Power Supply Question about XP Barton 2500
 

Currently, I have a 1.5 year old 350W Sparkle power supply. In the PC
is:

Sparkle 350W power supply from other computer 1.5 years old
Asus A7V8X-X
AMD Barton 2500 XP
1024 RAM 2x512 333 corsair valueselect
40GB Maxtor 7200
120GB Maxtor 7200
CDRW
DVD-RW
two larger fans in the antec lanboy case

I have tried three motherboards before I decided it was the power
supply. I welcome corrections.

All mobos kept rebooting. Mostly when I added a second stick of th
512. So, I suspected the RAM, timing, etc. One mobo thought it was
the mem. slot. Finally, on the third mobo, the pc would get "stuck"
not post, nothing. I removed a RAM module it would boot, but sometimes
still fail. I then put two other sticks from old machine that worked
well 2100 256 & 128. Same problem. Hangs, no POST or boot. Finally,
eight year old suggested it was that thing that I put in there from the
other computer (power supply.)

I put the 2x512 333 memory back in. I unplugged one 120 secondary hard
drive. The system booted, almost every time. I then took the lead
that was plugged into the 40 and put its extra power lead on the 120.
It booted again. Maybe that separate lead was bad?

In any case, I believe it is the power supply. What should I have for
the system? Evidently, mine isn't good enough. Any other suggestions
are welcome. Thank you for reading this longer post.

Borrow a power Supply and test it.

350watts is more than enough for your system.


Might have a bad stick of ram or the ram is not seated properly.


On 13 Jan 2005 09:35:06 -0800, wrote:

Currently, I have a 1.5 year old 350W Sparkle power supply. In the PC
is:

Sparkle 350W power supply from other computer 1.5 years old
Asus A7V8X-X
AMD Barton 2500 XP
1024 RAM 2x512 333 corsair valueselect
40GB Maxtor 7200
120GB Maxtor 7200
CDRW
DVD-RW
two larger fans in the antec lanboy case

I have tried three motherboards before I decided it was the power
supply. I welcome corrections.

All mobos kept rebooting. Mostly when I added a second stick of th
512. So, I suspected the RAM, timing, etc. One mobo thought it was
the mem. slot. Finally, on the third mobo, the pc would get "stuck"
not post, nothing. I removed a RAM module it would boot, but sometimes
still fail. I then put two other sticks from old machine that worked
well 2100 256 & 128. Same problem. Hangs, no POST or boot. Finally,
eight year old suggested it was that thing that I put in there from the
other computer (power supply.)

I put the 2x512 333 memory back in. I unplugged one 120 secondary hard
drive. The system booted, almost every time. I then took the lead
that was plugged into the 40 and put its extra power lead on the 120.
It booted again. Maybe that separate lead was bad?

In any case, I believe it is the power supply. What should I have for
the system? Evidently, mine isn't good enough. Any other suggestions
are welcome. Thank you for reading this longer post.

I tried it with a totally different set of RAM a 256 and a 128. I had
the exact same results. As best I could tell, they were all properly
seated.

Check the website of the RAM manufacture and see what the voltage specs are.
I had the same problem with my Gigabyte motherboard and a 465W power supply.
After spending the money to replace the power supply, the problem persisted.
Checked the Mushkin website and found that 2.5V was the MINIMUM operating
voltage of my RAM, up to 2.8v. The machine ran fine with one stick at 2.5V,
adding the second stick crashed it repeatedly. Increased the voltage to 2.7V
and its been stable ever since.

Fitz

That is difficult on Corsair's sight, but am trying do figure it out.
It is set at 7-3-3-2.5 at the moment. If I change the 2.5, do I change
the other three values? I am posting on the corsair forum, but not
hopeful for an answer. Also, why would it blow up with the other
sticks or RAM? Thanks again.

On 13 Jan 2005 09:35:06 -0800,
wrote:

Currently, I have a 1.5 year old 350W Sparkle power supply. In the PC
is:

Sparkle 350W power supply from other computer 1.5 years old
Asus A7V8X-X
AMD Barton 2500 XP
1024 RAM 2x512 333 corsair valueselect
40GB Maxtor 7200
120GB Maxtor 7200
CDRW
DVD-RW
two larger fans in the antec lanboy case

I have tried three motherboards before I decided it was the power
supply. I welcome corrections.

What do the motherboard's health monitor screens report for
voltage levels? Have you a multimeter you can check
against?

I agree with another poster, a 350W Sparkle should power
those parts, though you didn't mention the video card which
is often the 2nd or 3rd most power hungry part. Even so,
it'd take quite a video card to overload the PSU that much.

just ati radeon 7500. I believe you guys. It's just the third
motherboard and I am tired of doing this and I called MS this time to
get my activation code. I don't think they will do it again (already
did it automatically before this a few days ago with fresh install.)
At one time, I saw it was 4.99 5.00 with mobo software, so I guess it
is right on.

The values you list are not the DDR voltage. Those are timing settings. The
2.5 is CAS latency. To check the voltage, check the BIOS of your motherboard
(see your manual, or the motherboard website). That is also where the
adjustment (if available) will be. Another way the check the voltage is with
Everest Home Edition, which is a free download, and will tell you all kinds
of information about you system. I made no mention of anything "blowing
up"...just crashing (either back to the desktop, or rebooting).

Fitz

Fitz wrote:
The values you list are not the DDR voltage. Those are timing
settings. The
2.5 is CAS latency. To check the voltage, check the BIOS of your
motherboard
(see your manual, or the motherboard website). That is also where the

adjustment (if available) will be. Another way the check the voltage
is with
Everest Home Edition, which is a free download, and will tell you all
kinds
of information about you system. I made no mention of anything
"blowing
up"...just crashing (either back to the desktop, or rebooting).

Fitz

I know you asked about memory, but here is what my software utility
reports about the motherboard:


11.712
4.999
3.248
1.536 vcore

37C