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[SOLVED] Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

1K views 19 replies 2 participants last post by  Veritus7 
#1 ·
So I have my own machine that I've built, and recently I put in a new video card (EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti). I also bought Windows 7 64-bit to make the most of my AMD Phenom II X4 840. When I installed my new video card, I found I didn't have the proper power supply connections to it, so I went and got a 600W Thermaltake PSU.

I plugged it all in, stuck in Windows 7, installed it on a fresh partition, and I began to install all of my drivers, such as video, sound, etc, so forth. I then noticed it wasn't reading an old hard drive I used to back up some files (the BIOS picked it up fine.)

I restarted my computer, farted around with BIOS for a bit, and after that Windows 7 froze every time it came to the loading screen. I tried safe mode, booting from the windows CD, recovery mode, and I got nothing. Still froze at the same place. A friend tried to tell me it was a faulty hard drive. To test that, I unplugged BOTH hard drives, and booted from the Windows 7 CD. STILL froze at the same place, so it couldn't be that.

Getting fed up, I threw in my Windows XP CD and it booted up fine. I reformatted the hard drive with it, put in my Windows 7 CD, re-installed Windows 7, but this time with the old hard drive unplugged. Everything seemed to work great. Began to install drivers again, etc., then I went to bed.

Got up this morning, and again it froze in the same place, even with the second hard drive unplugged. This is where I'm stumped. I'm fairly certain it's Windows 7 not cooperating with my new power supply because XP works fine, and I've read reviews online about Windows 7 having issues with PSUs.

Any insights on what the root issue might be would be really appreciated. I'm happy to answer any questions about my machine.
 
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#2 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

Windows 7 like XP has no idea what power supply is installed in the PC.

I restarted my computer, farted around with BIOS for a bit, and after that Windows 7 froze every time it came to the loading screen.
What exactly did you change in the bios?

What are the full specs of the system?
 
#3 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2 GHz Quad Core
4 GB of DDR3 RAM
500GB Hard Drive
80gb backup hard drive
EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1gb


I went into BIOS and just changed up Device priority, putting my 500gb hard drive before my 80gb, and then changed boot priority to my hard drive before CD rom That was all I did. When it froze up, I went back it changed it all back the way it was. Didn't help.
 
#6 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

Another update, I got my XP all installed and everything, shut it off, plugged in my 80gb hard drive to retrieve data from it, and XP froze up the same way Windows 7 is, even when I unplugged after shutting down. I'm beginning to think this Hard drive is the issue now.
 
#10 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

Ok, so I did as suggested.
The Western Digital 500gb hard drive found no errors. I ran the quick test and the long test. No errors whatsoever.
The 80gb Maxtor did, however, have errors. A bad sector is what was reported. At this point in my computers welfare, I don't much care for the data on that hard drive. There wasn't anything essential on it. I lost a few pictures, but that's about it. Everything important is backed up onto my laptop. Once my system is functioning again I'll restore it.

The important thing here is, even though that 80gb hard drive is disconnect, my computer locks up completely at the 'Starting Windows' screen.

Today I reinstalled Windows 7. Got it up and running, even went so far as to download WoW after downloading an anti-virus and updating all drivers. even played WoW for a while, no problems at all. My computer restarted several times during driver updates and it still worked fine.

But then after a restart (after running the diagnostic on the Western Digital hard drive, in fact) it crashed again at the 'Starting Windows' load screen. Gets about 3 seconds in and it's toast. Again, no safe mode, no recovery console, no booting from Win 7 CD. I am absolutely stumped. Tomorrow I'm going in to talk to the guy who sold me my power supply. I'll report my findings here.
 
#11 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

(a side note: I read the Power Supply and Selection link in your signature, and I came across the part saying most power supplies operate at 70% efficiency. If I were to take 30% off my PSU's capability, it would be sitting at about 420. The box on my video card says it needs minimum 450 watts. I don't know if this is an appropriate consideration or not, but I figured I'd toss it in there.)
 
#14 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

The WO388RU is definitely not one of my favorites, made by HEC for Thermaltake, it just barely is strong enough. The efficiency rating represents the amount of current used from the wall that is converted to usable power for the PC, or to look at it in round numbers from the 100% it draws from the wall 70% is turned into power for the PC 30% is consumed by the psu to generate the 70%, the 30% is mostly lost as heat from the supply. The supply is still rated at 600w output.
Now about the output numbers, they can be very misleading the temp a PSU runs effects the amount of power it is capable of outputting. Higher quality supplies are rated for a continuous output @ 45-50c, lower quality supplies(yours) are rated at a lower temp like 25c a temp it will always be running warmer then when in heavy use, even lower quality supplies will be rated @25c for a peak wattage rather then continuous wattage rating.

Wall of text out of the way, could it be your supply --yes it could to find out for sure you'll need to swap in a known good quality unit and test it.
 
#15 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

I took that supply back, got a Newegg.com - CORSAIR Gaming Series GS700 700W ATX 12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply instead, since it has 80 plus Bronze ratings, higher output, and PFC.

I started up my computer, it froze again at the same place, but that was actually expected (and it actually froze about a second later, not sure if that means anything) since that was the state was in before I replaced the power supply.

Reinstalled windows, put on the display drivers, and it froze again after a shutdown. Again, I am stumped.
 
#18 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

I really don't remember. If anything had been changed, it would have been about a year ago when I first rebuilt my machine. It may have been something do with Overclocking, but racking my brain, I still don't remember.
 
#20 ·
Re: Power Supply or Windows 7 issue? A lengthy problem

Loaded everything, installed some drivers, shut it down, let it sit for a minute or so, started back up just fine, now reinstalling programs. I guess consider it solved. I appreciate your help anyway, I learned quite a bit from this experience.
 
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