Power Problems with 9700Pro

[Solkin]

The geforcefx sucks some serious **** (for the price). Oops, wrong thread. :r Anyhow, I am running my radeon9700 on the following system and seem to be having power problems.

Intel 2.53ghz
gigabyte 8inxp
512mb ddrram
Sound Blaster Audigy2
60gb hd
300w power
etc...


The first thing your all going to say is whats up with using only a 300w powersupply? Well, its the only thing I have to run with until my TT 420W arrives. I am having some video troubles and I am thinking it has some direct issuse with power consumption/poor power supply. My computer boots up fine and I can play games and what have you, but every so often my video crashes and windows xp tells me it has recovered from a serious device error. And my settings fall to 640x480 with 16 colors and I have to reboot the computer. Once rebooted everything is fine until it does it again. I am thinking that the 9700 is running out of power and crashes itself.

My question is this. Is what I am thinking going on and will it be fixed upon installation of a better power supply, or is something else going on?

Thanks a Bunch.

:D

[Bigjakkstaffa]

will it be fixed upon installation of a better power supply

Only tiem will tell, but you really need the extra wattage of the PSU given that rig, 300W is IMO cutting it a little close and is very limited for future expansion

--Jakk:t

[bushmaster]

PSU

[Mr54mk]

Alright dude check this out. The problem isn't with your power supply. It actually deals with your chipset. The E7205 has had some issues with ATI. Though they're are a couple ways to get around your problem I recommend using the one that solved mine. I already posted a reply to you on my Post regarding Dual channel. This is what you need to do. Download the newest drivers and Control Panel from www.ATI.com. Uninstall your previous versions. Install the both new ones. Once you do this you will need to go to the smartgart tab. Properties/Settings/Advanced/Smartgart. Disable fastwrite this is your problem. This will not hinder any performance. Trust me I spent the whole afternoon running benchmarks instead of doing Visual Basic hw. Once you have adjusted your settings everything should run fine. I hope this helps. 9700 Pro kicks *** and the last thing owners need is that nagging ATI driver issue over their head. This is the site that helped me out if you wanna check it out. http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/4804/

-Mr54mk

[causticVapor]

Indeed, the reboot (or "hardware failiure") is a problem with the ATi drivers' hating of fastwrites for some reason. It really is terrifying and makes you think your card is failing. And since it is random, it can really hamper reliability. Turning fastwrites off will eradicate those problems unless, however, your card actually is failing or not being supplied enough current.

Also, games will be less choppy with that slider turned one notch to the left.

So it's a dual benefit.

As for your PSU, if it's a high-end model like Fortron, sparkle, antec, enermax, or PC power & Cooling it might be able to handle the load of added devices, to a point. IMO, it is best to get the Sparkle 430W or Antec True550 (despite what people say about it.) Tt really doesn't make good PSUs.

EDIT - **** centrino Ad... another round of tremendously irritating intel marketing acrobatics...