PSU help - very much appreciated

[Xenome]

I'm having some very big problems with my pc atm..and since i bought every piece of it from my own money ( not my parents money :flame: ) , it's getting very frustrating.

first my system:

asus p4p800 non-deluxe
P4 2.8C ghz 800 fsb
Ati Radeon 9700 pro
2x512 twinmos pc-3200 dual channel.
maxtor 60 gig HD
1x cd writer
1x dvd (no writer)
NO floppy disk
300 W power supply, it's 5 years old.

Here's the deal:

Since a while weeks my system seems to crash randomly.

At this day i haven't experiences this for 2 weeks, since i formatted my hard drive. So i thought this solved my problem..but now it seems to be coming back again.

The first crash was this morning, after a cold boot, when playing winamp, surfing, and possibly playing some movie ( dunno, it could be)..then i got a blue screen, saying something about IRQ. ( never had that before btw)

Then i restarted, and my system worked perfectly.
Then i started the splinter cell pandora tommorow demo, and after some playing, it suddenly rebooted..and did nothing..no blue screen, nothing..
My monitor light was flashing, and my pc was doing nothing.
I had to push the power button for 5 seconds to shut it down.

Now, could this mean that my PSU is about to 'die'?

Another thing: My power supply cable that came with my radeon9700 pro, is made frrom a red, black, black, and a yellow line. Now 1 black cable is a little pushed out, but since my radeon9700 still works, i guess this isn't a cause, because if it was it shouldnt be working at all right?

Help is very much appreciated..please share your experiences and advices about a new PSU if that's what i need.

 

[G.Freeman]

You might need a more powerful psu.

Put your specs into this http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

 

[Xenome]

thanks, and another thing:

my proc is 34 degrease
my mobo is 38 degrease..

isn't the proc supposed to be hotter then the mobo..?

This surprises me btw, because 2 months ago i bought a zalman 7000a-cu, 773gram, and when i just had it, it was around 30 degrease @ idle. and 40 degrease @ stressed..now my proc is 50 degrease at stressed again :\

could this be due to dust, and if so, how can i best remove dust from my hardware?
( it's also IN my cooler..)

 

[Alig]

Well cpu's dont always have to be hotter than your motherboard...mostly they are but if it isnt i wouldnt worry about it. I'd sort the 9700pro connector out for a start, ouch!...it might be working but if that isnt connecting then chances are it isnt getting enough power, it will work but not to its full (i think).

Dust slows down everything over time...you got two choices and one (could be vital) task.... Either get a can of Air spray and get rid of all the crap, Or get your mums face brush for putting make-up on and use that then when thats done get air filters for all your fans, any holes on your case that are un-fanned get a fan (like £3) another air filter and just make sure all holes on your case have one over them...it wont keep out every particle of dust but it will sure as hell help alot. I cant find any air filters but i know that thermaltake silent case fans come with them because my case has 7 of them standard :naughty:

Edit/ Oh and thermaltake silent fans need a 4 pin molex connector each ..could be a biatch if you dont have a PSU with loads but you can always get Y splitters....And also.....http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=16915&cat=482

 

[ailevation]

It's your PSU, well I strongly think that. You got some mighty strong hardware in your PC, I have similar things. I used to play games with my old 300 Watt and it'd just restart whenever it felt the need to? I then upgraded to a 430 Watt, everything is working good, no random reboots or anything, I guess it's because all my components are getting the power they want. This might be your case too.

 

[Xenome]

mm i just played splinter cell demo again..without any problems..
But fact is, it never happens when idle, only when playing a game for example.

But i'm gonna buy a new PSU anyway..just to be save

 

[ailevation]

:dozey: You see when you're idle nothing is happening, this is the phase which your computer has lowest power consumption. When you play a game, the game works lots of things in your computer I.E. CPU and Graphics card. I guess with the low wattage it is harder for your components to get a good share of power, so then the computer restarts itself before it is damaged.

 

[ewilson248]

there are some guides online about how to add up your power consumption, try and locate one, I have one in an old A+ cert guide, but cant locate it! i think some of PSU mgrs may have one on there site. it sounds like to me you are about 100-150 short of where you need to be. i previously used to have BSOD problems when running UT2K3, but no more since going from 300w to 480w myself.

 

[oD1Nz]

You have tried Memtest86, right?

 

[Xenome]

Since i haven't got a floppy drive ( it died on me once and i didnt buy a new one in this time of cdroms/dvd's.

I couldnt test memtest86 because of that tough

 

[NYHoustonman]

mm i just played splinter cell demo again..without any problems..
But fact is, it never happens when idle, only when playing a game for example.

But i'm gonna buy a new PSU anyway..just to be save

And that almost certainly is your problem. I would get a good ~400 watt PSU.

 

[psyno]

Since i haven't got a floppy drive ( it died on me once and i didnt buy a new one in this time of cdroms/dvd's.

I couldnt test memtest86 because of that tough

But you said you had a CD-Writer. Just burn a bootable CD and boot from it.

 

[Xenome]

A bootable cd: isn't that just the windows XP cd..?

if not, could u tell me how to burn a bootable cd?