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Odd power loss during 3D games

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by timeross57

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I have been experiencing an odd power loss only while playing 3D games (Freelancer and Morrowind are two examples). There doesn't seem to be a common factor when it happens, except possibly when there is a fair amount of activity on the screen. Thehard drive goes off, but all the fans continue and the cd and dvd drives respond to eject commands. But, if I push the power button, the computer starts up as if it was off. I have tried disconnecting and reconnecting most of the cables; unseating and reseating all cards and memory modules; buying a new video card; updating video and bios drivers; and tweaking any settings I could think of. My system specs are: Windows XP, Asus A7N266E motherboard with onboard NVidia Geforce2 GPU, 350 Watt power supply, Asus Geforce 4200Ti graphics card (purchased after problem began occuring), cd-rw drive, dvd drive, floppy drive, 20 gig Western Digital hard drive, 256 Mb DDR memory, digital sound card in ACR slot, US robotics modem, corded optical mouse, Trinitron 21" monitor, basic speakers, HP inkjet printer.

Does anyone have any suggestions or similar experiences?

11 replies

by connectknee

My son had a similar problem with his machine. He was running Win XP. I did everything that you did except buy a new graphic card. What I eventually did was replaced the DDR memory and increased it to 512mb. That took care of the problem.

Paul

by timeross57

Thanks. It appears that memory was the problem. I purchased another 256mb dimm and that pretty much did the trick. I still experience the power loss/freeze, but only very rarely now. So the original dimm I have in there is probably slightly flawed. I'll probably replace that one eventually.

by hatchingground

Check to see if your memory chips are properly seated. If so, you probably need more ram. It truly sounds like a ram problem. Hope this helps.

by timeross57

Thanks. It appears that memory was the problem. I purchased another 256mb dimm and that pretty much did the trick. I still experience the power loss/freeze, but only very rarely now. So the original dimm I have in there is probably slightly flawed. I'll probably replace that one eventually.

by ann777

To me, it does not seem like it should be a memory problem.

The problem as you say is that the hdd appears to power off. The fact that you have a 350 watt PSU is good... but you might want to check it. Open the box and see if anything else ison the same power lead that goes to the hdd. You might want to place the hdd on it's own power lead.

You do not mention if the hdd is 5400 rpm or 7200. How old is that hdd? 20 GB is rather small by today's standards. You might want to run a scandisk and defrag. You should also check Event Viewer for hdd errors. If it's an older drive and under load, you are experiencing these spin-down effects, then it may be time to backup, and replace this drive.

Your video card comes with it's own RAM and 256 MB of DDR RAM should be fine. My husband runs FreeLancer just fine with the same RAM and lesser PSU. He's using on-board AGP though; no GeForce yet.

by dnr1795

Maybe your CPU is too slow & overheats when you run these 3D programs. 256MB RAM is plenty & I'm sure your new video card supports 3D just fine. Something to check. Also check to see if there are any system resource conflicts.

by thechas

I'm going to weigh in for the power supply as the likely source also.

I have seen several 350 Watt supplies that are 'Peek' rated at 350 Watts.
However, when you look at the power limits closely, they have a continuous rating of less than 250 Watts.

More cooling, or improved air flow would likely help too.

You should be able to enable Asus Probe to monitor your system temperatures and supply voltages.

If the voltages drop, you need a bigger supply.

If the temperatures rise, you need more cooling.

I set up my cases for positive air pressure.
With more air forced in then is being sucked out.
This way, I can filter the air, and keep things clean.

Chas

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