New PSU Ultra 500w and new GPU X1650, PC shuts of when in a game

[Syldhor]

I've seen various threads about this but haven't been able to nail anything down. My PC is aging a bit and after much research I figured I could upgrade and get by at least another year with just upgrading my PSU and GPU, allowing me to play newer games such as Unreal3 and Savage2. My current PC plays WoW fine at lower settings. I got a new PSU which has worked fine for several days, and WoW worked fine, and last night once my GPU arrived I installed and everything seemed fine until I entered WoW, or Savage2. Within seconds the PC shut down.

My PC
http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Hewlett-Packard-Pavilion-Desktop-with-Intel-Pentium-4-Processor-3-0E-GHz-a450n
P4 3gig , it's an HP a450n.
1 gig Ram
Soundblaster Audigy

A few days ago I installed this PSU, ULTRA Lifesyles 500w PSU.

http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=103&pPath=653&productID=659

And everything seemed to work fine, aside from cables being a bit short :P , and WoW ran fine.


Yesterday I installed this GPU, HIS ATI x1650pro AGP

http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ov.php?id=272&view=yes

When trying to play a game even WoW, the PSU shut down, and I had to unplug the PSU to reset and reboot.

I realized I installed the Catalyst drivers over the NVIDIA ones, so I uninstalled everything, ATI and NVIDIA, and then re-installed the ATI drivers and software.

-I updated the ATI Catalyst drivers,

-I played with SmartGart, it had turned all the options on, I turned off everything except for the AGP read/write.

-I tried re-arranging the PSU cables,
1)The Floppy(because there is only 1 floppy connection and the GPU needs it) and the CDR(because of cables to short) are disconnected.
2) Left my DVD-RW plugged in on a set of cables with the Harddrive.
3) The only thing on 1 set of wires is the GPU which is using the Floppy attachment.

-I checked all the cable connections and everything is seated properly.

-All the Fans are working, the PC Case, the PSU, the GPU and the CPU fans.

-The GPU is warm/hot to the touch but it's not scalding when it crashes, I'd expect it to get warm but unsure how warm.

After all this, the PC still shuts down shortly after entering one of these games.


Any insights? Is there anything else to try besides guessing between my GPU and PSU?

I have as of yet tried updating my PC's BIOS or AGP, what are the chances these would make such a drastic difference in the PSU shutting off? My excitement of a newly upgraded PC is quickly turning into a headache and frustration.

Looking for more ideas to try.

There is a jumper on the GPU, would that lead anywhere?

[mrw1986]

I'm guessing that the GPU is overheating...just because its warm doesn't mean the chip itself isn't hot...I doubt its a power issue since the X1650 doesn't use much power.

[Namslas90]

After installing A new CPU you should reset the CMOS before rebooting. Your motherboard is probably confused as to what CPU is installed. Depending on CPU support you may have to update BIOS (you may want to anyways).

[Syldhor]

I had a small typo up there "PCU", I think you thought I changed my CPU, I did not, I meant PSU and GPU. Would there be any need to reset the CMOS for changing a graphics card?

[Namslas90]

I had a small typo up there "PCU", I think you thought I changed my CPU, I did not, I meant PSU and GPU. Would there be any need to reset the CMOS for changing a graphics card?

NO. But it wouldn't hurt to check BIOS settings for PCI-E.

[Syldhor]

PC doesn't have PCI-E, it's AGXx8. And the Graphics default is set to AGP.

Old Card works fine when I put it back in, so far the only other things I know of trying

-Again remove all drivers and ATI software. Try a re-install.

-DL a mobo heat monitor

-Update Sound card drivers, (what the hell eh?)

-Uninstall Smartgart

Any other ideas?

[Syldhor]

Don't know if it's kosher or not to cross refreance other tech sites, but for the sake of sharing, I found a pretty good thread tied to lots of ideas and this guys insane trip through a million things is pretty helpful, as his problem and specs are pretty similar. For him a large part of his problem ended up being issues between his ASUS mobo and kingston RAM. Would my ram work fine until I introduced a new GPU? or would that be unrelated, since the PC works fine with the older card in it.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic22675.html

[Syldhor]

For the sake of closure.

After trying all of the above, I swapped out the brand spanking new 500w(or so it says) PSU with an ANTEC 350w that I've had for 3-4 years from my even older pc. Everything so far has been working fine with it, games and all. The x1650 says it needs at least a 350w so to play it safe I'm leaving the CDR(have a DVRW anyway) and floppy disconnected.

So either the new PSU is a piece of junk or there is something wrong with it. Thanks for your replies. I am betting on the former.

[cdawall]

that PSU should have no problem running a X1650 solaris uses an Ultra xconnect 500w with an oc'd 3600 (3ghz) 9600GT and other much higher wattage components so unless you just got a bum PSU i doubt that is the issue. yes i know that the xconnect he uses is a slightly higher rated PSU (34A vs 28A on yours)