Nvidia Insufficient power warning

BenJ · 16 Aug 2006 at 14:24

Recently I have been reciving a small pop up box from Nvidia whenever i play source.

Spec Dell Dimension 8300, P4 2.8Ghz, 1280MbRam, BFG GeForce 6600 GT Oc.

Now i have played source for like a year with this spec and have never seen this message before, the only changes I have made is going from a 17" CRT to a 19" Widescreen TFT recently. Could this affect the amount of power reaching the card? I have no idea what power the Psu is in this, how do i find out (Dosent say on it). Also the power cable is still attached correctly to the card so it isnt that.

Ta. :confused

Joe42 · 16 Aug 2006 at 15:19

Are those all the stock components it came with?
Is it in warranty?

I had this once and i think i solved it by moving the power connector to a different molex power plug. Worth a try.

Presumably the pc itself doesn't have 128mb of ram does it?

BenJ · 16 Aug 2006 at 15:29

The G/c did not come with the pc, And its not 128mb ram.. its 1280mb ram, (2x512,2x128) 1280.. I will try it on another power connector. Cheers.

Joe42 · 16 Aug 2006 at 15:34

What graphics did it come with?

Being a dell, the psu was probably only just enough to begin with. Chances are its not powerful enough. Can you have a look at the psu and see what make it is, what wattage it is and what the amp ratings on the 12v rail are.

ted34 · 16 Aug 2006 at 15:36

BenJ said:
The G/c did not come with the pc, And its not 128mb ram.. its 1280mb ram, (2x512,2x128) 1280.. I will try it on another power connector. Cheers.

Dell put cheap low power psu's in so its probably your psu is not up to the task. You need to get a more powerful one - check size and plugs as dell have weird size cases and power fittings (changed psu once before in a dell and side panel had to be modified to fit back on)

BenJ · 16 Aug 2006 at 15:42

it came with some geforce 5700 or somthing equally poor. What i dont understand is how can it run fine for a year then suddently not be enough power.... as i said the psu does not have power ratings e.t.c on the side of it.

Joe42 · 16 Aug 2006 at 15:47

Try lowering the clock speed of the graphics card, and try unplugging something such as a cd drive or harddisk to see if the message goes away.
I expect the psu was on its limit for a while and something like a capacitor getting a bit old or something is just enough to lower its power output a tiny bit which causes that message to appear.

My advice is get a new psu providing it will fit, try it and if for some reason the message still happens send the psu back under distance selling.

BenJ · 16 Aug 2006 at 16:23

send it back under distance selling? whats that mean

Joe42 · 16 Aug 2006 at 17:15

BenJ said:
send it back under distance selling? whats that mean

When you buy something you have a legal right to send it back within 7 days, providing its in as new condition.
So you can buy a psu, give it a try and if it doesn't work package it back up so its in the condition you recieved it in and send it back saying you don't want it. The only problem is you have to pay postage back.

BenJ · 16 Aug 2006 at 18:13

O ok cheers, gonna buy the Hiper 580 Modular type r for my other rig any, so i guess i can test it in this one too. Cheers.