[ILP]

I had an HP Pavilion a650e, with an AMD 3400+ processor, 1GB of ram, and an outdated Radeon 9600.

I decided to jump on a deal my friend was putting up, and bought his BFG Tech 6800 OC for 150.00. It was brand new, in box, so why not, I figured.

I installed it, without first upgrading my PSU (BFG recommends minimum 300w, my system has a 250w). So, understandibly, when I fired up my PC, I was getting intemittent freezes, and I realized what was going on.

I could only locate online, a 300w PSU (BFG's minimum) that was compatible with my PC, so I bought it, and upgraded it. However, the glitching never went away. i even went as far as to have BFG replace my card with a new one, and it was then that I realized that even with my old card (Radeon 9600) that the glitching continued. Something worse was happening.

Flash to last Saturday, I boot up that morning, and my HP splash screen comes up, only it's broken, with the top half on the bottom, and the bottom half on the top. Plus, the're all kinds of weird see through lines in the display. So i figure it's something with the video card again, and place the 9600 back in. no go, still reboots with the lines. I reboot once again, and it takes, although my splash screen is still broken, and even when I go into the BIOS setup, it's barely readable.

Needless to say, on this last boot up, I backup all my data, until it freezes, and locks up. I reboot, and there's a BSOD, and instant reboot. I was unable to change this feature, as not even safe mode worked.

In the end, HP is picking it up free of charge, and either fixing it/replacing it. However, my concern is - Was this caused by my installation of the video card without the min PSU?

Any insight into this is appreciated.

[Advertisements]

No love? :|

[ILP]

No love? :|

[Samm]

If by any chance the new 300W PSU you bought wasn't an HP one, that could well be causing the problem.
Using a 300W psu with an athlon 3400+ with 1GB of ram etc is unlikely to work well at the best of times, irrespective of the video card. The reason the HP 250W psu worked is because HP make extremely good power supplies. Most generic psu's even though they may have a slightly higher power rating, won't be as good.

[ILP]

If by any chance the new 300W PSU you bought wasn't an HP one, that could well be causing the problem.
Using a 300W psu with an athlon 3400+ with 1GB of ram etc is unlikely to work well at the best of times, irrespective of the video card. The reason the HP 250W psu worked is because HP make extremely good power supplies. Most generic psu's even though they may have a slightly higher power rating, won't be as good.

Wow, really? Good to know. So what you're saying is that I can kind of give up on my 6800 OC dream then? Because the 9600 always worked. I guess I could always build a new one around the 6800.

What brands of PSU's would you recommend, if you don't mind..

[Samm]

wait & see what happens when HP return the pc - they may have replaced the psu for another one anyway. If not, then yes I suggest you save the card for another system or buy an HP PSU thats 300W or above.

In general when it comes to PSUs i would recommend you get a 400W minimum & buy a decent brand one such as antec, coolermaster or thermaltake etc

[ILP]

wait & see what happens when HP return the pc - they may have replaced the psu for another one anyway. If not, then yes I suggest you save the card for another system or buy an HP PSU thats 300W or above.

In general when it comes to PSUs i would recommend you get a 400W minimum & buy a decent brand one such as antec, coolermaster or thermaltake etc

Thanks again Samm, i will keep this in mind.

[ILP]

BTW here's the one I had upgraded to:

http://store.yahoo.c...waatxposu9.html

I'm suspecting it's not enough..

I of course had to take it out and set my PC back to factory before sending it up to HP, so it's not gonna be in there now...

Does anyone know of a 400w that would be compatible with my system? Here's mine, except I have the 3400+ AMD:

http://yahoo.pcworld...id,22548,00.asp

[Samm]

As I said before, I think I would wait for your pc to come back from HP first before making decisions. If possible, try & find out from HP exactly what was wrong with the PC & what they've done to fix it.

You may find that the problem wasn't the PSU but an incompatibility between the new video card & your system for example.

Although a 400W PSU is a good idea, as you already know it must be compatible with your particular machine - HP often make systems where the power supplies are proprietry & won't work with a standard psu.

If you still have problems using the new video card after the HP is returned, you may have to consider either sticking with your old card or selling the HP & using the money to buy or build a new (more generic) system.