Underpowered PC after installing new graphics card

frigidVintage

YOu may know that I wanted to wanted to upgrade my SOny Vaio with a 6800 or 6600 GT but I'd need a better psu and then case. I bought a 6200 from BFG that was supposed to work with my current system, and I later found out that a 6600 GT is like TWICE as good, and I'd have gladly bought it but I woried it wouldn't work. Well a few days after I installed it, games started freezing and even Windows would sometimes freeze and I noticed very occasional mouse lag. It was bearable but dissappointing b/c the box sais minimum 250 watt psu and I have 295 watt. I know you guys are always saying get good reliable psu's and stuff and I guess I learned my lesson. I did the Coolbits registry hack and did a "detect optimal settings." It went from Core: 375 and Memory:400 to Core:409 and Memory:476. Immediatley afterward I was experiencing extreme mouse lag and could expect some freezing. So, I'm pretty sure it's my power source that's causing this. What I was wondering was how much should I lower the Core and the memory and which one should I lower first?

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racing87stang · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:55 pm Post subject:

just take it back down to stock speeds until you get at least a 350w PSU.
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frigidVintage · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:13 pm Post subject:

Will do, but should I further lower the core or the memory so it'll freeze less. Which takes more power core or memory? Thanks

[TN] Nathan · ALMIGHTY PWNER! Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Posts: 7406

You might want to check for spyware and viruses as well.
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Acually, the difference in power won't be all that noticable with a small underclock, you'd have to back it off close to 50% to see any improvement. For the record, the core uses more power.

When they say a minimum 250 watt PSU, that's on a stripped, bare-bones system with basically nothing in it but the card, a hard drive, an optical drive, and that's it. For an average system running 2 hard drives, 2 opticals, a soundcard, media card reader, etc, 350 watts is the minimum, 450 recommended. It's sortof like games..........sure, you can PLAY "xxx game" on the minimum requirements, maybe, but it'll play like garbage. Also take into account the loss of power due to heat.........knowing how lousy the cooling scheme is in the Vaio cases, your PSU is probably maxing out at 220-230 watts tops after an hour of use..........well below the requirements for your vid card.

It could also be a driver issue, or a faulty vid card. Try updating the drivers, make sure the old ones are uninstalled completely, and run it again. If it still freezes, RMA the card, get a replacement, and see if it does the same thing.
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2old2care · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:09 pm Post subject:

What came out of that Sony? Did you un-install those drivers? Likewise, if it was onboard did you disable it in BIOS, as well as any shared memory. You may have to disable it in windows device manager as well, if it shows up and keeps wanting its drivers back. I hate G chipsets.
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frigidVintage · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:00 pm Post subject:

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

A virus scan won't find old drivers..............use ATI's own removal tool to get rid of all the old drivers. Too sick and tired to look for it myself, but go to ATI's download page, you'll find it pretty quickly.

And yes, you can underclock as far as you want, no harm done.
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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:20 am Post subject:

Rather than underclock the card remove it till you can get a new PSU. If you are overtaxing the psu it can fail. And that failure can damage not only the psu itself but possibly every other part in your pc. If it were me I wouldn't take the chance.
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ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

yeah...the PSU is not something to be overlooked.... i had a strong groundin issue a while back and the whole case was zapping me if i touched it.....generic psu

replaced with a new one (thanks to weaz) and the system has been rock stable since...=]
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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:10 pm Post subject:

ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

even ME!!!!!!

i tried to unplug my usb camera and it shocked the socks off me....at the other end of the USB cable.....lol

*wipes brow* thank god THATS over with
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