OK, recently, roughly since I replaced a couple of HDs in my system, I have been having some odd issues. Loss of network connectivity, even though the cable is plugged in, and shows a link light, Win reports no connection. Trying to change the network properties will cause the machine to lock up, eventually going to a black screen, with no error messages, until I finally either hit reset, or power off and back on. Here's what I've got in the machine, starting with the power supply: 550w power supply eVGA 680i SLI motherboard Intel Core2 Duo e6600 4GB DDR2-800 RAM (4x1GB) PNY 8800GTS 640MB vid card Creative X-Fi Fatality soundcard 16x DVD-ROM DVD+-RW w/Lightscribe 2 200GB Western Digital SATAII drives 2 250GB Western Digital SATAII drives 1 160GB Maxtor SATAII drive 3 120mm fans 3 80mm fans Sound like maybe I've got just too much on the power supply? Or am I sniffing around the wrong tree? Thanks
it depends on the make of the power supply... if its a cheapie... you very well could be overloading it. If its a good brand, 550 should be enough for now. The C2D is pretty light on the power usage, and the 5 hdds get started up so the idle current isnt *too* bad.
PS is an Ultra X-Connect, if that helps.... Actually today saw my first graphic glitch on startup, at the green Vista loading screen, for just a second, saw a black "tear" going about 1/3 the way across the screen, cleared up almost as soon as I saw, and seemed to be working OK.
Its doesn't really sound like a PSU problem, but you do have an awful lot of hardware for a 550W PSU. To try & rule out the PSU just unplug unnecessary items, like the hard drives, DVD drives & remove PCI card plus 2 sticks of RAM. See if the PC becomes more stable if you do this.
