problematic power flopping in my sister's computer

[MishkaKatyusha]

ok.

some time ago i repaired my sister's computer by replacing the powerbox with an old one i cannibalized from what i term a "computer husk" (something thats essentially leftover from other projects and has one or more working parts left but not all)

now,whenever she logs onto secondlife,precisely after about two hours her computer loses pwoer with no forwarning

i figure this might be because the powerbox is old and worn out,i ordered a new one which should be here tuesday

 

but in the mean time im curious about something

the powerbox that is "flopping" as it were is a 500w.

my sister's comp's vid card is an nvidia gtx 750 ti

second life's default graphics setting dealy there set here graphic's settings to a tad just bit below ultra

and seeing as this only ever happens when the comp is doing graphically intensive stuff like second life

while i mwaiting for the 750w powerbox i ordered to get here,would turning my sister's comp's SL graphics settings down abit help with this problem?

my computer never does this on SL,and it has the same sort of 500w powerbox,but it uses an amd radeon hd 6670,and as such SL's graphics settings popped to a slight bit above medium

[Alwin Alcott]

ehm... perhaps somebody will have a tip,... but how you think we can solve failing hardware from here?

Check all connections... cooling....

 

Think you really should go to a technician with that machine, before more damage is done and you fry your motherboard and graphics.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Mishka,

Your theory sounds reasonable, though I think it's more an issue of power supply capacity than "wear out". SL is one of the most graphically demanding programs around. When it's running, the graphics card is going to draw more power than usual, and that's going to ripple all the way back to the power supply. If the power supply has internal thermal protection, that may eventually trip, shutting everything down. Moving to a more powerful supply should avoid that problem.

Until then, dialing back to "low" and reducing draw distance should help, as that will reduce graphics power consumption.

Good luck!

 

[Rolig Loon]

You offer a good hypothesis.  Coincidentally, I also am running my desktop with a NVidia GTX 750 ti GPU and I have a 750w power supply.  I use the Ultra setting myself and have never had the problem you are reporting.   That does not prove your hypothesis, of course, but it offers a bit of hope.

[Lindal Kidd]

Power supplies vary a LOT in quality.  Plus, the one you are using is old, and may have worn out components.

But assuming the power supply is not the problem, it's also very possible that your problem is due to poor cooling.  Blow all the dust out of your computer and fans with a can of compressed air.  Make sure all the fans actually run when you turn the computer on.  If the fans have a filter screen, take it off and clean it.

Get a temperature monitoring program like CPU-Z (and GPU-Z for your graphics card.)  If your CPU temperature is going much above 60 deg C, you need a better cooler, or better thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink.

If your graphics card temp is running over about 80 deg C, you need to address that.  Graphics cooling is tougher, though, since the fans and heat sink are unique to the card.  About all you can do is add some case fans to get more air flowing through the case, and make sure your cables aren't obstructing the air flow around the graphics card.  Your case should have at LEAST one intake and one exhaust fan.  Larger fans generally run slower and quieter.

Yet another problem with older power supplies is not having enough connectors.  Modern graphics cards require either a six pin or eight pin auxiliary power connector to the card.  Some require TWO.  Check to make sure you have the necessary connector hooked up to your graphics card.  Some motherboards also need a second power connection, in addition to the big 26 pin plug.