Power Supply 4 9800pro

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James

I have an AXIO 400w ps that came installed in my case. Just installed a
Sapphire 9800 Pro and have been afflected with the "inifinite loop" crash
that mainly occurs AFTER gaming. ((May have this solved - did not crash
yesterday after disabling AGP writes in SmartGart)).

Back when I was diagnosing the problem the crashes still occurred with all
the fans unplugged and the crashes did not occur when gaming (with tons of
HD activity and constant DVD-ROM spin up) so I'm not convinced it is a power
problem. Also is not a heat problem - the crash can occur with the card cool
to the touch.

Still concerned about voltage readings though. Mine have always read just a
few points under (11.98 , 4.99, 3.25 , etc) but after the card upgrade the
3.3v rail is reading a constant 3.12 to 3.15 and can go as low as 3.08. Is
this too low?

Stated ratings on the PS:
3.3 @ 14a, 5 @ 25a, 12 @ 12a, -5 @ .5a, -12 @ .5a, +5 @ 2.5
 
Many people have reported that that switching to a high quality power supply
fixed these type problems. I read where that you should make sure the power
cable going to video card is not shared with HD or CD/DVD-ROM. See if
updated BIOS is available for mother board and be sure proper motherboard
AGP driver is installed (VIA 4 in 1 if VIA chipset). Look on the Rage3d.com
forums for more help.

-Kent
 
James said:
I have an AXIO 400w ps that came installed in my case. Just installed a
Sapphire 9800 Pro and have been afflected with the "inifinite loop" crash
that mainly occurs AFTER gaming. ((May have this solved - did not crash
yesterday after disabling AGP writes in SmartGart)).

Back when I was diagnosing the problem the crashes still occurred with all
the fans unplugged and the crashes did not occur when gaming (with tons of
HD activity and constant DVD-ROM spin up) so I'm not convinced it is a power
problem. Also is not a heat problem - the crash can occur with the card cool
to the touch.

Still concerned about voltage readings though. Mine have always read just a
few points under (11.98 , 4.99, 3.25 , etc) but after the card upgrade the
3.3v rail is reading a constant 3.12 to 3.15 and can go as low as 3.08. Is
this too low?

Stated ratings on the PS:
3.3 @ 14a, 5 @ 25a, 12 @ 12a, -5 @ .5a, -12 @ .5a, +5 @ 2.5
Click to expand...

When I was investigating a 9800 Pro with my power supply I found a
couple of good sites - this one:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons_8.html
and this one:
http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/buyer/features/66306/ive-got-the-power/page5.html
(In particular this image on the final page)
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/picture_library/dir_79/it_portal_pic_39975.jpg?6854

From these pages I deduced that a 9800 Pro, unlike its peers and
successors, heavily taxes the 3.3v and 5v lines but not the 12v line.

Your power supply is pretty weak, I have a 300W Fortron Source (FSP
group) PSU with 3.3v@28A, 5.5v@30A and 12v@15A (though it says 18 on the
PSU).

Even if you have unplugged various items, the actual quality of the
current coming through that PSU could be so unreliable as to cause
seemingly fine performance at times (wtih lots of HDD and DVDROM
activity) yet crash later.

However you also need to say what drivers you're using - try the 4.12
drivers with AGP4X, fast writes off (as you have done) and VPU recover
off and also make sure as few other programmes are running as possible.
 
ofn01 said:
When I was investigating a 9800 Pro with my power supply I found a couple
of good sites - this one:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons_8.html
and this one:
http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/buyer/features/66306/ive-got-the-power/page5.html
(In particular this image on the final page)
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/picture_library/dir_79/it_portal_pic_39975.jpg?6854

From these pages I deduced that a 9800 Pro, unlike its peers and
successors, heavily taxes the 3.3v and 5v lines but not the 12v line.

Your power supply is pretty weak, I have a 300W Fortron Source (FSP group)
PSU with 3.3v@28A, 5.5v@30A and 12v@15A (though it says 18 on the PSU).

Even if you have unplugged various items, the actual quality of the
current coming through that PSU could be so unreliable as to cause
seemingly fine performance at times (wtih lots of HDD and DVDROM activity)
yet crash later.

However you also need to say what drivers you're using - try the 4.12
drivers with AGP4X, fast writes off (as you have done) and VPU recover off
and also make sure as few other programmes are running as possible.
Click to expand...

Figured .. No wonder it gets so warm. Anyone got a "Easy Bake Oven" case
badge?
It may be a band-aid but turning off AGR Read/Write did the trick - no more
BSODs.
Just in case anyone needs to know this was my approach (in order).
Cats from 5.1 to 5.6
Fast writes off
Toggled between 4x and 8x (back to 8x)
Reseated card, memory, etc.
Played with some radical changes under the display tab (back to normal)
Force refresh rates to 75hz
VPU Recover off then on
Updated Chipset drivers (much more stable but no banana)
AGP Read/Write to off - did the trick so far. Writing this just after
gaming.


After reading many posts on forums about this type of crash I've come to the
conclusion that general system health is the main problem more that any one
thing. Found a reasonable OEM name brand PS on TigerDirect with decent amps
I may procure though I'm still drooling over the modular setups.
 
James said:
Figured .. No wonder it gets so warm. Anyone got a "Easy Bake Oven" case
badge?
It may be a band-aid but turning off AGR Read/Write did the trick - no more
BSODs.
Just in case anyone needs to know this was my approach (in order).
Cats from 5.1 to 5.6
Fast writes off
Toggled between 4x and 8x (back to 8x)
Reseated card, memory, etc.
Played with some radical changes under the display tab (back to normal)
Force refresh rates to 75hz
VPU Recover off then on
Updated Chipset drivers (much more stable but no banana)
AGP Read/Write to off - did the trick so far. Writing this just after
gaming.


After reading many posts on forums about this type of crash I've come to the
conclusion that general system health is the main problem more that any one
thing. Found a reasonable OEM name brand PS on TigerDirect with decent amps
I may procure though I'm still drooling over the modular setups.
Click to expand...
What sort of motherboard do you have (brand/model) and what BIOS?
You want to get AGP Read/Writes working again as basically that makes a
huge difference to performance. Be careful to make sure that you get a
good PSU.

Also try the 4.12 drivers, i found that they are better than the 5.1 and
5.6 ones for me - though just from a performance point of view.
 
Figured .. No wonder it gets so warm. Anyone got a "Easy Bake Oven" case
badge?
It may be a band-aid but turning off AGR Read/Write did the trick - no more
BSODs.
Just in case anyone needs to know this was my approach (in order).
Cats from 5.1 to 5.6
Fast writes off
Toggled between 4x and 8x (back to 8x)
Reseated card, memory, etc.
Played with some radical changes under the display tab (back to normal)
Force refresh rates to 75hz
VPU Recover off then on
Updated Chipset drivers (much more stable but no banana)
AGP Read/Write to off - did the trick so far. Writing this just after
gaming.


After reading many posts on forums about this type of crash I've come to the
conclusion that general system health is the main problem more that any one
thing. Found a reasonable OEM name brand PS on TigerDirect with decent amps
I may procure though I'm still drooling over the modular setups.
Click to expand...
It has to be said, James that, whatever the specs may say, OEM PSUs,
unless you specifically know otherwise, are not a good buy: if you
don't have a reoutation to uphold, you can claim anything you like.

You'll be better off buying name brand PSUs, such as Antec or Enermax
(and you'll even find people finding fault with these) if you want a
reliable power supply - reliability is as important as claimed voltage
levels.

I'm sure there are some OEMs PSUs that compare with good name brands,
particularly if you buy over spec, but unless you know a good one, buy
name brands.

HTH Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...
 
Many people make the mistake of trusting the displayed voltage readings,
which can be way off. The only way to know is to probe it with a decent
multimeter.

BTW, the Radeon does not draw 3.3V directly. If the 3.3V reading is truly
dropping, it means the 3.3V rail is shared with the 12V or 5V in the PSU ->
not a good design.
 
That is actually a decent PSU. For $36 you can't go wrong. :-)

Damn, wish there was a NewEgg in Canada.
 
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