Not got the power.

[eyemessiah]

Aloha!

I have some questions regarding some crashing problems I have been having, which I think are related to low voltages on my PSU, probably the 3.3 rail.

I have:

Athlon XP 2000+ with Akasa AK824cu Copper Base CPU Cooler
Gigabyte VAXP mobo
512 mb pc133
XFX GF ti4200 (2xagp) with Vantec Iceberq4 Pro CCB-A4P Cooler
QTech 400W PSU
SB Live
Generic 10\100 NIC
2X YS-TECH FD8125 80mm Fan
DVDROM, CDRW, and a couple of harddisks.

This set-up ran just fine for at least six months.

Then I began having problems with 3d games randomly hard locking with graphical corruption and all that jazz. I replaced all the fans, which seriously improved the cpu & case temps but did not solve the problem. Then I began to notice that the voltages looked a little bit screwy.

<A HREF="http://kcalder.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Image1.jpg" target="_new"> My old-PSU voltages (jpg) </A>

So I upped the voltages in the bios, which seemed to alleviate the problem.

I also checked the ATX connectors for signs of burning, but they seemed fine and seemed to be making good contact.

Anyway, raising the voltages didn't seem like a great solution, especially seen as how it was still crashing occasionally. So I bought another QTech 400W PSU, turned all the voltage controls in the BIOS back down, and found that replacing the PSU made the crashes very infrequent at low voltages. Unfortunately, it still crashes sometimes, and the voltages still look rubbish:

<A HREF="http://kcalder.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Image2.jpg" target="_new"> My new-PSU voltages (jpg) </A>

I haven't changed my hardware at all, and the comp did run fine for at least six months with this PSu.
What I don't understand is why the QTech 400w PSU is suddenly no longer enough for my hardware.
Is it possible for components to start to need more power over time?

Should I get a PSU with a bigger wattage?

If so, why is this becoming necessary, given that I havent changed my set-up?

Also, what kind of voltages should I be getting with my hardware?

thanks

 

[Crashman]

Your motherboard is probably taking a crap. First things I'd do:
1.) dust everything, make sure the CPU and RAM coolers are clean
2.) check for leaking capacitors
3.) try reseating your RAM and video card.

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