[coxyclan]

Hi everyone,
My old PSU gave up the ghost last week and i managed to borrow another one from my brother. All seemed to be working well until the computer started switching itself off. Sometimes it stays on for a few hours and other times it goes off before its finished booting up.

It won't allow me to play any games (it retstarts as soon as i try) and it's really starting to do my head in. Recently i added a new graphics card, a Geforce 8500 PCI-e but according to the box a 300 watt power supply is fine for it to run. My previous PSU was also a 300 watt one and it lasted a couple of weeks after putting in the new graphics card. I'm going to get a new 400 watt PSU but i want to make sure it's whats at fault and nothing else.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Steve.

[alex]

Personally i wouldn't switch the pc on again with the psu you have considering the symptoms you quote, because psu's tend to go snap-crackle and pop after such things. Which has the potential to take the rest of your pc with it.

I need to know the rest of your spec's. Exactly.

Amps, specifically on the 12v and 5v rails, do play a big part.

[coxyclan]

My computer specs are:
Pentium 4 3.6 Ghz
MS 7046 Motherboard
250 GB SATA hard drive
2 Gig DDR ram
512Mb DDR2 Geforce 8500 GT
Onboard sound

[alex]

This isn't an Advent pc is it?

I'd highly recommend an Enermax Liberty 400w for that spec.

A p4 at 3.6ghz sucks juice.

[coxyclan]

Yeah it is an Advent PC.

So a 400w PSU will do the trick then. Theres nothing else that could be causing the problem??

[alex]

Could be heat, as in clogged up fans.

Could be the cooler on the cpu isn't correctly mounted. Did you knock anything when you installed the graphics card?

Could just simply be a loose wire. (Check them all).

But I reckon it's the power issue.

Although, can you quote the make and model of the psu's you tried? As i'd hate to say "yes, spend money, get a new psu" and it not be that.