# GTX 260 Problem



## PCissues (Nov 12, 2008)

Hi I just purchased a new mobo, video card, ram, processor and psu but I'm having a real big problem. First off my specs.

Mother Board - ASUS P5Q-EM
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 2.53 GHZ
Ram - 4 GIGS 2x2 Patriot Memory 900 MHZ PC2-7200 Viper Series
PSU - 550W Cooler Master Extreme Power
200GB SATA 7200 RPM HD
And of course my awesome new GTX 260 that I can't even use.

Well when I have it hooked up and both 6 pin power connectors in it, after a few minutes of doing anything my pc either locks up or goes to the dreaded blue screen saying IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

I have all of my mobo drivers and video card drivers installed. I got the latest for the GTX 260 straight from Nvidias website. Can it be that my PSU is faulty and not giving it enough power? The card only takes 500w and I have a 550w. Please if anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it.

Also for some reason on my dxdiag tool it says I only have 3294 RAM... how is that possible? I have 4 gigs in.


----------



## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

you need to be up here with that card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153062


----------



## PCissues (Nov 12, 2008)

So your saying I need at least an 850 watt power supply just for this one card? WOAH man why's that? The rest of the pc hogging most the power?


----------



## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

most of the power is pulled by the video and cpu
that's what that card requires


----------



## PCissues (Nov 12, 2008)

I just found out that an 850w PSU for just one single GTX 260 is very unnecessary because all the card really needs is about 300w max usage BUT you need at least 38 amps on the 12v rail... and to think I was about to spend 200 on what your trying to show me. I will take this one back and buy a new one with more amps and everything will be fine.


----------



## HawMan (May 12, 2006)

I would say 850W is future proof. But it would work fine on a 750W Toughpower too.


----------



## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

the suggestion was just to show you the level to be at
there are a number of quality supplies in that range at a range of prices and prices vary on the same item on different outlets
http://www.techsupportforum.com/f210/power-supply-information-and-selection-192217.html


----------



## PCissues (Nov 12, 2008)

dai said:


> the suggestion was just to show you the level to be at
> there are a number of quality supplies in that range at a range of prices and prices vary on the same item on different outlets
> http://www.techsupportforum.com/f210/power-supply-information-and-selection-192217.html


Just a few hours after I first posted the first time, I bought a new 650w PSU that should work with my GTX 260 because the fact the it has 56amps on the 12v range( I only need 38, got extra to be safe). Still when I get it all connected, I still get that blue screen only this time it add driver, so it looks like this now (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL), on the dreaded blue screen. I even tried replacing it with an old 6600GT pci-e card that did the same thing. Do you thing the pci-e slot might be corrupt? That was my conclusion but I'm not much of and expert when it comes to these things, so I was hoping to turn to you for some more good advice. Thanks in advance if you could help me work through this.


----------



## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

you need to post the full bsod error it usually indicates which driver it is

in the device manager uninstall the video card
reboot tapping f8 and choose vga mode
when windows finishes rebooting
disable a/virus
install your drivers
reboot the computer

you need to post the full bsod error it usually indicates which driver it is

in the device manager uninstall the video card
reboot tapping f8 and choose vga mode
when windows finishes rebooting
disable a/virus
install your drivers
reboot the computer

56a means 
that what is available for use is around 42amps so the extra looks abit non existant


----------



## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

You need this driver
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_180.43_beta.html

and a bigger PSU I'm using a corsair 750
I just installed my new GTX 260 today and I got my system stable now after about 1 hour of tinkering


----------



## Greenmarine (Feb 9, 2009)

dai said:


> you need to be up here with that card
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153062


Actually duel or quad +12V rails are pretty much a bad buy.

Video cards like the Cleaner power from a Single rail instead.

PCpower&cooling make some very top quality PSUs with enormous single rails and many hook ups for multiple video cards.

You don't need more than 1 rail to hook up 2 or more video cards.

All he needs is a good quality PSU that has at or above 80% Efficiency and Nvidia states that you should have at least 36 amps on the +12 rail for that card. When you have multiple rails all you are doing is splitting up the main out amperes to more than one rail...kinda useless if you ask me..but people buy them so they make money on then so they keep making them


----------

