booting.

I guess my question is this: Do you folks have any idea why a computer would start to freeze up with a new graphics card? I've bought a new PSU (520W, so I'm pretty confident that's not the problem). I have a 2.41 GHz processor, which I would think should be more than enough, and I've taken the side panel (the one that faces the floor fan in my room) off in case there was an overheating issue, and none of those things seems to help at all.

Does anyone have any suggestions? In case it helps, I have 1GB ram, and I'm running an AMD processor.

Thanks in advance for your attention and if you need any extra info I'd be happy to provide it.

*EDIT* One of the games I'm having trouble playing is Starcraft, so I'm pretty confident that I'm not putting too much of a load on my system, in case that helps.

Additional edit, yes I've updated drivers. I've updated the drivers for my motherboard, graphics card, and processor. Thanks again in advance

 

You didn't mention what your operating system is, or what you're doing when the PC locks up. Does it only happen when playing Starcraft? Have you tried other games? Starcraft is a fairly old game if I'm not mistaken, and sometime older games have trouble running with newer hardware (I play Serious Sam 2 and with a single core CPU it runs fine, but a dual core CPU requires a patch for smooth gameplay). A 520w power supply is a bit weak for such a beast of a video card; I usually recommend a high end 600w with at least 2 x 12v rails of at least 18-20a each. An easy to determine is quality power supply is by its weight; the heavier, the better.

 

I agree with dlb, not enough PSU.

My guess is the video card is recommending 400 watts just for it. Rule of thumb is to figure up you total wattage of all your components (CPU, Motherboard, HDD, Fans, Ram, CD/DVD's, FDD, Lights & Video card) and then add about 25% to that for the proper wattage needed.

Hope this helps

 

What brand of PSU do you have?
\I ask this cos,I made a config with 8800 gts and real power 520W(CoolerMAster),and everything is in perfect condition.
Brand is mean everything.

 

Wow lot of responses, thanks guys.

@dlb: I'm currently running XP. Sorry I forget to mention that. Usually it locks up either immediately upon booting (it doesn't even get to check all the drives) or it locks up a few minutes into playing whatever game I'm attempting to play. It isn't just limited to Starcraft, it's pretty much any game I try to play. Aside from that, it just kind of freezes whenever it wants to. It froze up while idle last night, and then it froze up while I was trying to run a virus scan. It doesn't seem to be dependant on how much of a load I'm putting on the system. You mention 2x12v rails with 20A each. Will it list that on the box or is that something that I'm going to have to just keep trying with different PSUs till things quit freezing?

I guess 520W doesn't go as far as it used to. Back when I put my compy together (it's the first one I didn't buy pre-assembled) my boss at the time told me 520 would be more than I'd ever need, heh. Oh well.

@Trussman: Where would I find out how much juice all my components would need? Do I need to check each manufacturer's website or do you know of a site where it's all centralized?

@Goran.P: This is my current PSU. It's an Apevia. I'm not sure whether that's a good brand. The only name I recognize on Newegg is Thermaltake.

Thanks again for helpin me out here. Looks like I've come to the right place.

 

Here's a couple of online PSU calculators; use 'em to find out what your minimum needs are, then add about 20% to be on the safe side:
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php
http://www.journeysystems.com/?power_supply_calculator
I even think that Newegg has one.... when I used the one at the 2nd link, I added in a couple extra devices (extra hard drives, a more powerful CPU than what I actually have, etc) and then added 20% to be sure that the results would be more than adequate. As to the power supply specs: you can usually find out the info from the PSU maker's web site, and if it isn't printed on the box, it will be on the PSU itself. I purchased a 700w with 4 rails at 18a each and weighs about 8 pounds or more; it's a beast. Here's an interesting link about power supplies: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/370 and here's a review about several different power supplies http://techreport.com/articles.x/14064
Here's a power supply I picked at random from Newegg (it's actually a pretty good unit considering I just randomly clicked on the first 700w unit I saw) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341002 If you check the specifications, you see a list where it says "12V1 18a; 12V2 18a; 12V3 18a...." and so on (see attached screen shot below) these are the 12v rails and in this example there's 4 rails at 18a each.

 

I took a look at the sites you reference, and they all say I should need less than 400W (480 with the 20% tacked on), so now I'm stumped and back to square one. I'm pretty sure I entered everything in right, and being off by that much makes me think I would have had to have missed something big.

I'm running with an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ and 1GB of RAM. Is it possible that I'm getting a bottleneck and that's what's causing the issue?

As a sidenote, I didn't realize until I saw the options to pick from on the PSU sites how much of a top shelf video card I bought. It's nice to see they're coming down from the $800 range.

 

what brand is it? like evga , bfg etc. reason i ask is diff brands require diff amps per rail i think, such as my evga 8800 gts 320mb asks for a 30+ amp 12v rail to power it

 

Cheap PSU is causing the issue. No PFC for a start so it's gonna be horribly uneconomical. 70% Efficiency, a decent one should be up to the at least 80% with average ones at about75% and the specs seem to suggest that it only has one +12V which is supplying only 35A. Various places quote 22A for the 88GTs put remember if this thing is running only one rail then that rail is supplying EVERYTHING, CPU motherboard, HDs, Optical drives and GPUs. Chances are the PSU isn't capable of sustaining a stable enough power supply to the systems 12V rail and that's causing the lock ups.

Been there and done that, cheap PSU couldn't supply a stable Vcore to a heavy OC'd Pentium 4 resulting in constant lock ups during heavy loads. A new more expensive PSU resolved the issue.

I am currently running a 520W Corsair with my 8800GTS C2D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001

Yes it's twice the price of the one you listed but look at the specs.

3 x 12V rails each providing 18A total = 42A (Having 3 rails means you can separate your components out, 1 rail for drives, etc, 1 for mobo, cpu and 1 rail for the GPU helps make things more stable)

Has active PFC which means it'll actually save you some money on your electric bill

80% efficiency again means that it uses the power it draws from the wall socket better, converting more of it to usable power inside the computer and less to noise and heat waste energy.

Finally I am almost certain your CPU is going to bottleneck your new GPU.

 

Thanks Train and LaughingMan, (It's an MSI card by the way, I figured it couldn't hurt to get the same brand as my motherboard.) I may give that new PSU a shot. It's definitely cheaper than trying to pick up a new processor, at least for the interim. A little bit of bottleneck I can deal with, but I'm really running out of patience with my computer shutting down every ten minutes.

Thanks again to everyone for all your help. I'll be sure to follow up and let you know how it worked out.

 

Just a side note but a bottlenecked CPU shouldn't cause your PC to shut down. Just in case you had considered that as a possible cause. Go for the PSU I am willing to bet it will resolve your issues.

 

Been away, did you ever get your PC running ok. I use the MSI MB and have 2 MSI 9600 Video cards in sli mode. Good choice, they do under estimate there wattages a bit. With just one 8800 card you might want to upgrade to around 600 watt. I have the following PSU in my PC. That'll give you around 525 watts of usable power

Rosewill RX750-S-B ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91 750W Power Supply 120 - 240 V TUV, FCC, UL, CE, RoHS

It has 4 rails dedicated to +/-12v, and for less than $100

 

Here's hopin' Trussman. I'll know in a few days when the new one gets here.

 

Well I picked up a new PSU, I got the one LaughingMan suggested (this one) and I'm still freezing up. One of the features is that it's supposed to automatically adjust what voltages are going through which rail.

Any other ideas? As long as you get everything plugged in, is it even possible to screw up installing a power supply?

 

I figured I'd rather overshoot than undershoot, so I sent back the 520W and grabbed an Antec 850W 4-rail PSU, and I'm still freezing up.

I figured I'd come by one last time and see if there were any extra suggestions.

In the meantime I've re-seated my RAM and video card, and still no luck.

 

when you removed the old video driver did you make sure to remove all of it? leftover drivers can cause that issue. try to uninstall all traces of any video driver and then re install newest driver only

 

No luck on that either. I went in an uninstalled all the nvidia stuff from the control panel, the re-installed but I'm still getting the freeze-ups.

I guess I'm just going to have to get an RMA and hope it was the card.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I appreciate it.

 

Been-there done that too many times, download DriverCleaner and follow the instruction's >exactly!<. Then reinstall your new "latest" drivers.

 

Well it looks like that was it, after the whole big mess it turns out to just have been a bad card.

Thanks to everyone for your ideas. At least I have a psu that can handle it now :-D