Brad Schoonmaker on 28/10/2009 at 00:35
Another help me thread... Hope I can get some advise from you much more tech savvy people out there.
A while back, I noticed a burn on the power cable connector for my video card. Since I found a second one on the bunch of cables from the power supply, I just switched to it. I looked at both the lead on the vid card and the connector itself and figured it must have been some dust that fried it. This just happened again yesterday, though. I turned the thing off and thought maybe some short circuit was behind it this time. I did get a new hard drive recently, but can't really see it being the cause. Athough, the thing has been making odd noises. A smack to the side of the computer sometimes quiets it.
My second thought is the power supply itself is responsible. It's 420 watts that feeds 3 IDE hard drives (all Western Digital) and 1 Memorex DVD burner, Audigy sound card, 56k modem and an ATI X800 AIW video card. The only thing about power consumption I can think of is the vid card seems awfully hot lately. I mean all over not just by the lead. The new HD is 250 gigs and the others I've had forever with no troubles. The processor is an old Athlon 3200 and the RAM is 2x1 gigs of Mushkin HP3200. The motherboard is an ASUS.
Painman on 28/10/2009 at 06:26
Nah, dust won't do that... not directly. What
will do that, is drawing too much current through that set of power cabling, possibly via short circuit, or voltage regulation module going haywire.
X800, eh? I'm not sure how much juice those pull through the aux power connector, or what the typical rating on a PSU's 4 pin Molex connector is. I'm sure there's lots of variance from one PSU maker to the next.
Judging from the age of your vid card, though, and your statement that it "seems awfully hot lately" I wonder if its power circuitry is on the way out. Most modern cards have overvoltage/overcurrent circuits that'll shut the card down before this happens, but maybe an X800 does not.
If it's melted 2 sets of wires already, I'd get rid of it. Might be hard to part with seeing as it's an AIW, but it sounds like it's become a fire hazard.
Pull it out, and look for heat-discolored or damaged areas/components on the circuit board, as well as leaking/bulging capacitors.
Inline Image:
http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt331/andrewsb62/samsung%20lcd%20bad%20capacitors/DSC_4554.jpgNot the most demonstrable pic, perhaps, but it's public. :) Those tin can looking things are capacitors. If the tops of any of them are bulging/domed, and/or have brown looking crud leaking out, they've gone bad. You should also look at the bases of them for signs of leaking brown crud.
Brad Schoonmaker on 29/10/2009 at 00:05
Thanks for the advise. It's funny how this seems to be a recurring theme with electronics and me. My monitor burned out and my old VCR too. They are all in great condition other than not working and the likely cause for each is the power capacitors. I've looked for split tops and leaks, but haven't found anything to prove the case. I guess I'll need to just put my old 8500DV card in so I can at least watch TV. No more Oblivion, though. Thanks again.
baeuchlein on 17/11/2009 at 11:03
Quote Posted by Brad Schoonmaker
I guess I'll need to just put my old 8500DV card in so I can at least watch TV. No more Oblivion, though.
With a Radeon 8500, it should be possible to play Oblivion with the (
http://www.oldblivion.com/index.php) Oldblivion "patch", although it does not work with Oblivion patched to version 1.2. If you played with version 1.2, you might need to start a new game. But maybe it's better than nothing.
Brad Schoonmaker on 18/11/2009 at 04:14
Thanks. Didn't know it could be done. I just ended up taking everything out of the case, clearing out all the little dust bunnies and lo and behold it's back to normal. Still don't play Oblivion at the moment, though.
Spock on 18/11/2009 at 11:15
Quote Posted by Brad Schoonmaker
... clearing out all the little dust bunnies and lo and behold it's back to normal. ...
Dust is a notorious heat trap, i.e., a coating of dust will act as a blanket that will allow heat to build up potentially damaging components as it does.
That's why most computer supply stores sell canned air.
I've also found that light corrosion on connectors can lead to data loss, thereby causing some really odd symptoms as it gets worse. When I refurbish old computers, one of the first things I do is yank all the interface cards out and use a soft eraser on the card edges. I do the same to anything else that is removable, just make sure the
power cable is unplugged and you are
well grounded to the case as you work.
When putting them back, I will insert/remove them several times to try to remove some of the corrosion from inside the connectors. Just make sure you are careful not to bend any leads for things like memory chips (not many of those around any more.)
Don't touch anything except the fiberglass card edges or the metal end panel with your fingers ... Moisture and/or grease from your fingers will cause dust to stick.
Brad Schoonmaker on 19/11/2009 at 01:32
Yeah, I used the last of my canned air on it.
It's a real pain to remove/replace cards. Sometimes I force it so hard, it seems like I'll break something.
Didn't know about corrosion being a common issue. I know I still have to clean off the burnt lead for safety's sake, though. I found another connector thankfully so that part is done.
Brad Schoonmaker on 8/12/2009 at 03:29
I know... old thread, but it's mine so...
Researching online about another computer problem helped point out what could have caused this original one. I hope.
I went ahead and bought another video card since I didn't trust the x800 card. This one is a Visiontek Radeon HD 3650 AGP, but I'm still not able to play Oblivion. The computer restarts after exploring outdoor areas. This seems to be a common issue for the later series of Radeons. Anyway, I think I've narrowed it down to the power supply. Don't really know what the technical reasons are, but the psu I've been using is rated at 13 amps on the +12v rail. According to what I've read, This needs to be over 20 for my situation.
I went to buy another power supply from Thermaltake so hopefully the issue with this new card is resolved. Do any of you think that this could also remedy my original problem with the x800 Radeon? It vaguely seems to make sense to me that the card would heat up so much when playing Oblivion, but within 5 minutes after closing the game, go back down if the power wasn't adequate.
I just realized how dumb the old title was. I need a proof reader looking over my shoulder, seriously.
baeuchlein on 8/12/2009 at 10:45
Quote Posted by Brad Schoonmaker
I'm still not able to play Oblivion. The computer restarts after exploring outdoor areas. This seems to be a common issue for the later series of Radeons.
When I started playing Oblivion with my Radeon 9550, the game crashed shortly after leaving the city's sewers. I found out that for some reason, the problem was caused by the trees to the left and behind the sewers' exit. I had to go into the video options menu and push the slider for the trees all the way to the left, and then everything worked. However, the problem has somehow vanished in the meantime, so maybe it was a driver issue.
Try turning down all graphics details and see if the problem vanishes. If it does, your PSU most likely has nothing to do with your Oblivion problems.
Ladron De La Noche on 9/12/2009 at 09:40
Quote Posted by Brad Schoonmaker
Don't really know what the technical reasons are, but the psu I've been using is rated at 13 amps on the +12v rail. According to what I've read, This needs to be over 20 for my situation.
Theres your answer. You need a new PSU with the proper power requirements. Your games should run fine after its installed. ;)
Why would you go back to the X800? Sell it or keep it for testing purposes.
