System Crashing: Video Card Problem?

[Samuel85]

I recently just replaced my old GeForce4 Ti4600 with a new Geforce4 6600GT! I am very impressed and it is a great card. Also, at the same time I purchased two new sticks of Corsair DDR, giving me 1.5 gigs of RAM, which makes all the more difference. But....

First off I only have an older 400 watt Raidmax power supply, which I had to use a supplemental power connector for my video card to make it work fully. Sometimes, when I first start or am playing a part of a game that puts stress on my system, such as excessive rendering or loading, the screen goes black and my system crashes and doesn't register any video. Also, the sound functions like the system is frozen (stops on one sound). It just sits like this with a black monitor not registering any video....a video card problem? Or something else? Also, just hitting the restart button doesn't make it re-boot, I have to turn the computer fully off then back on again. Hmmm.....

[Snod Blatter]

Originally Posted by Samuel85 Also, just hitting the restart button doesn't make it re-boot, I have to turn the computer fully off then back on again. Hmmm.....

Sounds like a PSU problem... the 6600GT is going to draw considerably more current than the Ti4600 did. If you can, test it with a more powerful PSU and see if the problem goes away...

[kram 2.0]

Even though the 6600GT's sys requirements say 350W, I think you're running power overload. Raidmax is not known for quality power supply units. With a replacement, be sure that the power supply has a 20-pin mainboard connector as opposed to the more recent 24-pin connector. Thermaltake and Enlight make relatively inexpensive solid PSUs.

kram