Corrupted!

[VeNgeNcE]

Originally Posted by Mega

Incidentally, for those who know about voltages (I'm not too clued up on them TBH)

Old PSU / New PSU


Core 0 1.62 / 1.60
Core 1 2.72 / 2.72
+3.3 3.33 /3.38
+5.0 5.03 / 5.08
+12.0 11.80 /12.16
-12.0 12.03 /-12.19
-5.00 4.99 / -5.39

From looking at the figures, the new PSU appears to provide a stronger output?

Looks like both PSU are running ok... there is a range of ~2% +/- from what the reported voltages are supposed to be on any PSU. They never give 100% constant ratings .. new one seems to be a little healthier tho with slightly higher than standard voltages.

Seems like that part is good but are you still having the reboots?

[tedt]

Perhaps the temperature of your video card?

[Mega]

Update:

Since switching the PSU for the 431W model, I have had no reboots and no graphic corruption.

The 9800 Pro will be coming out in about 12 hours anyway so even if that was starting to fail, it will no longer be a factor.


Thanks for everyone's ideas and suggestions!


I'll report back with the new graphic card in tomorrow.

[Silver Ice]

Very nice! Hopefully that fixed it up for ya

[Sloe]

Good to hear man, hope everything's fixed once and for all once u recieve ur card

[James O'Neill]

One of the major problems on any motherboard are the capacitors. Those are the tube like components that are usually all over the board and also the video card. Particularly in an older board or video card, but this can also happen on a new board, the capacitors may fail/blow. Generally speaking the tops of the caps should be nice and flat with no discoloration. If the tops of the capacitors are bubbled up or leaking fluid (usually brown and dry) then they are shot and basically the motherboard is done. They can be replaced by someone familiar with electronics repair and I have done so successfully on many occasions but given the price of new motherboards/cpus/ram these days, the cost of doing these repairs may be moot. Bad capacitors can be caused by age, power spikes and power surges or simply poor quality ones to begin with. Some of the largest motherboard makers suffered many a problem a few years back from a supply of bad capacitors from one of the major electronics manufacturers.

Artifacting on the screen like you have experienced can be anything from a dying video card to a bad motherboard or even bad ram. It is unlikely that the cpu has caved as I have only seen one dead P4 cpu of any type in the last 7 years. If it is an older athlon cpu then it is possible that may also be a problem but anything in a 939 or am2 form factor should be fine.

You should also check to see how much amperage the power supply is putting out in total. I have seen power supplies that read fine in the bios but when you put them on a power supply tester they are only outputting 110mA or something similar instead of 400. This of course can also cause problems.

By the way, if you want to test your ram, you can download some software from Microsoft to create a boot cd that will run an excellent test suite.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Hope any of this helps

James

[Tussi]

Originally Posted by James O'Neill

One of the major problems on any motherboard are the capacitors.

I can only second this.

Replacing the PSU is able to temporary fix such a problem, but it'll come back sooner than you like.

So better take a close look at your mainboard first.

Tussi

[Mega]

First I have heard of these bulging capacitors, I'll take a look at them when I put the new Radeon in!


I'll be running Prime 95's torture test overnight too.

[James O'Neill]

Originally Posted by Tussi

I can only second this.

Replacing the PSU is able to temporary fix such a problem, but it'll come back sooner than you like.

So better take a close look at your mainboard first.

Tussi

Yeah, perfect side shot of a bulging cap! +rep

[kosmos]

Originally Posted by Mega

Ok that got your attention!


My pc has been acting a bit oddly of late, mainly rebooting without warning.

I've been trying to track down the culprit and I thought it was the memory, cpu or the power supply that was on the way out.

But then my screen started looking like this:



So it may be that my long suffering Radeion 9800 Pro is going to be pushing up daisies shortly.

It's not temperature related as CPU is 50 deg and case at 31 deg (under load)

Rebooting pc usually signifies PSU on the way out, graphic corruption that something wrong with the graphic card.

Anyone had anything similar or shall I just take a lump hammer to the lot?

Its been happening to me on this box I am on alot. I was thinking it was VU 9.3 related. In last vu i didn't have these issues. Hope you get it sorted mega.
I use nvida 8500 GT btw