psu

[teddy1]

i've been trying to solve this problem for the past 2 weeks and no luck, i installed an ati radeon 9600se and a soundblaster audigy2zs and been having lockups and monitor shutdowns, everyone seems to point to my psu, that i need more wattage, but i called gateway and they say they dont have anything more powerfull, i looked inot antecs psus but the dont look like the one installed in my system, mine is a single fan and antecs have dual. dont know what to do, i tryed uninstalling the video drivers and sound drivers and now theres no lockups but i cant see things right cause my monitor looks like is in safemode. could it be the psu or is iit the drivers are not compatable between sound and video. can someone please help, i need to start my gaming again i need to get this system stable, i tried everything from reformatin reinstalling windows installing agp drivers, tried a bios update(dont know if it worked) i uninstalled the sound drivers, and left the video drivers but the lockups still there, then i uinstalled video drivers, and no more lockups? im going crazy tryign to figure this out, please someone help

[gazzak]

OK, lets find out for sure if this is a power issue. Go to this website and run the power calculator against your system to see if it needs more. 250W does seem a bit on the low side but try and and post back here with the results.

[Ruslan]

First of all, I would recommend to upgrade the OS - WinME is known for unstable work... considering hardware you have now, I would recommend XP... also check the motherboard and make sure there are no any capacitors with swollen tops... Gateway doesn't use crappy-fake-noname PSUs, so, their 250Wt PSU should be O'K for now... Check also memory and HDD, and see if CPU is not overheating...

[teddy1]

according to the power calculator my minimum power supply is 240w

[teddy1]

according to speedfan my cpu tem are as follow tem1 28c temp2 22c temp3 21c hdo 30c, checked memory nor errors, capacitors are ok. just wondering since this is an oem everything is bundled in a restoration cd,if i upgrade to xp is it gona work with the bios i have?

[Ferrit]

I can tell you right now you would do well to have a 30 watt name brand PSU but I suspect thats not the issue here
I would suspect you can run either the soundblaster or the radeon on its own but the 2 together probably conflict
Try 1 or the other not both

[rob9966]

Give my power supply calculator a shot...everyone loves it...

www.vbutils.com


Thanks,

Rob

[SolApathy]

Win 98SE or XP will offer the drivers you need for the hardware in your system. In addition, using the restore CD throws a crapload of junk on your machine that is absolutely useless & takes up valuable resources.

You will see a definite increase in performance as somone previously stated, ME is the worst OS M$ ever came out with.

If you do not have at least 512 MB of Ram I would recommend you install 98SE, as it isn't as power hungry as XP is for RAM.

...You might find this also solves your crash problems.


PSU is a component that a lot of ppl overlook when things start to go wrong. depending on how much of a load you are running when you have these crashes. Is it always during the middle of a graphics intensive game, or in the middle of rendering?


..But first things first, install the NEW OS and see if that solves your problems. Use the restore CD to test your skills at throwing things in the trash from 15 ft.

[rob9966]

Whatever you decide...I'd suggest making an image of your hard drive first. Use Norton Ghost or other imagining software to save it to another internal/external hard drive or CDRW/DVD-+R. This way you have a guaranteed way of restoring your system.

Other than reloading the OS, you can try using a standard PCI video card and see if you get lockups. You can also try (at a different time than the video card switch) removing the sound card.

For as cheap as memory is these days I'd highly receommend you increase your memory to at least 512. If this is your gaming rig, you'll want 1GIG of memory and have XP as your OS.

Your Gateway supports 1.5 GIG of PC133 max, so you've got room to expand.

http://www.4allmemory.com/index.cfm?...model_id=30651
(also check www.pricewatch.com, but watch for compatability - most memory won't work with your Gateway - buy from somewhere that guarantees compatability)

[GreenGrime]

My own handbuilt system was performing fine until I added in a 9800 Pro.

I finally went with an Antec PSU and the problem was immediately resolved.

Those cards suck up a lot of juice, and what you need is not necessarily wattage, but good, stable amp delivery on the rails.

Antec or Enermax are my personal picks.