See if you can figure this gem out

[Bojamijams]

My gf had some HP computer with onboard video and 512mb ram. I upgraded her to a gig and an AGP video card (ATI 9200 or something)

Anyway, every time I launch a game or some intensive, the system reboots.

With EVEREST, I saw her 12V voltage was at 11.3V. She had a 250W PS so I got her a 450W PS. Same thing. Still only 11.3V ..

WTF?

I'm pretty sure the restarts are voltage related but.. seriously.. at 250W and 450W the 12V stays at 11.3?

WTF?

 

[enaberif]

Pull the memory probably not compatible.

 

[Bojamijams]

What makes you say that? The system runs fine in windows with non intensive tasks

 

[enaberif]

Exactly.

When you start using more intensive apps it requires more memory.

 

[CMetaphor]

Its possible your heatsink is loose too, meaning that that temps are high as hell at "idle" windows but when someone thats processor intensive comes on, the temperature skyrockets and the system restarts due to a thermal warning. Just my 0.02$.

 

[chrisk]

If its memory you think Memtest will cause a reboot similar to his gaming?

 

[Bojamijams]

Yeah memtest should show some errors. I can try that I suppose.

But still.. can anyone explain why with a 250W PW and a 450W the 12V line would be 11.3V in both cases? Something seems... mathematically improbable there.

 

[enaberif]

Yeah memtest should show some errors. I can try that I suppose.

But still.. can anyone explain why with a 250W PW and a 450W the 12V line would be 11.3V in both cases? Something seems... mathematically improbable there.

Thats normal.

PSUs are never exact.

 

[chrisk]

Everest would also be reading those values from the Mobo which wasn't changed...the only way to really tell if your volts changed due to PS would be a multimeter before and after changing, and you would need to monitor during load and idle

 

[MpG]

My votes on memory incompatibility, personally.

At any rate, those are probably single-rail PSU's, so you should be able to just stick MM probes into a molex/PCI-E plug to see what the 12V line is really doing, without going to the hassle of poking the motherboard itself, or wondering if the software knows what it's reading.