GPU or PSU issue?

[bigjimmyauk]

Heh I came back after taking pics to find out you'd found what you wanted

That's what I read in the manual, but surely that suggests it's supposed to have power going in not coming out

While I had the case open again and was taking pics I decided to test the 12v that runs my dvd/cd drives too, and found that it too read 12v across red and wither black wire, and 26v across yellow and either black wire, which definitely doesn't seem right to me, yet nothing that's connected to those 12v lines has ever failed on me, just the previous GFX card, which was connected to and powered from only the mobo.

26 v is not right at all i wouldn't risk it and get a new psu
and yeah ur right the 4 pin plug is supposed to have power going into it not coming out of it another thing which i can't work out is why power is actually coming out of there.

 

[Big Man]

Right, PSU replacement then. I've been planning to upgrade the whole system anyway (which, by the look if things means a whole new build really, but can't afford to do it all at once)
I think I'll grab a decent PSU from here, with plenty of power so that I can upgrade as time goes on.

If the issue is PSU, and this fixes my problems, I'll be looking at upgrading the GFX card next anyway, possibly moving back to Nvidia, and moving more towards the higher end of the scale, or would a mobo and cpu upgrade be money better spent first?

 

[bigjimmyauk]

Right, PSU replacement then. I've been planning to upgrade the whole system anyway (which, by the look if things means a whole new build really, but can't afford to do it all at once)
I think I'll grab a decent PSU from here, with plenty of power so that I can upgrade as time goes on.

If the issue is PSU, and this fixes my problems, I'll be looking at upgrading the GFX card next anyway, possibly moving back to Nvidia, and moving more towards the higher end of the scale, or would a mobo and cpu upgrade be money better spent first?

I would seriously upgrade the mobo,cpu and ram first then do GFX card last
nothing stopping u buying a GFX first but your cpu,mobo,ram combination could bottle neck the GFX meaning u won't really see the full potential until u upgrade

what os are u using
also what size screen and resolution is it

both factors will help u decide what card to get

 

[veryrandom101]

i just have to post this.. i feel i am truly lucky to be alive! i've been opening psu's for a while, mainly to clean them of all the dust, and i can tell you i never took any precautions, no matter what my brother told me :O even last night i took my other brothers 850w ocz gamexstream apart, as it wasnt working at all, and he's a mess with pc's so there was like an inch of dust, which i gladly removed with fingers and stuff. anyways, sorry for the pointless post, im just glad to be alive and not going messing with them anymore

 

[Big Man]

I would seriously upgrade the mobo,cpu and ram first then do GFX card last
nothing stopping u buying a GFX first but your cpu,mobo,ram combination could bottle neck the GFX meaning u won't really see the full potential until u upgrade

what os are u using
also what size screen and resolution is it

both factors will help u decide what card to get

Monitor is a 19 inch 4:3 and I generally run at anywhere between 1024x768 and 1280x1024 for games.

I suspected as much about the bottlenecking if I upgraded the GFX card first, so first task will be the PSU replacement, will be able to order one tuesday, thinking of going with the Antec Signature Premium 650W, is 650w going to be enough to run the system after I upgraded? Possibly looking at saving some serious cash and going for an asus mobo with i7 cpu for the next upgrade. I figure I might as well go for the best I can afford so that the system isn't so out of date it doesn't run anything within a year.

 

[bigjimmyauk]

Monitor is a 19 inch 4:3 and I generally run at anywhere between 1024x768 and 1280x1024 for games.

I suspected as much about the bottlenecking if I upgraded the GFX card first, so first task will be the PSU replacement, will be able to order one tuesday, thinking of going with the Antec Signature Premium 650W, is 650w going to be enough to run the system after I upgraded? Possibly looking at saving some serious cash and going for an asus mobo with i7 cpu for the next upgrade. I figure I might as well go for the best I can afford so that the system isn't so out of date it doesn't run anything within a year.

well if your not upgrading your monitor any time soon and not switching to windows 7 i would go with something like a 4890 if ur switching to windows 7 and getting a bigger monitor in the future i would pick up a 58 series.

psu wise i would go with a modular psu and buy the best u can afford corsair psu's are really good i wouldn't buy antec again after having problems with their customer service a couple of months ago.
if u go with the i7 build and a 58 series i would be looking about the 800w range corsair hx850 is a good one altho £132 it leaves you room for adding extras in the furture such as cross fire cards. last thing u want is to be having to buy a new psu in 6months - a year because u got the bug and needed to upgrade.

scout around the forums and post a specific in each section regarding what ur after there are people on here much better suited for detailed info on gfx cards

would probably help if u set a budget for everyone that u can afford list everything u need then just put SPEC ME A GAMING PC FOR £XXXX

be realistic with your budget and always set away 10-15% for consumables suck as cables,adapters,fans

 

[Big Man]

Ok I've done just that and posted in the general hardware forum. Thanks for all your advice, and the discussion on electrocution too

Hopefully the PSU replacement will fix the problem I have with the crashing card, and I can get on with upgrading the rest of the system. If it doesn't, well I've eliminated a possible cause.

 

[Big Man]

Doesn't look like the PSU replacement has solved the issue. Had no trouble with Assassin's Creed or Mass Effect, tried Fallout3 and get the same monitor switching off issue that I had before, and within a few minutes too.

Any other ideas for things to check? Temps (according to software) all seem fine, card seems stable far higher than the temps I'm seeing in games using furmark.

Will take me a whole to get the money together for the total system upgrade, especially cos the taxman is going to be asking for money soon too, so anything that will help me get some use out of the system for the next few months will be handy.