White screen of death?!

sherpasherpa stopcommandermode Join Date: 2006-11-04 Member: 58338Members
edited November 2008 in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">more tech help plz</div>A few weeks back my second Antec PSU exploded. As 2 out of 2 Antec's have destroyed theirselves spectacularly I went to the local PC shop and bought a Jeantech PSU. Since the explosion I get (mostly) white screen's of death with annoying regularity.

I'll be in game or just browsing when the screen turns into a one-tone colour- usually white or beige. The computer responds for a few seconds before locking up.

A couple of times after rebooting windows tells me there was an error with nv4disp.dll (my graphics card display driver).

Temperatures of graphics card and cpu are fine; after rebooting it's no more likely to crash again (not temp related?)

Ran a Windows memtest, only ran it 150% but no errors, removed one of two RAM sticks still get the blank screen, too lazy to test the other RAM chip!

Any ideas what's the problem? I'm guessing graphics card got fried, the new PSU isn't good enough, or the HDD might have frazzled itself?

Think ebuyer.com offer a 12 month warantee so hopefully I can get it RMA'd.

Cheers!
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Comments

  • XythXyth Avatar Join Date: 2003-11-04 Member: 22312Members
    Well I believe the problem is quite obvious, Your new PSU is not powerful enough.
    What are your system specs?
    What is the wattage rating of your new PSU?
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  • FaskaliaFaskalia Wechsellichtzeichenanlage Join Date: 2004-09-12 Member: 31651Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1694515:date=Nov 27 2008, 07:50 PM:name=Xyth)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Xyth @ Nov 27 2008, 07:50 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1694515"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Well I believe the problem is quite obvious, Your new PSU is not powerful enough.
    What are your system specs?
    What is the wattage rating of your new PSU?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Symptoms would match that diagnosis.

    CPU+GPU+PSU info please.

    And then a rough summary of everything else that also gets powered by your PSU. (USB devices (especially external harddiscs that run from 2 USB ports and also USB powered speakers are worth mentioning)
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  • HazeHaze O RLY? Join Date: 2003-07-07 Member: 18018Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1694515:date=Nov 27 2008, 01:50 PM:name=Xyth)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Xyth @ Nov 27 2008, 01:50 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1694515"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Your new PSU is not powerful enough.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Sometimes the most obvious answer is overlooked. My friend was building his PC and could not for the life of him figure out why it wouldn't turn on. EVERYTHING was where it should be, neat and fit, trim, the power supply could handle the equipment, hell we even tried different sockets. Finally, I ask him:

    "Dude, did you turn on the power supply?"

    "...you have to do that?"

    He flicks the switch and everything works like a charm.
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  • sherpasherpa stopcommandermode Join Date: 2006-11-04 Member: 58338Members
    New PSU is 500w but the voltage values aren't as good as the Antec one.

    e8200 @ 2.88GHz (but had an overclock fail today so put it back to 2.66GHz)
    512Mb 8800GT, OC'd by the company that makes them.

    Razer Deathadder attached to a USB, no other peripherals.

    Thanks for the help!
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  • RobRob Unknown Enemy Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 25Members, NS1 Playtester
    Yeah, that's quite a bit of hardware to run on 500W, but wattage isn't everything with PSUs, either. What you really want is constant DC current and voltages. Unfortunately, there aren't any really good standard metrics posted on PSUs for those specs. If you stick with good brands and check the comments before you buy, you should be okay, though.

    While what you posted would probably run on the 500W, I would imagine any other peripherals/hardware (DVD, USB, etc) push it over the top. Also if you want to overclock, you need to be <i>especially</i> careful about maintaining proper power. If I were you, I'd overbuy on the PSU can get maybe an 700-800W that has a lot of good comments, just because it's important.

    The bad news is you may have already damaged some of your hardware with two previous PSU burn outs and this new one.
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  • DrfuzzyDrfuzzy FEW... MORE.... INCHES... Join Date: 2003-09-21 Member: 21094Members
    edited December 2008
    Sound to be a video card issue, run ati tool and let it burn in for a long time, its a great stress test. Make sure you have all your settings in your bios correct and nothing overclocked also, some cards like sapphire overclock their cards to near-max by default and can get pretty hot. Going though 2 PSU's sounds like you have some hardware thats drawing too much current and frying them, either you have a bad piece of hardware somewhere or your not using a big enough PSU
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  • sherpasherpa stopcommandermode Join Date: 2006-11-04 Member: 58338Members
    edited February 2009
    <!--quoteo(post=1695559:date=Dec 8 2008, 03:29 AM:name=Drfuzzy)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Drfuzzy @ Dec 8 2008, 03:29 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695559"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Sound to be a video card issue, run ati tool and let it burn in for a long time, its a great stress test. Make sure you have all your settings in your bios correct and nothing overclocked also, some cards like sapphire overclock their cards to near-max by default and can get pretty hot. Going though 2 PSU's sounds like you have some hardware thats drawing too much current and frying them, either you have a bad piece of hardware somewhere or your not using a big enough PSU<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Is there an nVidia equivalent? (Edit- I see it works for nVidia too I'll give it a go)

    Funny story- I sent the PSU back to Antec. They used an intermediate company for transport who instead of giving the replacement to me have sent it to ebuyer... who have lost it.

    Yay!

    So the reason for this thread revival is I'm asking if there's a way to stress test my GFX card? I'd be gutted if I spent £50 on a PSU but found out it was the GFX card that was dead!

    (After my initial crash ~10mins after booting up I can play games like TF2 with no problems,- indicative of PSU problem over GFX? Is there such a thing as the PSU having to "warm up" before sending out steady wattage?)

    [EDIT]

    Interesting, I googled "500w Antec PSU broke" to see if people had complained of the same model blowing up and the first hit is <a href="http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103937" target="_blank">http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx...N82E16817103937</a> . This is the exact same model I have- everyone says it breaks!
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