It must be me or something - All the PC's I have seem to run into problems.

I've been getting that ATI2DVAG BSOD lately, which was down to my ATI Card. The error involved skipping whilst in a game, then a freeze with looping sounds and eventually a BSOD.

I've just gone and got an 8600GT Today, working okay..But Its started to do the freezing/looping sounds again. No BSOD though, it just does that and doesn't stop. Occasionally changing sounds that its looping.

Any idea what it could be? I've got a 550W PSU, but it wasn't a very well known brand - my dad bought it since it was so cheap. I'm thinking that might be the problem, unfortunatly. But its 550W, surely an 8600GT doesn't use that - it doesn't even require an extra power cable into the back of it.

Any ideas?

System:

Intel E2140 Core 2 Duo, stock clock.
EVGA Nforce 650i Ultra
TEAM 1GB RAM
Xpertvision 8600GT 256mb
550W PSU

Are your drivers up to date fella.

Quote from The General Lee :

Are your drivers up to date fella.

Yep, tried all the latest Nvidia drivers, as well as the ones recommended by Xpertvision.

Are there any problems when you are just using your desktop?

Quote from The General Lee :

Are there any problems when you are just using your desktop?

Nope, all fine. I can play media too like video's and music, nothing goes wrong then. Its just as soon as I get on a game.

Any game or just LFS?

Sorry for the questions

Quote from The General Lee :

Any game or just LFS?

Sorry for the questions

Any, Counter Strike Source does it, but after a longer period of time. LFS did it in about 20 minutes.

Sounds like maybe heat (if you leave your PC on overnight) or maybe that PSU, but I'm sure that would give you problems from the start. How old is your PC?

PC seems fairly new as the E2140 is a fairly new chip. Check out tempuratures in BIOS, just to make sure it's not overheating, because LFS would heat up a CPU a lot faster then CS:S would. Also, why don't you have any overclocks? The 650i is good for 450mhz FSB at least, and I've seen 2140's go hella high on stock voltage, with stock coolers. One thing you really should do is take a look on the side of the PSU, it should give you all the technical specs of it, product codes, and such, to help you find more info on it.
~Bryan~

I meant if he has had it a few months, or if it is a couple weeks old etc.

I still hold with Heat or your PSU. But I would of thought if PSU is to blame, then it would bugger everything else up and not just your GPU.

Who makes your PSU? It might not use 550W but it might use all the amps available.

How many amps does it have?

hmm seems like a PSU problem..happened to me once when i had the stock PSU that came with my hp but soon gone after i upgraded to more better antec 500 watt PSU

http://www.mendmycomputeronlin ... oogle&ref=B16109466EB

There's the power supply.

CPU isn't overheating, and dropin_biking - I've had too many bad experiences in the past with overclocking Went upto a 250FSB clock X 8, Thats 2.0GHZ per core. It was totally unstable at that, so I don't really see the point. I'm just gonna stay stock.

Looking at the price of that PSU i think that's the problem...

Quote from Jakg :

Looking at the price of that PSU i think that's the problem...

So your thinking I need something a little more reliable? I've got not much money at the moment. I really can't be affording a lot more - whats a decent PSU that would get me working fine? But for the lowest price possible?

Is there any way I can prove to my dad its the power supply? He'll just grunt and say its not.

Have you formatted when you've changed gfx card? Maybe try DriverCleaner and remove any piece of old and/or current drivers, then put the nvidia driver.
Checked chipset drivers?
MAYBE audio card drivers?

Take a look on the side of the PSU, there should be a sticker of sorts giving you specific information about the amperage. As for convincing your dad it's the PSU, just calculate the load your computer puts out, show him what your PSU CAN put out, theres no arguing with mathematics.
~Bryan~

Quote from mcintyrej :

Is there any way I can prove to my dad its the power supply? He'll just grunt and say its not.

What does he think it is then?

Quote from Jakg :

What does he think it is then?

I don't have a clue. I might just go and buy a new PSU, but I need him to fit it. Since i've really got no idea where all the wires go.

You could try this site:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
to see how much power you might expect your PC to draw at full load.

You could also try downloading something like SpeedFan which will monitor the supply voltages on your motherboard. If you see those drooping below their nominal values under high CPU/GFX load then that's an indication that your PSU isn't meaty enough.

Cheap power supplies often quote the sum of the powers available at each voltage rail when ONLY that rail is operating. When all rails are operating the total power can be much lower.

Quote from mcintyrej :

I don't have a clue. I might just go and buy a new PSU, but I need him to fit it. Since i've really got no idea where all the wires go.

It's really not difficult! Take a picture of your current setup if you're not sure, but there's no way to get it wrong as far as I can see.

Yeah everything pretty much only fits together one way. As long as you double check that everything nessesary is connected you can't really do much harm. PSU's are designed to be a simple installation.
~Bryan~

Did you try switching the RAM modules? May help

Switching won't really help, but trying 1 of them by itself, then trying the other by itself and seeing if the problem still occurs might help. But I don't think it's a ram problem, ram doesn't give you blue screens.

Okay, spoke to my dad about the problems. Just as I thought, he totally thinks that my PSU has nothing to do with it, he just thinks the PSU was cheap for no reason. He actually had the nerve to tell me that he thought it was MSN freezing my computer.

Anyway i can convince him that its the PSU? No tests I can run?

There are tests you can run. They require you to use a multimeter and measure all the voltages and currents coming out of the power supply. Unfortunately, I don't know what currents you are supposed to get, and measuring currents will be a real pain, but measuring voltages is very easy, and you should get voltages of 12V, 5V, and 3.3V. They should not vary by more than 0.5V; if they do then there is a problem.