Bennett

hi, having encountered a previous problem which was resolved on the below link...
PC Randomly stopped Posting
i decided to replace most of the parts for the sake of being up to date with the current hardware requirements of most new games around. my current specs are
e6600 intel core 2 duo @ 2.4Ghz
2Gb dual channel Geil 6400 low latency ddr2 800
Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active
Abit AW9D Intel 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Asus ATI Radeon X1950 Pro HTDP 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB S300 8mb
other than this it is the same case specified in my Sig, and a standard dvdrw & dvd drive

with the new parts i proceeded to format and reinstall windows on the 250gb drive, all went well but then i noticed regular locks on the display, the mouse pointer appeared to freeze (could be graphics related) though this post may be more suited to the motherboard, ram & cpu section the most problematic point is harddrive related. because the current Mobo only has 1 IDE, and my previous drive was IDE, to restore my files i connected the IDE drive in and booted windows from the Sata drive, copying the files over manaully (drag and dropping- the other drive is also a WD but an 80gig IDE variant) all was well for a while minus to strange locks which i have yet to resolve, though oen occasion did bring about a CCC prompt regarding the grahpics card freezing or not responding.
anyway on reinstalling some games and attempting to apply patches- with the vast number of games i had always kept patches on my harddrive. these patches had previously been on the IDE drive but copied over to the SATA, this is where problems become more serious, i was able to install various smaller files eg winamp etc which i also keep backed up, but for example with the patch to Quake 3, or splinter cell chaos thoery, on installing it tells me there is a problem with the patching process while being applied and has to cancel, in most occasions it tells me its a file transfer problem ,or that the file is corrupt. i thought initally it was a harddrive problem , possibly a dodgy drive but i have just downloaded and applied both patches and they worked fine (direct from fileplanet as opposed to my sata disk) as ambiguous as the problem now sounds im questioning if there are any known problems with transferring files from an IDE interface to Sata, i had further problems with winRAR files which i store (unforunatly) my uni work in, but upon extraction im flooded with errors about the file being corrupt, before my old rig went mad on me, i was sure there was no problem whatsoever, i doubt ther is a problem with the old harddrive, and i transferred a good 50gigs from one drive to another.
prior to this problem, i had formatted (twice because windows installer crashed on me when the timer said 39mins... and a quick format wouldn let me install- said harddrive was possbily damaged) and the problem with using some files, particulary the large ones persist, i had no problem applying the UT2004 recent patch, but the mega map pack for example, on extraction stage would show many maps failing. is it possible to recover these files from the IDE again without getting these problems or am i doomed to download these files again. sorry if i have somewhat lost the plot with what im saying, it is a hard problem to describe

Lead3

I think you might consider a larger power supply. I don't think 400 watts is enough for that system.

kodi

Check for overheating.
Agree with Lead3 you need a better power supply

Bennett

ok... well what would you guys recommend to be the minimum W that i should have, if it is the power as the source of the problem? would this cause problems in writing data from one drive to another?

Houndog777

Hi there,
The other guys are otherwise engaged at the moment so I hope I can be of help.
Ati recommend at least a 450w power supply for the Radeon X1950 Pro (see link) with 30A output on the 12v Rail.
And yes, insufficient power can affect file transfers; indeed it will affect every operation of the computer, and can damage your components.
Here's a link to the spec of your video card with it's recommended power requirements etc.
http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3122113
Here also is a link to a Power Supply Calculator.
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
Please add 30% to your total, as recommended at the foot of the webpage.

Bennett

ah ty, for the help, i just ran it and it calculated about 345W, so thats about 450, which sounds about right, shame really.. i just bought this psu, but it looks like im going to have to not use the PC till i have an adequate PSU, thanks again . im going to look into more powerful power units, hopefully one that is as powerful as it claims to be:)

Houndog777

Hi again!
Here's a link to some very useful tips and recommendations for power supplies.
http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Power_Supply_Unit
Use the guide together with Ati's recommendations and you should be ok.
Remember the PSU is the engine of your computer, and a powerful, quality unit, though more expensive, will save you time, stress and money at the end of the day.

Bennett

Hi, i justp purchased and installed an Antec truepower trio 650W, whuich was on the certified list on ATIs website, and on the link you provided also. everything appears to be running fine but im slightly dubious about the cpu vcore voltage which immonitoring via the guru ship on the motherboard (once windows has loaded- not in the bios) the vcore in the bois is set to about 1.35V, but occasionallu on the uguru menu it shows it fluctuating from 1.35 to the lowest of 1.21, this hapens quite freqenetly, i read somwhere there is an allowed margin for these fluctuations but with the Vcore and a dip that low i want to be sure this is not going to be a further problem

Houndog777

Hi, there's nothing to worry about, its called "Voltage Droop".
Every Intel based motherboard has this feature and it has nothing to do with your new power supply unit.
Here's an explanation from Asus....
Intel specification clearly states Vcc (CPU Vcore) should drop in proportion to the increase of Icc (CPU current consumption), in order to prevent causing permanent damage to your CPU. When CPU is under stress (in other words, under higher load), the current consumption of the CPU will go up, and the CPU Vcore will then drop to compensate for this change. This is perfectly normal behaviour, and will not effect the overall stability of your system.

Bennett

ahh thank you for the information, and i must also pat everyones back at the TechSupport team for making such an amazing source of information and advice:) thanks again, i can rest assured for now... till something else goes wrong