[LadyGoddess]

I have a custom made computer from Xtechnology.com which I recieved last Halloween. Over Christmas break, the computer started rebooting constantly but I ignored it since it didn't seem to be too big of a deal (it was blamed on where I forgot the approriate power cord for the cpu at school so I was using my old computer's power cord). I got back to school, plugged in the approriate cord, and the computer rebooted once or twice before being fine. Then in March the problem started again.

The head of campus computers took my computer apart and pinpointed the problem to be the GeForce FX 5200 video card. His old card worked fine on the computer and when I came home for the summer, my old computer's Voodoo card also worked fine while I sent the 5200 back to the company for repairs.

Recently I recieved my card back with an update to a GeForce FX 5600 (the software included is Gainward). Directly underneath the card is a little fan that sucks the heat off the card and pushes it through the back of the cpu. Two hours into putting it into my computer when the system rebooted by itself again. In the last two days, it has done it four times for absolutely no reason.

I have updated my drivers for the card with no help. I don't know where I'd have to go in the computer system to get a copy of the BIOS or anything or really give too much information on the system besides:

AMD Athlon 1800+
ASUS A7V880
Windows XP SP2

I am very tempted to just go back to the Voodoo card since it works like a dream, but I can't play my only game with it (Sims 2) and since I'm a multimedia major at school, I figured I might need any high quality graphics that the card may produce for my future classes and sell the card to buy something else.

Any help or recommendations would be appreciated because I am at the end of my rope.

Thank you.

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Well, i think you have posted this in the wrong part of the forum but anyhoo....

Your problem sounds like the power supply. To go from a very old card that requires hardly any power at all to a more modern card thats more power hungry is not a good thing unless you have an decent power supply. If the power supply is unable to power your card then it will shut off, either when under load or at random.

Edited by QzXx, 29 June 2005 - 08:34 PM.

[QzXx]

Well, i think you have posted this in the wrong part of the forum but anyhoo....

Your problem sounds like the power supply. To go from a very old card that requires hardly any power at all to a more modern card thats more power hungry is not a good thing unless you have an decent power supply. If the power supply is unable to power your card then it will shut off, either when under load or at random.

Edited by QzXx, 29 June 2005 - 08:34 PM.

[LadyGoddess]

The wrong place? Whoops, I apologize. I was half-asleep while writing earlier (been asleep for only 3.5 hrs when I just got up for the night).

I thought about that too but others have told me that couldn't be the problem. Above the power supply in the back there is a switch that goes back and forth between two powers. The one its set to now is 115V. I believe the second switch says a higher rating.

[Idle-Brain]

uh-hu, I had the same problem with my AMD, just this tip: update your drivers from the Nvidia main page.

Edited by Idle-Brain, 30 June 2005 - 01:43 AM.

[Chronos0001]

The rating of the power supply is not whether or not it is set at 230 or 115, but rather how many watts is can put out at a constant rate.

The usual for todays systems is a 300 watt power supply (usually displayed on a sticker on the power supply itself).

More powerful power supplies can be purchased and installed.

I have had some negative experience with the 5xxx series GFX cards myself. Everything worked except games, then the system rebooted. I have a 350 watt power supply.

I have considered taking all extreaneous cards out of my PCI bus, to free up the power requirements, I just don't want to do that right now.

I called tech support, and some of the advice I was given is to go into the BIOS and change the AGP aperture setting to half of what the card is capable of (ie, if the card is a 128, then set the AGP aperture to 64), Turn off RAM shadowing.

These suggestions actually did speed up the graphics on my system ( also a hybrid) but did nothing for gaming ( My wife and I play SIMS 2 ALOT!!!)

It kept shutting down too.

Good luck.