[Andeekaii]

Hey guys, i hope you can help me with a problem, im stumped.

I recently purchased a 550W PSU, i sleeved it myself, which involved removing all the molex ends etc etc.
I made sure to label every single wire so i'm 99% they're all correct, the only ones which may have been muggled up are the black molex wires, but they're both ground so it doesnt matter?

Anyway, it was stable for a few hours, ran 3dmark tests etc etc.
Then when loading crysis, i got full screen artifacts. I instantly thought this was my PSU, so i opened up the computer to check if any wires were wired incorrectly.
I noticed that one of the wires in the sata cable had slipped out, the orange and black wire. A molex is on the end of the sata wire - could this have damaged my GPU?

Anyway, i checked my temps and everything was fine, 72 under load, and the GPU memory was 68. I got into crysis and was playing fine for 20 mins. Then i exited the game, and as soon as i got back onto the desktop it artifacted again, fullscreen. The temps were fine.

I've tried using all combinations of the 5 molex connections i have (2 molex into 1 pci-e) with no luck. Sometimes i can run a full run of 3dmark with no artifacts, then other times it artifacts and locks out as soon as i boot to the desktop.

I'm a a loose end now, as my new GTS 250 arrived today and i dont want to risk ruining it.

My current card is an XFX 8800 GS XXX Alpha Dog. It was overclocked from 680 to 700 core. and i cant remember the memory and shader frequencies, but i overclocked +100 onto each of them.

Basically should i not worry about the PSU, as im pretty sure the wires are correct, and it has 2x 16A 12v rails so it has enough power? Is it just a GPU overclock problem which has killed some of the memory?

Any advice would be helpful guys, ive tried everything i can think of, it's just really unstable. I don't see how it cannot crash during 30 minutes of 3dmark 06, but sometimes it crashes as soon as i get to the desktop.

Cheers, Andy

[Andeekaii]

This is exactly what it looks like. The page i got this picture from say that its caused by faulty GPU ram.

So im guessing either my card has got damaged from overclocking, or is it possible that my PSU is somehow supplying too much power which has fried the ram? What are the chances of this?

There are only 4 wires on a molex, i know they are in the right order! Would a sata/floppy connection wired incorrectly affect the molex' on the same wire?

[Hybr!d]

Have you been overclocking? Is the card still overclocked?

[Andeekaii]

As i said, the card has been overclocked.

Original: Core 680, Shader, 1700, Memory Clock 800.
Overclock: Core 700, 1800, Memory Clock 875.

It was only overclocked like that for an hour, and i didnt experience any overheating or artifacting during that time (running 3dmark 06 and vantage).
It is running original now, and i still get the problem.

I just got home and booted it up, and as soon as i got on the desktop i got full screen artifacts. I turned it off (using power button as it freezes completely), then turned the power off the psu, turned it back on and at the moment i have no artifacts (been running for about 5 minutes)

[Andeekaii]

What i really need to know is whether it could be PSU caused, as my GTS 250 has arrived and i dont wan't to ruin it. If the wires are correct, could it still be PSU related? Everything else runs stable, CPU etc.

[Hybr!d]

Either OC'ing or a bad PSU could fry your hardware. If you think your PSU is dodgy try another. I think you said you made the wiring, so I guess that may be at fault. Also as this started after you added the PSU I would say it's likely to be that.

[Carbon]

I'm not sure why you'd buy a GTS 250 considering it's just a 8800GS with some more stream processors and a higher clock, but whatever.

Good PSUs are already sleeved. This sounds like a bad PSU. Amperage matters but brand matters more.

[Andeekaii]

Well i have my reasons for buying a gts 250, firstly the fan on the 8800 is 100% always - annoying.
Secondly, it is better, significantly.
My 3dmark 06 score with 8800 was 9400, with the gts 250 it's 11,300.

Anyway, problem solved now, there was a little piece of plastic off the sleeving caught in the pci-e slot. I've installed the GTS 250 and its running perfectly so far. no problems.

Cheers for the help guys.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

[QUOTE=Andeekaii;109715]there was a little piece of plastic off the sleeving caught in the pci-e slot.QUOTE]

Wow, such a classic example of the human nature to immediatly think in a more complex way..

I never got round to reccommending anything in this thread, but if I had it would of for sure been more technical than "check for loose plastic"..

And I even always try to think of obvious and easy things to check first, before delving deep into anything..