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

Posted 04/10/2009 at 5:00pm | by The Maximum PC Staff

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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.