PSU Advice

[Tiger356]

I'm having a lot of 'cold-boot issues' with my PC, i.e. blue screen crashes, errors about the windows installation being corrupt etc. Basically the PC only boots after a hard-reset, and will never boot from cold.

Having tried all the usual things, i.e. swapping memory sticks around etc, I'm starting to wonder if it's my PSU which might be the source of the problem. This is my spec (it's 2-years old now)...

DFI LanParty UT SLI-D nForce4 SLi
Tagan TG480-U15 480W EasyCon PSU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+
2 x GeForce Extreme N7800 GTX 256MB SLi
OCZ 2048Mb DDR PC3200
Gigabyte 3D Galaxy Liquid Cooling System
250GB SATA HDD
Dual Layer DVD-RW
Windows XP, SP2

I've had the system for almost 2 years, and I've had the same boot issues since the beginning. Recently it's started to get a lot worse, whereby the PC will not boot at all, and I'm forced to reinstall XP all the time.

Do you think that PSU is good enough for the rest of my spec, bearing in the mind the dual gfx cards?

If the PSU is not upto the job, any reccomendations on a replacement?

Cheers!

 

[Justintime]

selectable switchable 12V rails for universal support of all ATX standards, no idea what it is as i never had one, but is this sorted? As for the Sli, i got doubts.

 

[split]

whereby the PC will not boot at all, and I'm forced to reinstall XP all the time.

That doesn't really add up.
Are we talking it boots after several attempts...as in on and off etc?
Some DFI boards do suffer with cold boot issues.
Have you got any software that measures your voltage?

The PSU isn't really getting hammered by your graphics card at boot.
It would be my guess your pushing the PSU a bit, not at boot and thats where you have the error.

Just to be safe, test your memory... http://www.memtest86.com/

 

[Tiger356]

That doesn't really add up.
Are we talking it boots after several attempts...as in on and off etc?
Some DFI boards do suffer with cold boot issues.
Have you got any software that measures your voltage?

The PSU isn't really getting hammered by your graphics card at boot.
It would be my guess your pushing the PSU a bit, not at boot and thats where you have the error.

Just to be safe, test your memory... http://www.memtest86.com/

It usually takes 3 boots to get the PC to start properly, i.e. to get into windows.

This is the 'norm' for me...

1) PC is off
2) Power on (first-boot)
3) Get a blue-screen crash on the XP Loading screen (don't have the actually error msg to hand, but I've seen lots of lots of different errors)
4) Hit the reset button on the front of the case (second-boot)
5) PC resets and starts to boot again
6) Before XP Loading screen appears, I'll get an error telling me that the Windows\System folder can't be found, and that it's either missing or corrupt.
7) Hit the reset button on the front of the case again (third-boot)
8) System boots fine, XP loads and I can do whatever I want and I don't get any errors or crashes... can use it all day with no problems.

^^ That is litereally the exact scenario every single time I boot the machine. It never once booted succesfully at the first attempt, it always takes '3 boots'.

Today though it's going straight into the "windows\system is missing or corrupt" error, and I'm unable to do anything from this point. I've had this before, the only way to fix it is to reinstall XP.

It sounds daft, but after reinstalling XP, I can use the machine for a month or so, all be it with the aforementioned '3-boots'. After a month or so, it'll do what it did today and I'll have to reinstall XP again.

I've tried everything, memory tests, taking memory sticks out, swapping them around, fitness tests on the HDD etc... nothing reports any errors and nothing has fixed the boot issues.

The only thing I can think of now is that the PSU isn't upto the job, but the company that built it said that the selected PSU is more than enough. However, having read one or two things on this forum and others, I'm starting to have doubts.

 

[split]

Not good

Have a read through this thread (it's big)
It sort of explains the cold boot issue with the DFI board.
See if you can find anyone that has similar symptoms.

It's just as easy I suppose to get a new PSU ( these would be my choice) but I can see you going ape if that doesn't fix it.

EDIT: here might be worth reading as well. <another huge thread

 

[badbob]

Could you not put your PC into standby or hibernation mode? Basically never fully switch it off. Possibly a work around if you can't determine the fault/fix?