Topic: Dude - my comp's a Dell!

[Lono]

Well - I probably did a bad thing and tried to upgrade my Dell and it's 350 W proprietary power supply with a GTS 250 Nvidia V-Card.

I was pretty psyched because I was able to run L4D2 and games like BF2: Bad Company but now my comp is getting real squirlly and I was wondering if one of you experts here might know what is happening to my formally stable system.

Essentially - after I play L4D2 for a couple of hours - I don't really notice any degredation in performance or framerate - but when I close the game my computer is basically unresponsive for at least 2-3 minutes.

I thought - no BFD - I can live with that - but after playing a few rounds of Bad Company 2 - my computer Blue Screened for the first time in over 5 years - and I had to hard re-boot it.

Soo...  Am I frying my system trying to play these newer graphic intensive games - or is there some memory or hard drive tweak I can do to fix performance?

The main thing I do not want to do is burn out my mobo, chip, or HD - that would really suck!

Any advice from any of you Computer Savants would be really appreciated!

[Javora]

How old is your Dell system?  Dell switched to a non-proprietary format a couple of years ago.  The fact that your system is running at all with the new power supply makes me wonder if you bought the system after the change.  Is the power supply the only thing you changed?  Did the unresponsiveness that takes place for a couple of minutes happen before you changed the power supply?  The first thing I would do is check the connectors and see if one of them is loose.  When your computer blue screens what does the error message say?  When you are checking the cable connectors, take a look at the PCB and see if there is any cracks or breaks in the tracing.  Hope this helps.

[Lono]

Thanks for the response.

No, well, unfortunately I'm running a Dell 8400 - so it's still using the old school proprietary original psu...

(a new non-dell one won't fit in the case)

The only upgrade I did was going from an nvidia 6800 to a GTS 250 - definately improving my graphics...

I did check the internals for loose connections and/or dirt build up but didn't find anything..

I haven't unplugged and replugged my ram - but I am concerned their is heat buildup maybe - would that cause a temporary noticable slowdown after gaming??

Is there any good free app for monitoring heat?  I'm running a 3.4 P4 single core chip with no o/cing.

[kbf-jd]

From Nvidia's web site... http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_250_us.html

Minimum Recommended System Power (W) 450  W

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&q=dell+8400+power+supply+upgrade&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=M6q7S9GHKIzM8wTYgc2FCA&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDcQrQQwAg

460 watt power supplys seem to run almost $90 us.

Dell underrates their power supplies in most cases.  But it seems if you are pushing it a bit too far.

There are people that say a standard ATX ps will work fine.  There are also people that say there is a propritary 6 pin connector in there.  But they also say some people either have found adaptors or saved the old plug from their current power supply and made their own adaptor.

Another $90 + the vid card is a lot to put in a machine that old...  You might think of upgrading the lot.  You can use the vid card in a new machine...(unless it's the AGP version...)

but with a little searching I bet you can find a good fit...

jd

[kbf-jd]

PS...

heat, heat, heat...

take a can of compessed air and blow out your ENTIRE case.  Make sure to clean the CPU fan and heat sink.

Make sure ALL fans are working.

Your GPU puts out much more heat than the old units, you have got to make sure it gets out of the case...

Dells often have a 120 MM fan on the back with a cowling that pulls the heat off the cpu.  They use a big heat sink with no fan attached(to make the computer more quiet).  make sure that is all working...

[Javora]

The last time I checked Zelman sold a converter cable for standard power supplies to work with Dell boxes.  Should cost around $10~$20 USD.  Hope this helps.

[Lono]

Cool! - Thanks for all the great advice everyone - I had mistakenly thought my dell had a 450 PSU - because my old windows 98 box I had retired in my basement had a 450 W in it.

(and it won't seem to fit in the 8400 case)

I will blow it all out and re-check the fans again - I do need to upgrade but my car is now 11 years old and it's got to be replaced first...

 

Saw the new mega-comp in maximum pc's latest issue and it made me quite envious - but I don't think I'd shell out $7,800 for a computer ever when you can O/C a $2,000 one to run almost as good every time.

I'll report back my results after a good cleaning and fan check - and a another needed HDD defrag too.

Thanks!!

[stoneyface]

i love maximum pc mag and have had a subscription for years, i trust their judgment. good luck to you on this issue. i would agree that heat sounds like a good culprit, could be other things tho. i would have to test to make sure unfortunately

[kbf-jd]

Cool! - Thanks for all the great advice everyone - I had mistakenly thought my dell had a 450 PSU - because my old windows 98 box I had retired in my basement had a 450 W in it.

(and it won't seem to fit in the 8400 case)

I will blow it all out and re-check the fans again - I do need to upgrade but my car is now 11 years old and it's got to be replaced first...

 

Saw the new mega-comp in maximum pc's latest issue and it made me quite envious - but I don't think I'd shell out $7,800 for a computer ever when you can O/C a $2,000 one to run almost as good every time.

I'll report back my results after a good cleaning and fan check - and a another needed HDD defrag too.

Thanks!!

Acutally, I never buy a $2000 computer.  I avoid the $2000 computer because it will be the $500 computer in 6 months.  In most cases you can get 80% of the computing power at about 30& of the price.  If you are able to even run the games you are running now on a p4, you will be very happy running them on an intel e7500/e8500...