Underpowered PSU?

[euqinu]

Hi, can anyone help me, i've been having some strange problems since upgrading my PC:

I've upgraded to-
AMD Phenom X2 550 BE
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo
8GB DDR3 10666
Sapphire Radeon HD5770

Running on my original PSU, a cheap 480W made by 'Xilence'

It started with installing Windows 7, at first it wouldn't even get to the windows looking part of the install, instead giving me the BSOD. I tried a few times and got the same thing. I even tried my old Vista disc and got the BSOD again. Then I took 2 sticks of RAM out so I just had 4gb and it got a little further, even started installing but then crashed. I eventually left just one stick of 2GB RAM in and it installed ok.

Now in Windows every so often I get error messages about updates not installing properly. I also tried to run COD4 - it played for about 30 seconds then the PC reset on me.

I have ordered a new PSU (Antec TP-650) which I hope will solve the problem...but while i'm waiting for that to arrive does anyone agree with me that that's the problem? Also...I am still using the PC at the moment, could I be doing any damage to the hard drive or anything say if the power dips and messes up any files?

I won't try and run any more games until the PSU arrives, but I just wanna know if it's safe to use my PC for anything else at the moment!

 

[saaiello]

That Xilence PSU isnt the worst but it is cheap but what you want to do is test your RAM with Memtest86 it sounds like you got some bad ram.

 

[amdfangirl]

It does sound like the PSU.

I'd stop testing it until it arrives.

Shame if it damaged your compy

 

[debianos]

I agree, there's a good change the original problem source was the PSU. It should be safe to test your RAM though; you can do this without starting Windows for example with Memtest86+ from the Ultimate Boot CD. To be absolutely on the safe side, wait until the new unit arrives.

Wait, looks like I didn't add anything to the thread...

 

[euqinu]

OK, well i've just tried testing the RAM with memtest86...except I don't know what i'm doing with it and it seemed to bring up errors! But i'm not sure it's working as it should because it says it's 519mhz (DDR103) / CAS : 1-0-1 / DDR-1 (128 bits).

So that doesn't really sound right to me...and it keeps crashing around 11% every time and there are lots of words on the screen that don't mean anything to me! (i'm not exactly new to PC stuff...but it did seem rather like jibberish!)

 

[saaiello]

Ok well you might have some bad sticks try testing one stick at a time. Do at least 3 full passes if you can on each stick. Memtest is an old program so it doesn't know what DDR3 is but it will still test it. If you get errors that means the RAM is bad and I doubt the PSU is causing that since testing the memory will not draw much power at all.

 

[euqinu]

I have now tried testing all 4 sticks...and all 4 of them bring back errors and crash memtest. I'm prety sure all 4 sticks can't be broken! Are there any newer programs that can test memory?

Does anyone know the power consumption of RAM? Could any more than one stick have tipped it over the power rate that my PSU could provide?

 

[FALC0N]

Some board/Ram combos do not properly detect RAM voltage settings. Check all your RAM power/timing settings in BIOS against the chips official specs. You might have to correct it manually. Its a rare problem, but it would account for all the ram chips giving errors.

 

[geofelt]

1) Are you certain that your ram is compatible with your motherboard?
Go to the ram vendor's web site, and access their configurator.
Corsair, Kingston, Patriot, OCZ and others have them.
Their compatibility list is more current than the motherboard vendor's QVL lists which rarely get updated.
Enter your mobo or PC, and get a list of compatible ram sticks.

Here are a few links:

http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx

http://www.corsair.com/configurator/default.aspx

http://kingston.com/

http://conf.ocztechnology.com/index.php?c=1

http://www.patriotmemory.com/configurator/index.jsp

2) 4 sticks of ram often need additional voltage to run properly. Try upping the voltage in the bios by small increments and see if you don't pass memtest. It should be safe to increase the voltage up to the maximum shown on the sticks.

 

[amdfangirl]

I have now tried testing all 4 sticks...and all 4 of them bring back errors and crash memtest. I'm prety sure all 4 sticks can't be broken! Are there any newer programs that can test memory?

Does anyone know the power consumption of RAM? Could any more than one stick have tipped it over the power rate that my PSU could provide?

Try them one at a time and set optimized defaults in the BIOS.