Video card slow down

[Remus]

I got a NVIDIA GeForce 5900XT for about a year and a half now. The first three months it worked perfectly but then shit happened. I started playing Far Cry and after about half an hour of play I got kicked out of the game and this message appeared: Low power, to ensure the continued safe operation of your hardware, system sentinel has lowed the graphic processors power. It said to check if I had the extra power connector attache, but this video card model DOESN'T HAVE A EXTRA POWER CNNECTOR. After I closed that pesky window I went back in the game and it ran like crap, 2 frames/second. What the heck could be wrong? I even went to the store where I bought the damn card and they asked if I could turn off this system sentinel, well that's just it YOU CAN'T. I think this utility is probably integrated in the card's drivers or something. So now unfortunetly I can play a game like HL2, Far Cry, Quake 4 etc, only of about half an hour, a hour max, and then this stupid message appears and the only way to remedy the slow down is to turn off the PC and let it "cool" ofr a while. I tried everything: reinstalling windows, reinstalling drivers, updating drivers, checking to see if there is a physical problem with the card, and nothing. Can anyone help me with this, please;( ?

 

[giant384]

umm you sure its not a heat problem?

 

[Remus]

Heat problem, well it would sure be a surprise if it was. I have in addition to the cooler on the video card another THREE coolers! One of them is mother f*****g huge. So I don't see how the hell it could be a heat problem.

 

[ktimekiller]

Low power supply? it could be burning out from a long time use.

 

[Remus]

It's not burning out after long time use. You call three months a long time, eh? If you read my initial post correctly, I said it worked fine for 3 moths and then shit started to happen, this isn't a recent development.

 

[hungryduck]

are you sure the fans on the card are running.....dust clog maybe? did a plug for one of the fans fall out?

 

[Remus]

are you sure the fans on the card are running.....dust clog maybe? did a plug for one of the fans fall out?

Hmm... interesting, now that you mention it, every fant works, but the fan on the video card doesn't seem to work. I can't really tell if it's working or not, but nothing seemes to be mooving there so I guess it's not working.

Edit: I was wrong, the fan on the video card is in fact working, so I guess it's back to square one.

 

[Glirk Dient]

Sounds like your PSU is either crap/low wattage/ worst case which is unstable rails and its destroying your vid card. Post the specs of your PSU and all of your hardware. Make sure you include wattage, make, and all 3 rails(3.3v,5v and 12v).

 

[Remus]

I asume by PSU you mean, Power Suply Unit right? Wel it's a standard PSU that came with the PC when I baught it. We first thaught that it could be the source of our problems and replaced it with a new one but the vid card problems continued. It is a 400W PSU, the most powerfull on the market here. All the other hardware works just fine. I don't quite understand what you mean by "rails". Hardware: CPU intel pentium4 2.8GHZ, motherboard Gigabyte 865G, 500mb DDR400.

 

[giant384]

I asume by PSU you mean, Power Suply Unit right? Wel it's a standard PSU that came with the PC when I baught it. We first thaught that it could be the source of our problems and replaced it with a new one but the vid card problems continued. It is a 400W PSU, the most powerfull on the market here. All the other hardware works just fine. I don't quite understand what you mean by "rails". Hardware: CPU intel pentium4 2.8GHZ, motherboard Gigabyte 865G, 500mb DDR400.

on the side of the psu there should be a sticker that should say the wattage and the amps of the +12v -12v +5v -5v -3.3v and +3.3v. it shouldnt be hard to miss

 

[Remus]

Ok here it is:

------+3.3v +5v -5v +12v -12v +5v
----------------------------------------------
200w | 14A 18A 0.5A 10A 0.8A 2A
250w | 15A 18A 0.5A 13A 0.8A 2A
300w | 18A 20A 0.5A 13A 0.8A 2A
350w | 18A 25A 0.5A 13A 0.8A 2A
400w | 28A 35A 0.5A 15A 0.8A 2A
450w | 28A 36A 0.5A 17A 0.8A 2A
500w | 30A 36A 0.5A 20A 0.8A 2A

 

[JNightshade]

...
that must have taken a while

 

[Glirk Dient]

Ok here it is:

------+3.3v +5v -5v +12v -12v +5v
----------------------------------------------
200w | 14A 18A 0.5A 10A 0.8A 2A
250w | 15A 18A 0.5A 13A 0.8A 2A
300w | 18A 20A 0.5A 13A 0.8A 2A
350w | 18A 25A 0.5A 13A 0.8A 2A
400w | 28A 35A 0.5A 15A 0.8A 2A
450w | 28A 36A 0.5A 17A 0.8A 2A
500w | 30A 36A 0.5A 20A 0.8A 2A

Also what is the make of it?

I noticed the 12v rail is pretty low, which could in your case be the main problem. It doesn't seem to be too bad though. If the PSU is of cheap make then that is your problem. I am also assuming on the +5v rail you missed a 0 after those, as if it was only 2a then I am suprised your comp turned on.

 

[Remus]

Also what is the make of it?

I noticed the 12v rail is pretty low, which could in your case be the main problem. It doesn't seem to be too bad though. If the PSU is of cheap make then that is your problem. I am also assuming on the +5v rail you missed a 0 after those, as if it was only 2a then I am suprised your comp turned on.

The make of it? Well it says Powerlink 400W model LPK2-30.

As for that rail it's +5V SB and I didn't make a mistake, it's 2A.

My question is, if it's crap and doesn't supply enough power then how come the rest of the hardware is functioning normally?

 

[Glirk Dient]

The make of it? Well it says Powerlink 400W model LPK2-30.

As for that rail it's +5V SB and I didn't make a mistake, it's 2A.

My question is, if it's crap and doesn't supply enough power then how come the rest of the hardware is functioning normally?

Because the video card is a beast for power consumption so when your comp is demanding more power but your PSU can't supply it instead of overworking your PSU it will lower the graphics card demand so the PSU can keep up. It does sound like the PSU is the problem here, however I can't say for 100% sure that is the problem. It could be a software issue of some sort, but I am pretty sure it is the PSU. If you can find a better PSU and try it. If you want to get a new PSU which would be a good idea cause even if that PSU isn't the problem here chances are it will cause problems down the road since it is of cheap make. Get an antec or enermax PSU, those are 2 great companies to go with.

 

[Reaktor4]

you could also try using the omega drivers or underclocking the card

 

[Remus]

I'm sure it's not a software problem, like I said I have changed between different types of drivers, reinstalled them over and over, updated them, but still the problem persists.

I pretty much doubt I'll be able to get a better PSU here, so I could try to order one from out of the country I guess. Either way I'm planning to buy a new and of course more powerful PC, that should fix things .

Anyway thanks guys for trying to help:cheers: