PSU voltage help

[thecremeegg]

Right well I have the following PC:

Asus P5B
e6400
4Gb Black Dragon RAM
8800GTS
Hiper Type R 580
Vista Ultimate 64

Right my problem is this, in punkbuster games it will hard lock meaning I have to hit the reset button. No matter what I do I cant sort it. I've reinstalled vista, all drivers are latest, and i've even bought new RAM!

The problem doesnt happen in XP, only vista, both 32 bit and 64 bit.

Now my 5V rail for my PSU is reading 4.78, which I think is a little low. Is it possible that in punkbuster games, there is more pressue being put on the PC, and that low rail is causing the motherboard issues and so it locks up?

I know the Hiper power supplies arent known for their reliability, but mines been flawless for 18 months or so.

The fact it only happens in vista lead me at first to a driver issue, but whatever drivers I use it still happens, so I can only assume its hardware related.

So, is it likely to be a low 5V rail thats causing me issues and is there anything else I can try?

 

[Keydogg]

To me that looks like a software issue. A hiper 580 should run that lot easily. I wouldn't worry about the 5v rail if I were you, I also don't think it would just freeze, it would shut down. I've recently browned out my PSU by overloading it and it just turned off and wouldn't turn on again.

 

[Michael172]

To me that looks like a software issue. A hiper 580 should run that lot easily. I wouldn't worry about the 5v rail if I were you, I also don't think it would just freeze, it would shut down. I've recently browned out my PSU by overloading it and it just turned off and wouldn't turn on again.

actually i think 580 might struggle a tad. although i dont think the problem is related to the psu in any way.

Sure upgrade your psu to 700watt +. But dont expect to see the problem solved.


I blame vista because its f**king s**t. Isnt there a patch out now which makes vista be able to play xp software n stuff ???

 

[thecremeegg]

Vista is great apart from playing games lol
Its got all available updates and hotfixes applied, but still no solution - so it doesnt look to be the PSU then?

 

[Keydogg]

Vista is great for gaming and not for gaming. 32 bit that is, I daren't try 64 lol.

The lower limit of the 5v rail is 4.75 so unless its dipping below that then you are ok really. How many SATA drives do you have?

 

[thecremeegg]

I've got 3 sata drives, a DVD drive and 4 fans.....that 4.78 is not in game, thats in windows, is it likely to drop in game at all? If so is there anyway of measuring it?

 

[Andy.]

I have the following with no problems at all... very similar to your set up:

Asus P5B Deluxe
e6600
4Gb Geil Ram @ 2.1V
8800GTS
Arctic cooler 7
Enermax Liberty 500
3x sata HDD
Vista Ultimate 32

 

[thecremeegg]

Hmm, i know the PSU should be capable but perhaps its on its way out?

Something else I noticed was a lot of failed updates in the windows update list, with no obvious way of restarting them....possible issue there

 

[wozzaa]

It's a software issue.

Will not be hardware related otherwise it would happen in other games / programs and OS's.

Not to mention ASUS boards have a habit of miss reporting voltages and they also have shitty temp sensors which are usually around 10c out.

And a 580w PSU will easily handle that system. You are probably only just using over 300w at full load so dont worry about that.

 

[Cookie]

Hiper PSU's are pish tho, have seen more than one of them explode

 

[Michael172]

true. Try grab a Corsair.

 

[rctempire]

This could be a memory fault. Ram has a suspect dodgy chip and the game is constantly entering that section and the pc feezes.

Do a memory test on it first.

 

[Keydogg]

Agreed with wozzaa and rtcempire!

 

[thecremeegg]

This could be a memory fault. Ram has a suspect dodgy chip and the game is constantly entering that section and the pc feezes.

Do a memory test on it first.

Definately isn't RAM, I just got 4Gb of completely new stuff today - hasnt fixed the problem.
Looks like I might be buying a new power supply then, is this a common sign of a failing PSU?

 

[thecremeegg]

Just played a game of COD4 and it locked up as usual, but this time when it tried to reboot it was going beep beep beep beep really quickly until i powered off, then it restarted without doing it :S

 

[wozzaa]

The beeps were they in a pattern? Like 1 long 3 short or anything?

The number and the way they sound lets you know what is wrong.

 

[rctempire]

Definately isn't RAM, I just got 4Gb of completely new stuff today - hasnt fixed the problem.
Looks like I might be buying a new power supply then, is this a common sign of a failing PSU?

Still could be the RAM, ram chips could have a compatabilty issue with the motherboard actually. What RAM is it? Are you mixing and matching?

Beeps sound off hardware fault rather than software.

Is the CPU fan spinning?