# Symptoms of weak psu?



## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

Hi, I just installed my 7300gt 512mb AGP (@ 8x) recently, and ive noticed that when i do something cpu intensive, e.g open internet explorer, my mouse goes a little jerky on the first few seconds of IE loading, then when its finished loading my mouse movement returns back to the smooth movement.

This didnt used to happen with my intigrated gpu.

This isnt really a problem but it seems like a symptom that is happening when my processor is working fully, so im thinking its cos the psu cant deliver the power quick enough to the gfx card and the cpu at the same time. 

but im using a 480w no-name psu that delivers 20A on the +12v rail, and ive insterted the extra power connector from psu
<System specs

Any ideas why its happening? thanks


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

Might be that with a No Name 480 watt power supply that it might be struggling to keep up. Do you have the latest drivers that have been downloaded from the manufacturer's website?????


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

if u read^, its agp


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

yeh i got the latest drivers 169.21, 20 dec 07


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

Bump!


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

What still appears (not sure though) is that with the no name power supply of 480 watts, you might have suggested the problem solution yourself. Unfortunately, although rated at 20 amps (this video card needs 18 amps minimum), the no-name supplies rarely put out what they advertise. Most also have such low efficiency that they run hot and when they run hot, they put out less than 
even they do in a cool environment (which a computer case is not cool) that these companies test these cheap power supplies in. 

What I am saying, is that if this supply did actually put out 20 amps (which I seriously doubt), as the computer gets warmer, the power supply puts out less amps, then you have the lack of power. Those with 80% + efficiency put out what they advertise as a general rule and sometimes even more.

Why not go to a best buy or staples near you and purchase a decent power supply and try it. If it doesn't solve the issue, you can take it back for a small restocking fee. You need to look for something like a 500 watt for this rig if you don't plan on upgrading this rig. Look for a specific brand name supply line like an Antec Earthwatts, and Antec Neo HE, an Antec Trio, a Silverstone, a Seasonic, a PC Power & Cooling, a Thermaltake "toughpower" series, etc. These supplies that are listed put out all that they list on the side of the power supply in the way of amps and are great supplies. If you purchase an off brand, then you are exactly where you are now. Anyway, that is my suggestion.


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

i jus checkd it, and the make is 'ace', but i havent heard anything about it so i would still consider it a no name lol, and yeh i think il try another named psu, thats the only way i can tell if its the problem i guess.

also would i be able to tell by looking at voltages or anything that the psu is struggeling? like if the 12v line is putting out more or less than it should do?

please get back to me

thanks for your help


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

I think the Ace power supply is actually a clone of the Winpower power supply and they only have about 75% efficiency, so it is a mid-range, but fairly weak power supply. You could try it on a meter which would give you accurate readings, but that would not be the total story of a power supply that can't keep up.

Did you check voltages and temps in the BIOS? That might be a good thing to do.

any more, 20 amps is not much for a power supply, and with that lower efficiency, that makes it more critical, so that is a concern to me also. One can not ever guarantee that is your total problem, but everything you have said points to that direction. Wish a friend of yours had one you could slap in there a see if that solves your issue.


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

ive checked my voltages etc with everest ultimate:

(i duno how use the voltages to diagnose anything though, so here ya go)
cpu=1.46v,+3.3=3.33v,+12=12.10v,DIMM=2.58

temps after a lil play of halo 2(degrees celcius)
hdd: 43
7300gt: 57
cpu: 44

you think thats ok^?

nevertheless im going to try another psu tomorrow and see what happens

thanks


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

I didnt get round to buying that psu day... but anyway I just found that my system bios is over 3.5 years old, shall i update it? 
could that help?

and my video bios date is 05/18/07, not as old, but do they provide bios updates for video cards? :4-dontkno

could someone get back to me on this, thanks


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## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

You should ONLY update the BIOS when a fix has been made. Doing so otherwise may affect the stability of the system.

Video cards do have upgradable BIOS chips but are rarely updated unless major changes are needed.


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

oh ok. thanks


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

Hello, i slapped in a brandnew COLORSit 550w psu in today, and it didnt change anything, also my graphics are still messed up in benchmarks and quake 3.And the psu delivers 30A on the +12v line,so i guess that is not my problem.

in general about games i thought this rig would be able to do quite well. But im dissapointed.

My 7300gt is an 380mhz, agp, 512, ddr2 226mhz version, runs at 8x

and for eg. in san andreas the dodgy graphics dont happen, but i think the performance isnt the best here, my settings are 1024 res, high qual, half draw distance, NO AA and it only plays at 38 fps on average, 38 isnt too bad, but stil...there is jerkyness with the graphics, and its not even a high graphics demanding game.
What could be wrong with my Rig setup??

Someone giv us some help please, thanks

[posted in http://www.techsupportforum.com/f24/help-reddish-greenish-bluish-graphics-208958.html]


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

bump... please help


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

.......................


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Your temps and voltages look ok, but it's hard to say for sure with just one set of figures and nothing to compare them to. Were they taken at idle or under stress?

The 7300GT is nothing special so I wouldn't expect too much from it. Try dropping the AGP speed from x8 to x4 in BIOS and disable AGP fast-writes, save settings and exit.

38fps is acceptable for that card. The jerkiness could be caused by a fragmented hard drive or background activity or too low free hard drive space. Are you multitasking heavily? What's your virtual memory settings? Do you defrag regularly? Do you have at least 15% free space? Another 512mb RAM would be very useful.

Do you have all the latest chipset and device drivers installed? If so, have you tried earlier (possibly more stable) versions, especially for the graphics card.

Have you made any changes to the Default/Optimized settings in BIOS? Default settings in Display Control Panel? No overclocking?

You say in your first post that the problem occurs "when i do something cpu intensive, e.g open internet explorer". Try this again with Task Manager open at the Performance tab. Do you see a CPU spike? Click the CPU column header under the Processes tab to change the listing order. Which processes are at the top of the list when you notice system lag?


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

thanks for your fully informative and though out answer. About the agp speed, 8x would be more stable than 4x right? what would your reason be for me to try the more slower 4x speed. And the bios, i remba selecting optimized settings, and saving.

i defrag once a week, my hdd is partitioned 20 (35%free) for system, 60 (45% free) for games and media.

i also run zonealarm sec suite in the backgroung while playing games, and also im thinking if i add another hdd and install only games on that insted, the jerkyness may go away. true?

and about the system lag, it happens when the hdd is reading or wateva (the usual muffled crackling sorta sound in all hdd's when they are loading or reading), at 1st i thought it was the sound of the cpu

thankyou for any help you give


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

The difference in quality between AGP x8 and x4 is very small, but running at x4 is usually more stable, and disabling fast-writes can often fix AGP problems.

If you're hearing hard drive activity during periods of lagging, then it's probably the swap file (virtual memory) being used at the same time as the game is trying to access the drive.

As you're quite low on RAM, with only 512mb, your system will be using virtual memory, so the hard drive is being accessed by Windows and the game both at the same time, potentially slowing down the game and causing short temporary lags. Adding a second drive would allow you to use it for the swap file, improving hard drive performance while gaming. And adding more RAM would give even better overall performance.


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## T23GUY (Mar 11, 2007)

il probably throw a 1gig in their then. And abut the agp 4x in, i cant see any settings related to agp speed, or fast writes on anything to do with my agp card in my bios?

whys that?

thanks for your help


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