Got vista, 3 gig ram, 3 ghz intel E8400 dual core, Geforce gtx 260 video card. Basically all to runh empire total war. Using a 500 watt power supply. Everything seems fine but running total war crashes the pc completely after about 5 minutes My old PC ran it fairly good it just finally died(I got the blue screen and amemory dump). It seems to happens too fast for the video card to get hot or the cpu to max processes or whatever. Its almost like something is not configured quit righ or some piece of hardware is not right. Could it be bad memory?t. I Will say the 500 watt power supply was weaker than I had hoped for, ever single power source is taken. What could I check to narrow down whats wrong...could it be the power supply? thanks
I spent all weekend installing windows and meticulasly installing the latest drivers on all hardware. The only thing I didnt do was unistall the game and reinstall a s its a major pain because empire uses this ":steam" account to regulate everything. Its pathetic as their customer service wont even help me so I gotta come here for suggestions. :(
Try other games before you put it as a PSU, I have about the same setup and I oc, so 500w is not the problem, typo above. Download demos, w/e you need to do.
oh and yes I have only a 500 watt one and kind of weak for a 500 watt at that. Should I upgrade that or?vsekvsek
if it is a weaker no-name brand psu then yes, it probably wont be able to hand the gtx 260. there is a very large difference between what a 500watt corsair and a 500watt cheapy can do
just tried a lesser game and was still getting flashes of lines across the screen and back ground colors started flicker almost like when my old geforce was overheating. But this seems to happen almost right away. Ideas?
Now we have a problem. Use Rivatuner to see if your card is underclocking because of the lack of power, also check your card for artifacts with Catalyst or Ati Tray Tools.
It probably has more to do with your mixed memory. What type of board are you running? Bios? Just because you load optimized defaults dosen't mean your rig is going to run 100% stable.
i know 70 celcius is supposedly acceptable for heat, but i personally never let any of my parts get over 55. try cranking your gpu fan up to 100 before playing and see if it goes longer. i'm still not totally sure you aren'tj ust overheating.
i know 70 celcius is supposedly acceptable for heat, but i personally never let any of my parts get over 55. try cranking your gpu fan up to 100 before playing and see if it goes longer. i'm still not totally sure you aren'tj ust overheating.paullywog
I was thinkg the same. My old geforce would never get past 55 and I thought that loked "hot"
[QUOTE="paullywog"]i know 70 celcius is supposedly acceptable for heat, but i personally never let any of my parts get over 55. try cranking your gpu fan up to 100 before playing and see if it goes longer. i'm still not totally sure you aren'tj ust overheating.vsekvsek
I was thinkg the same. My old geforce would never get past 55 and I thought that loked "hot"
My first guess would be PSU. What really got my attention was this in the first post "ever single power source is taken" that is usually a bad sign, unless you have like 10 drives and fans. To the people saying "500w is enough", Watts means Squat. A "500w" PSU included in a case is almost always junk, and no where near as good as the specs listed. Also, for adjusting fans speed, I would try EVGA Precision, easier and better than Rivatuner, IMHO at least.
Ok, 70c is WAY to hot, i never let it get over 55c... And a no name PSU is definetly your problem, get a very good quality 500-watt one, or a very good quality 600-watt one ( 600 watt is suggested for future upgrades, and just safer overall.)
Ok, 70c is WAY to hot, i never let it get over 55c... And a no name PSU is definetly your problem, get a very good quality 500-watt one, or a very good quality 600-watt one ( 600 watt is suggested for future upgrades, and just safer overall.)
dared3vil0
Thanks, confirms my suspicions. I think I will get a brand name one at least a 600 watt one from Frys tommorrow.
Ok, 70c is WAY to hot, i never let it get over 55c... And a no name PSU is definetly your problem, get a very good quality 500-watt one, or a very good quality 600-watt one ( 600 watt is suggested for future upgrades, and just safer overall.)
vsekvsek
Thanks, confirms my suspicions. I think I will get a brand name one at least a 600 watt one from Frys tommorrow.
OK, So i got a new power supply (antec 750 watt)and it helped alot. Tempatures are running much lower than previous post. However, my game after about 10 minutes inis stillscrewing up colors as if its over heating. But its not. Could I have some bad memory sticks possibly, or is it some setting that I could play around?
oh...not sure if it matters but I was running motherboard sound as I think I zapped my soundcard because its dead. It sure is acting like when my previous video card was failing though. Suggestions?>
my gtx295 runs at 65-70c sometimes hotter on full load. Big deal, still works like a champ. They are rated for even higher temps. My psu is a 600w enermax. I suspect something else is the matter on your system, not the power output of your psu. I would look at mem sticks and video card itself. Have you tried the system with just one stick of ram, swapped ram in their slots? Have you tried a different vid card? What i would do is start from the basics. Disconnect all peripherals, optical drives ect, just have the video card, hdd and a stick of ram at boot up and see what the system does. If its stable then, go from there. Figuring out where the problem is will take some systematic t-shooting to eliminate any variables. Go slow and write down what youve done, what's disconnected ect.
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