rockridgeqa Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 I have been working with EVGA tech support for the last few days trying to figure out why my system has become completly unstable during game play. I have a two monitor setup, and have been running them with my 8800GTX for over a year. During game play (Crisis Warhead, SPORE, Call of Duty 4) the primary display goes black, and system appears to hang up. On one occasion when I left the system alone in the hung state, after several minutes, a message appeared on the primary console that the display driver had stopped working. I have downloaded and installed the latest drivers from the EVGA site and am currently running the 178.13 drivers for XP. I have a dual boot setup to run 64 bit Vista, and am running the same 178.13 drivers, and experience the same problem as in XP. I think this rules out the driver, and leads to a hardware issue. I have a EVGA 680 SLI mobo with an Intel QX6700 CPU , and 4 gigs of Corsair DDR2-800 memory. Nothing is overclocked. Currently the EVGA tech support folks are thinking that my PSU is not delivering enough power to the video card, and that it's performance my have degraded since I build the system almost 2 yrs ago. When I use smartfan to view the voltages, the 12V section only reads +11.18V. The folks at EVGA claim anything below +11.9 will cause video card issues. Has my 620 PSU gone south? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRAW Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Sometimes taking readings using software will give you inaccurate readings, one example is my other PC with a Gigagyte MOBO that reads only 8.51Volts on the +12V lines using Everest, but when you enter the Bios and verify the +12V level it reads 12.01V. So, I recommend you to check the 12V level on the Bios. You will have a more accurate reading. On this PC, I Have XFX 8800 GTX (OC) running on a 620 Watts PSU using the Gigabyte Mobo with no problems while playing CoD 4 on max using Vista 64bits, I am using also the 177.83 nVidia Drivers from Guru3D's Site ( http://www.guru3d.com ), Until now, I have not experience any problems at all . The latest driver on Guru3D will be the 178.15, Give it a try. :roll: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 9, 2008 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 9, 2008 With your system I would suspect you could add another 8800GTX and the HX620 should still be able to power the system. 11.18v is out of spec for the 12v rail, but as HRAW mentioned, software readings can be very inaccurate. I would double check the 12v rail in the BIOS, and if you see similar readings, then lets get the PSU replaced. BIOS readings are not 100% correct either, but unless you have a digital multimeter, the best you can do to measure the voltages is to compare the software readings with the BIOS readings. Let us know your results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRAW Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Dear rockridgeqa, I just read some posts on the Guru3D's forum about the new 178.15 Drivers for nVidia cards, looks like all users had issues with the 178.13 driver: BSOD, system locking up, black screens and bad performance and the solution was updating the driver to 178.15 or rolling back to 177.83. All the people that did that solved the lock up problems and the BSOD and improved their performance without video card lockups. But remember to uninstall the 178.13 completely before updating or rolling back, this way you will make sure not to have leftovers from your previous VGA driver. Follow the link to the forum about 178.15: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=275337 hope that this will help you to solve your problem before you try to RMA your PSU. Good Luck!! :idea::!: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockridgeqa Posted October 9, 2008 Author Share Posted October 9, 2008 I looked at the voltage in the BIOS and am seeing +12.08V, which I am sure is fine. And when I am doing word or surfing the Web, I have no problems. It's only when I am running an intense graphical game or 3DMARK06 that the video card get's stuck. I would assume during intense graphical processing, that the 8800GTX draws more current. This is when I would like to measure the voltage, but am unable (via BIOS) My current thought (wrong as I may be) is that the Power supply has degraded slightly over time, and that the 8800GTX requires boats load of power, and can not get it from the power rail or rails that it is connected to. Note the 8800GTX consumes both of the PCIe power connectors. Any other ideas please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockridgeqa Posted October 9, 2008 Author Share Posted October 9, 2008 I just saw this on the EVGA site. 8800 GTX models Minimum of a 450 Watt power supply. (minimum +12 Volt current rating of 30 amps) Two available 6-pin PCI Express power dongles If each of the PCI-e cables are on a separate rail, and each rail is capable of supporting 620 / 4 = 155 watts, but the 8800GTX could draw as much as 180 watts across two rails? Does this make sense. It looks like I should move up to the TX750 which supports 750 / 1 = 750 watts on a single rail. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 10, 2008 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 10, 2008 The HX520 and HX620 are actually single rails as well. The 520 can provide 40 amps on the 12v rail, while the 620 can crank out 50 amps. If you had a $20 "600" watt PSU, then degregation will happen much more quickly, but our HX620 uses some of the best internal hardware available, and we guarantee the PSU to operate at its full potential for 5 years. If you would like to try replacing the PSU to rule it out entirely, then please use the On Line RMA Request Form and we will be happy to replace it. Be sure to check the box that says “I've already spoken to Technical Support and/or RAM Guy.” However I would try to rule out a possible video card or driver issue as best as you can before sending the PSU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockridgeqa Posted October 10, 2008 Author Share Posted October 10, 2008 Thanks RAM GUY, I just opened an RMA with video card vendor, and will be getting a replacement maybe next week. I will see if the problem continue with the new card. I will update this thread with my result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockridgeqa Posted October 10, 2008 Author Share Posted October 10, 2008 The HX520 and HX620 are actually single rails as well. The 520 can provide 40 amps on the 12v rail, while the 620 can crank out 50 amps. If you had a $20 "600" watt PSU, then degregation will happen much more quickly, but our HX620 uses some of the best internal hardware available, and we guarantee the PSU to operate at its full potential for 5 years. RAM GUY, I found this on the Corsair web site, it mentions Triple rails. "Utilizing superior triple +12V power rails " Does this mean that there are 3 rails or 1 rail with some other triple measurement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 10, 2008 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 10, 2008 RAM GUY, I found this on the Corsair web site, it mentions Triple rails. "Utilizing superior triple +12V power rails " Does this mean that there are 3 rails or 1 rail with some other triple measurement? This post that PowerGuy originally made should help explain: http://www.asktheramguy.com/v3/showpost.php?p=324422&postcount=5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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