Power problem with Vid card, can't find cause
Hi, I have recently (past 3 days or so), been getting the NVIDIA "Your graphics card's performance has been lowered due to insufficient power" or whatever message. I have changed no system settings since I upgraded my video card drivers to 91.31. I have had no problems before this.
System Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ OCed to 2565 MHz (1.55 V)
Asus A8N-E motherboard
2x 160 GB Hitatchi SATA-2 HD's in RAID-0
90 GB Western Digital drive (IDE, somewhat older, don't remember specs, only used for storage nothing is run off of it, no programs installed on it, page file not kept on it)
2x 512 MB OCZ Platinum-EL PC 3200 (2-2-2-5 factory default) running at 2-2-2-14, 1.85 volts (clock speed is only 403 MHz or so, tested up to 450 MHz before started experiencing problems with it back when I was setting up my OC)
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS soundcard
Antec TP2-550W power supply
Leadtek model of the Geforce 6800 GT (PCI express). I had it OCed to 400/1100, dropped it to factory defaults just a little bit ago when the problems got much worse. Still having problems off and on now.
I built the thing mid-August 2005 from all new parts. Ample case room, internal temps stay below about 46 ambient. CPU Doesn't go above 49 under load, vid card was staying under 72. I have had very, very few stability problems for the 10 months or so since I got my overclock finished, aside from occasional driver issues that were resolved by downloading different drivers
I play Neverwinter Nights at 1280x1024, and I play counterstrike source in windowed mode (with my display resolution at 1600x1200) (these are the only ones for the past couple days that I've played)
3 days ago I got the performance reduction message while playing NWN.
2 days ago I got it a few times while playing NWN.
Yesterday I got it at boot-up (rebooted several times, each time I got the message). And several times again while playing NWN.
Today I got it at boot-up every time (even after lowing the overclock to factory defaults), and could not play any games sometimes because every 20 seconds or so I would be interupted by another performance reduction popup. I would try again 5 or 10 minutes later with or without rebooting (several of each) and have no problems for the 5 or 10 minutes of testing. (And the times I had trouble today it happened immediately after getting through the menus and into the actual game). Today was the first time I have had problems while playing counterstrike.
The room is airconditioned, has been since it got hot. The computer is on almost all the time.
No other problems are apparent. The voltage rails read (using Sandra Lite):
+3.3: 3.25
+5: 4.89
+12: 11.36
As I said, I have changed nothing, installed nothing, and the environment around the computer hasn't changed. I have a heavy duty UPS as well, and it has no apparent problems. And yes I checked to make sure the power plug is in the video card's extra power receptacle. I replugged it in to make sure.
Any ideas? Is it my vid card? My PSU? I read elsewhere on the forum that antec PSU's have dropped in quality... I would test it with another PSU but I don't have one. Nor do I have another video card to test with.
System Specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ OCed to 2565 MHz (1.55 V)
Asus A8N-E motherboard
2x 160 GB Hitatchi SATA-2 HD's in RAID-0
90 GB Western Digital drive (IDE, somewhat older, don't remember specs, only used for storage nothing is run off of it, no programs installed on it, page file not kept on it)
2x 512 MB OCZ Platinum-EL PC 3200 (2-2-2-5 factory default) running at 2-2-2-14, 1.85 volts (clock speed is only 403 MHz or so, tested up to 450 MHz before started experiencing problems with it back when I was setting up my OC)
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS soundcard
Antec TP2-550W power supply
Leadtek model of the Geforce 6800 GT (PCI express). I had it OCed to 400/1100, dropped it to factory defaults just a little bit ago when the problems got much worse. Still having problems off and on now.
I built the thing mid-August 2005 from all new parts. Ample case room, internal temps stay below about 46 ambient. CPU Doesn't go above 49 under load, vid card was staying under 72. I have had very, very few stability problems for the 10 months or so since I got my overclock finished, aside from occasional driver issues that were resolved by downloading different drivers
I play Neverwinter Nights at 1280x1024, and I play counterstrike source in windowed mode (with my display resolution at 1600x1200) (these are the only ones for the past couple days that I've played)
3 days ago I got the performance reduction message while playing NWN.
2 days ago I got it a few times while playing NWN.
Yesterday I got it at boot-up (rebooted several times, each time I got the message). And several times again while playing NWN.
Today I got it at boot-up every time (even after lowing the overclock to factory defaults), and could not play any games sometimes because every 20 seconds or so I would be interupted by another performance reduction popup. I would try again 5 or 10 minutes later with or without rebooting (several of each) and have no problems for the 5 or 10 minutes of testing. (And the times I had trouble today it happened immediately after getting through the menus and into the actual game). Today was the first time I have had problems while playing counterstrike.
The room is airconditioned, has been since it got hot. The computer is on almost all the time.
No other problems are apparent. The voltage rails read (using Sandra Lite):
+3.3: 3.25
+5: 4.89
+12: 11.36
As I said, I have changed nothing, installed nothing, and the environment around the computer hasn't changed. I have a heavy duty UPS as well, and it has no apparent problems. And yes I checked to make sure the power plug is in the video card's extra power receptacle. I replugged it in to make sure.
Any ideas? Is it my vid card? My PSU? I read elsewhere on the forum that antec PSU's have dropped in quality... I would test it with another PSU but I don't have one. Nor do I have another video card to test with.
0
Comments
I'd consider your +12V rail to be too low at only 11.36V. Your 5V is also low, but within spec. I'd strongly recommend verifying those voltages with a multimeter, or in the BIOS as well.
If they still read around 11.36, you should definitely contact Antec and get an RMA for that PSU (or purchase a new one).
Best of luck!
Antecs are usually pretty high quality units, but I had a similar issue with my true-power 430 last year--only with the 5V rail. I'm pretty confident that the PSU is the source of your woes. If it is on its way out, lowering the operating temperature will not improve the situation much. I'd recommend testing it ASAP. If it is indeed the culpret, I'd remove it from your system before it fails outright (and takes some of your hardware with it).
Best of luck!
So, now I've narrowed it to the vid card or the MB if the slot is bad...
I'm gonna check the return policies of a couple stores around here and see if I can pick up a test vid card.
Honestly, I suspect something in the power section of the video card.
Got a new one to test with (liberal return policy) and it is fine, no problems...
I am going to go check on leadtek's warranty information now, hopefully over a year as it is a few days past a year now...