GTX 260 problem

Hi I just purchased a new mobo, video card, ram, processor and psu but I'm having a real big problem. First off my specs.

Windows XP Home SP3
Mother Board - ASUS P5Q-EM
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53 GHZ
Ram - 4 GIGS 2x2 Patriot Memory 900 MHZ PC2-7200 Viper Series
PSU - 550W Cooler Master Extreme Power
200GB SATA 7200 RPM HD
And of course my awesome new GTX 260 that I can't even use.

Well when I have it hooked up and both 6 pin power connectors in it, after a few minutes of doing anything my pc either locks up or goes to the dreaded blue screen saying IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

I have all of my mobo drivers and video card drivers installed. I got the latest for the GTX 260 straight from Nvidias website. Can it be that my PSU is faulty and not giving it enough power? The card only takes 500w and I have a 550w. Please if anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it.

Also for some reason on my dxdiag tool it says I only have 3294 RAM... how is that possible? I have 4 gigs in.

 

where does it say the card only needs 500W? everyone's setup is different, i believe a video card usually uses (esp newer ones) around 250 to 300w, so add up everything you have running including the vid card and 500w, even 550 is cutting it close....however, this still may not be your problem, you could be over-heating or something else, check microsoft's support website for that error and find one that might pertain to you.

 

Minimum system requirements for the GTX 260 says 500w PCI-e compliant power supply with a combined 12v current rating of 36a or more. my power supply clearly does state that it supports PCI-e and support dual +12v, and +12v, outputs for higher power usage.

 

My guess is that 550w is no where near enough for the card/mb/hd etc to run properly. I think I might have to buy an 850w psu. What do you think?

 

I am usually a fan of the more watts the better when it comes to PSU's! But just for a reference, I am running a dual core Intel CPU, and 2 Nvidia 8800 video cards on my spare 'puter on a 650 watt PSU.

As stated above, check for overheating.

 

How am I supposed to check for overheating? The card is brand new and if I have it in, the PC won't let me do much at all before locking up or going to that blue screen. So now I'm confused.

 

Your power supply only has a combined 12v rating of 32 amps minimum for gtx 260 as previously stated is 36 amps.

 

Also a 32bit OS cannot use a full 4GB of ram you need a 64 OS for that. For a new PSU I personally use this psu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009 for my gtx260 system.

 

First off, make sure the fan on the card is spinning. If it is, try taking one side of the case off and blow a fan into it. If the fan helps, you have poor airflow or problems with the card.

Also, download GPU-Z: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5796.html If your card has a temp sensor, it will give you the temps.