Geek Tested:

Ask the Doctor: Need More Power. Cap'n!

Posted 04/10/09 at 08:00:00 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

Ask the Doctor Logo I have a Soyo A7V Dragon Plus motherboard, AMD Athlon XP 1800+, VisionTek ATI Radeon 1600 X1600XT Extreme Gamer Edition, Creative Extreme Gamer Fatality Pro, Adaptec Duo Connect, and Linksys Standard Ethernet Card.

A week ago, my 425W RaidMax power supply started shooting sparks and fried a capacitor. I swapped it out with a 300W Skyhawk PSU. Now my computer keeps locking up with a high-pitched squeal, and the only thing I can do is push the reset button or unplug my computer. Often it will lock up within five or 10 minutes after rebooting. It happens when I’m listening to music, playing games, or watching movies, both online and off. Sometimes it locks up after Windows starts. It doesn’t lock up with that squeal all the time, only most of the time. I believe it probably has something to do with my audio card, but then it just might be as simple as my power supply lacking sufficient power.

I’ve looked online and could only come up with answers for the audio card and nVidia-related hardware; my problem is conveniently named the “Squeal of Death.” Is there any way

I can fix this with my current hardware configuration? Or will I have to get new hardware?
—Kavan Scott

Kavan, there are a few possible fixes for your issue. The first is that the 300W PSU you’re using is simply not powerful enough to run your system, which you used to run on a 450W PSU. That’s a big decrease in wattage. Try a new PSU at or above 450W—that should solve the problem. The other possibility is that your old PSU’s explosive death fried one or several of your computer parts. Try removing the audio card and running your computer with onboard sound instead. Same goes for the videocard—try swapping in an old card to see if that solves the problem. Before you swap out all your hardware though, start with the PSU.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.

COMMENTS:5

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I look at wattage first,
Submitted by pcwizmtl on Sun, 04/12/2009 - 5:25am

I look at wattage first, amperage second. Nowadays I wouldn't suggest less than 550W with 22 amps per rail on tri-rail PSU's and a good 60amps on single rail PSU's.

Anything less is asking for trouble IMO.

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The reader needs to learn
Submitted by pcfxer on Sat, 04/11/2009 - 6:46am

The reader needs to learn about high quality and low quality power supplies. A 350W Seasonic (high quality) will serve his purpose just fine as I have many servers with similar specs running off 350W SSs. More watts doesn't matter if they aren't good quality watts.

Hence, my usual current is more important than watts argument. Antec, PC P&C, Seasonic, OCZ are some well regarded names. btw, my Antec Smartpower2.0 550 would be very inefficient at powering the listed system. That system probably pulls 160W at full load. "450w or above" is like a scape goat answer. Having the reader understand what is good and what is bad is tough, but necessary to properly answer the question.

My favourite line is the Modu+ from Enermax and Antec Signature, very, very high quality products.

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umm
Submitted by score master on Fri, 04/10/2009 - 8:52pm

That's why he said to start with the PSU, then if it is the problem, then he'll know and wont worry about the GPU...

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Can't removing something
Submitted by n0ctis on Fri, 04/10/2009 - 6:34pm

Can't removing something like the video card reduce power consumption giving a false positive on the card when it could still be the PSU?

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but he only recomended that
Submitted by nekollx on Sat, 04/11/2009 - 7:33am

but he only recomended that AFTER the psu was put at 450 (like the old system) so you cant get a false positive that way. The other posters are right that if he has a quality PSU he can use lower wats but the trick is naming a quality PSU without knowing a working budget, thus "lets try what worked before" the reader will know the budget for his old part though and was half expecting it anyway.

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