Is my PC Under-Powered??

[Ajay Shanmuga]

Hi Guys, I recently upgraded my PC with a NVIDIA GeForce GT610(Zotac-Synergy Edition - 2GB). It was going on well, but yesterday(been 2 weeks after installing the GPU), my PC gave me a BSOD(MEMORY_MANAGEMENT), while I was playing Mass Effect 3. It repeated again the same day twice, while I was surfing. When I reboot, after BSOD, my BIOS gave me an error, "Disk Read Error, Pres Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot(which I think is due to overheating of the components). My PC boots normally, after leaving it for some 15 minutes(turned off, of course). I ran Memtest, with a pass of 5, which gave me no error, and I also ran a GPU stress test, which also didn't give me any error. After which, I removed my RAM, and discharged(static) it, upto now I hadn't got any BSOD. Now, I'm worrying whether my PSU is under-powered. I opened the case, and noted down some specs of the PSU...
"+5V -- 29A
+12V -- 18A
+3.3V -- 30A
-12V -- 0.5A
+5VSB -- 2A
The Maximum output may not exceed 200W continuously."
And coming to my GPU, in its minimum requirements, it said a minimum of 300W for a modern computer running on Intel i7(Mine is Core2Duo, which is far low power consuming when compared to an i7)
I also calculated my power consumption using extreme power consumption calculator..which gave me a recommended of 220W

My Specs...
MSI MS-7379 Motherboard
Intel Core2Duo E4600(LGA775-Conroe)@2.4GHz, overclocked to 2.7GHz
2GB DDR2 Memory(Planning to add another one...)
1XDVD-RW optical drive(SATA)
1XInternal Hard Drive(SATA)
1XExternal Hard Drive(USB-WD Elements-Doesn't connect to an external power source)
1XNVidia Geforce GT610
And other common adapters like ethernet, sound...

Hope someone helps me out...
Thanks in advance

 

[Rogue Leader]

A 200-300W PSU (and it sounds like its a stock PSU from a mass PC builder which means it may not be the best quality) is not really enough to run that. The card under full load likely pulls all 75watts max the PCIe bus can provide.

That said the stress test should have brought out this issue. But I still stand behind it not being enough power.

 

[Benxil]

Power supply is fine for those parts.

Problem seems to just be limited amount of RAM in your system. Your rig is right AT the minimum requirements, so anything above all low settings isn't advised.


Are you playing on All low settings?

Try to have Task manager open and look at your RAM usage while running the game, what % does it get up to?

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

A 200w PSU is not enough to power the system with a GPU installed. Get a decent 350w or greater PSU and you should be good. This one is on sale and is enough to power any single GPU up to a GTX 980.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $26.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-28 09:10 EDT-0400

 

[Benxil]

A 200-300W PSU (and it sounds like its a stock PSU from a mass PC builder which means it may not be the best quality) is not really enough to run that. The card under full load likely pulls all 75watts max the PCIe bus can provide.

That said the stress test should have brought out this issue. But I still stand behind it not being enough power.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-610/specifications

A reference GT610 supposedly only pulls 29W at max Load

 

[Jaco3401]

according to NVidia your card draws a max of 29 W and according to Intel your processor draws a max of 65 W. maybe 75 W with the overclock? although that is a weak PSU, unless your ram/hard drives/mobo are drawing 100 W (which I doubt), the PSU should be taxed but not maxed.

 

[Ajay Shanmuga]

Power supply is fine for those parts.

Problem seems to just be limited amount of RAM in your system. Your rig is right AT the minimum requirements, so anything above all low settings isn't advised.


Are you playing on All low settings?

Try to have Task manager open and look at your RAM usage while running the game, what % does it get up to?

Oops....I've all the settings to maximum...Hehe
But, what about when I was surfing...BSOD shouldn't have happened at that time!
By the way, my RAM consumption goes upto 93-95%

And, thank you for your reply...

 

[Ajay Shanmuga]

A 200-300W PSU (and it sounds like its a stock PSU from a mass PC builder which means it may not be the best quality) is not really enough to run that. The card under full load likely pulls all 75watts max the PCIe bus can provide.

That said the stress test should have brought out this issue. But I still stand behind it not being enough power.

But the Stress test didn't give me any error....Maybe I should run it again!
Thank you For your reply..

 

[DeauteratedDog]

You may have fixed the problem by removing and replacing the memory sticks. Re-seating a flaky component is a pretty standard fix. If you don't have any more memory errors, I'd call it fixed and move on.

 

[Ajay Shanmuga]

A 200w PSU is not enough to power the system with a GPU installed. Get a decent 350w or greater PSU and you should be good. This one is on sale and is enough to power any single GPU up to a GTX 980.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $26.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-28 09:10 EDT-0400

Maybe I should look out for purchasing a new PSU

 

[Ajay Shanmuga]

You may have fixed the problem by removing and replacing the memory sticks. Re-seating a flaky component is a pretty standard fix. If you don't have any more memory errors, I'd call it fixed and move on.

Maybe, I should consider this...
Thank you...

 

[Ajay Shanmuga]

A 200-300W PSU (and it sounds like its a stock PSU from a mass PC builder which means it may not be the best quality) is not really enough to run that. The card under full load likely pulls all 75watts max the PCIe bus can provide.

That said the stress test should have brought out this issue. But I still stand behind it not being enough power.

Ran the test again...but no errors this time too!(Geeks3d GPU test)

 

[Rogue Leader]

OK then I would continue on as is and see if any problems show up again.

If they do I would consider both a memory upgrade as well as a PSU upgrade

 

[Ajay Shanmuga]

OK then I would continue on as is and see if any problems show up again.

If they do I would consider both a memory upgrade as well as a PSU upgrade

Accepted...Hope, this problem doesn't cause any damage to my components until I completely figure it out...

 

[Rogue Leader]

Nah it won't damage anything.