Problems with GTX 460

[DanielJ]

I recently put an EVGA GTX 460 in my rig. I have a Thermaltake TR2 430W power supply and it only has 1 PCIe power plug so i bought a molex to PCIe adapter on DealExtreme. Ever since I installed the new graphics card my computer wont run for more than 5 minutes or sometimes 15 if I get lucky. There are no dramatic effects involved, everything simply just stops. Like a freeze frame/screenshot on my monitor. No BSOD or anything. Happened five f#&%@!ng times during the time I tried to type and post this! Seemed to do it more as I was applying the finishing touches on this post in Firefox, so I'm back in Wordpad. Also every time I start up the computer the graphics card makes a high-pitched sound (kind of like when starting a minigun) for a few seconds- I'm assuming this is normal for this GPU since it goes away after like 2 seconds and runs fine. Also this happens less frequently, but I've had the computer crash before by the screen flickering and going black and the computer resetting itself, graphics card making that noise and everything, but never being able to actually boot. I haven't had time to play many games recently, but I tried Saints Row 3 maxed out and had no problems. Otherwise, the only times I had my computer freeze on me was while on the desktop or browsing the internet or something like that - nothing really graphics-dependent. I've followed the steps in this guide to wipe drivers and try to install some older ones, and there was no difference. I haven't had any overheating issues with it either. Current temp is 40C according to SpeedFan, which seems to be the average while not doing anything graphics-intensive.

I'm wondering if these issues I'm having might be because of the graphics card itself or because I'm using it with a cheap quality adapter, or my PSU just doesn't have enough power. Also, is there some diagnostic I could run to help determine the problem by any chance? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Daniel

 

[Puff3r]

One of my systems has a GTX 470. All of the older Ferrari model GTX cards were known for their high pitched fan noise. This is normal on boot. You might try running MSI Kombuster to truly max out the card and see if it causes a crash. You can get it from the MSI website by simply registering, you don't have to have an MSI card to download. Its part of the Afterburner software bundle.
http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

 

[Deleted member 217926]

GTX 460 needs a 500w power supply minimum. You have a TR2 one of the worst power supplies on the market and an underpowered one at that. Get a power supply that can support the card and your problems will go away. It's still a good card. I have one and can play pretty much any game released before 2013 on max settings.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

 

[DanielJ]

I took a closer look at the adapter and noticed that it's missing one of the contacts.
It has 6 wires but two of the brown wires go in one hole.
Is it supposed to be like this? Because the PCIe plug from the power supply has 6 wires that go into the 6 separate holes so there are 6 contacts.

 

[potpolima]

that is normal to have 1 missing contact in a pcie connector

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Underpowered tier 5 power supply that can't supply it's rated wattage much less more than it's rated for. I didn't make up how bad the TR2 is.

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

 

[DanielJ]

Underpowered tier 5 power supply that can't supply it's rated wattage much less more than it's rated for. I didn't make up how bad the TR2 is.

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

Wow, it looked like a good quality PSU; i thought it was a standard for lower end setups.
Thanks a lot for this, I was considering not replacing the TR2 because I thought it wasn't all that bad and I don't really need a new power supply, but I guess I'm gonna start looking for a new one now.