cliche

I recently upgraded my computer (Athlon 500 -> XP 2400+) without upgrading the PSU. I can't remember the rating of the PSU in the machine, only that it was quite high in its day (sadly not written on the PSU). I'm generally very happy with the machine but it is slightly flaky. Can anyone tell me what kind of problems an underpowered PSU causes, and any guide on what rating to use if I do need to upgrade. Thanks!

My system:
Athlon 2400+, 512Mb DDR RAM, Asus KT400 Mb
3x IDE HDs (120Gb, 40Gb, 14Gb)
DVD Drive, CDR/W
Geforce 4 Ti4200 AGP Gfx
3x PCI slots filled
Running Win2000 Pro, SP4, fully up to date

Problems:
Internet Explorer crashes frequently
Explorer crashes occasionally
Office works v. slowly (I have a feeling this is a problem with Office, however)
Use of IE rarely results in a reboot on clicking on links


As I said, it generally works absolutely fine - IE is the only real problem and usually just needs reloading (though MS must have received enough 'problem reports' from Dr Watson!)

Thanks

T.U.B.

Think you don't need to upgrade.
The most frequent reaction on a underpowered system is crashing caused by the video card. Those suckers draw a lot of power. (your Geforce 4 Ti4200 AGP Gfx sure does)
You can test it by running a very processor and graphic card stressing program. for example Unreal Tournament 2003. If you run those programs, processor will be 100% full time, graphic processor too. If your game, with maxed out settings, runs fine (witch it will with your system) everything 's ok. If you get a crash or are throwed back to desktop immediatly(memmory exeption), maybe it's your PSU.
If it first runs fine, then crashes, maybe it's your PSU or maybe you have insufficent cooling.
I don't think your IE problems have anything to do with your PSU.

I know this is not some expert answer, but maybe it'll help.

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yakimushi

If your power supply is underpowered, you're not going to see these kind of errors. If your PS is underpowered, your system just crashes, or doesn't boot, or randomly resets. I had a system that would reset every time it spun up a CD.

Did you reinstall windows after putting together the new system? If not, do it.

Check your RAM. Memtest is a good prog. Even slightly bad RAM can cause huge problems.

Check your case temps. An XP2400 runs a hell of a lot hotter than an old Athlon 500.

Also, run some kind of stresstest. Unreal 2k3 would probably work, but something like SiSoft Sandras burn in test would work a little better.

Good luck!

cliche

Have been using Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory without any problems, does that indicate anything?

I tried a stress-test just now (after IE had crashed 2x whilst browsing boards) - by running Wolfenstein whilst spinning up CDs in both drives.

Asus probe reports:

Background:
12v: 12.128 to 12.192
5v: 4.892 to 4.919
2.2v: 3.264 to 3.28
Vcore: 1.712 to 1.728

"Stress"
12v: 12.192 to 12.256 (same/higher)
5v: 4.838 to 4.865 (lower)
3.3v: 3.232 to 3.248 (lower)
Vcore: 1.712 to 1.728 (same)

However, during "stress" it was completely stable, no probs. etc. MB temperature reached 26C, CPU reached 49C.

Windows was clean install (on new HD) when I upgraded the system, and has been kept up to date (currently SP4) without problems.

Any ideas would be gratefully received! I'll try a better stresstest soon. Thanks for the help.

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Vanquish

Yeah dont skimp on a PSU either, many are not actually what there rated at. For instance a 400w psu may only be able to put out 380 or so. Also the cheaper PSUs rails may be off quite a bit. My 5v rail on a generic PSU was dropping to around 4 witch is unacceptable.

JJamesB2

I have a 420W Turbolink PS with 3xIDE devices and a lot of fans, the system is about 700MHZ overclocked, and I am noticing that my rails drop below a acceptable value.
Anybody know anything about the ANTEC TruePower550W? I was looking at those, that should provide enough power to overclock further

3zos

JJamesB2,
i have the antec truepower 480W i think, might even be 550W. Overclocking an athlon tbred b 1.5, jiuhb 312 stepping, to 2.3, 5 case fans, cpu fan, 2 x ide hdd, radeon 8500, audigy 2, various LEDs inside case, and no problems whatsover, vrails stay within .05 of target most times. Antec makes a high quality PSU, though if using some antec cases with support bar running beneath the PSU, youll have to remove the grating on the lower PSU fan to have it fit properly.

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