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Qestion for experts

C

casinostrat

Landlubber
Hey guys I need some computer advice. In the past, I have not had any serious graphics issues, and have been able to run basically any game I want to. Most of the ones I play are older and are not real graphics hogs, probably the most intense graphics wise being Napoleon Total War with the Darth Mod installed, and Silent Hunter IV with the Run Silent Run Deep and Trigger Maru mods installed. I could run these with the graphics settings maxed out with no problem at all. I always try and keep my drivers updated and all that type of thing. Now for the problem....... a few weeks ago, I noticed that whenever I start doing some sort of heavy graphicical application, the screen would freeze, and often it would not come unfroze and I had to reboot. this started happening most frequently when playing heavy graphic games. Now however things have gotten much worse. Now the screen freezes for a few seconds and then my monitor flashes "Auto Detect: Entering Power Save" and goes Black. the computer itself does not shut down and I can still hear it running and the power light is on, but it is totally unresponsive and I am forced to cut power and reboot. This happens now when I do just little stuff, like trying to play a youtube video, or going on a internet page with adds that have animation or video. Needless to say playing games is out of the question under these circumstances. I cannot play Mount and Blade, The Build Mod, COAS, or any thing else. As long As there are no heavy graphics then everything works fine. The reason that I think that this is possible my Graphics card going bad is I went in and disabled the graphics card, and the problem stopped completely, and while I couldn't play any real heavy graphics games, at least I got no Auto detect entering Power save when trying to watch videos or anything with animation. But when I reenable the Card, the problem returns. What do you guys think?

Here are my Specs
Dell Inspirion 530
Windows XP Service Pack 3
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2.4 Ghz
ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

Any more info needed just let me know
Any help appreciated!
 
Try taking the casing off, running one of those high end games, and check the temperature of your card once it borks. The error message you're getting makes me doubt it's an overheating problem, but it's worth checking. What's more likely, judging by the message, is that your power supply is failing. If it IS overheating i can actually help, since i've had the same problem a while ago. You could also try to check for any info on that card you've got, like any known hardware issues it might have.
 
Morgan Terror said:
Try taking the casing off, running one of those high end games, and check the temperature of your card once it borks. The error message you're getting makes me doubt it's an overheating problem, but it's worth checking. What's more likely, judging by the message, is that your power supply is failing. If it IS overheating i can actually help, since i've had the same problem a while ago. You could also try to check for any info on that card you've got, like any known hardware issues it might have.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply man! Yeah I thought of the power supply going bad as well, but the fact that it only seems to do the auto detect entering power save thing when I'm doing any kind of heavy graphics led me to suspect the graphics card going bad, plus the fact that when I disable the card the trouble goes away. As far as hardware issues go with the card I have, I have looked all over the net trying to track down any kind of hardware issues and haven't found any yet. I'll check the temperature today and see if it is overheating. Assuming it is the power supply failing,what could be done about that? Can power supplies be replaced?
 
There should be some bolts on the back of your PC that hold it in place, unless you've got a machine where everything's integrated. Just be sure to get the wattage and connectors right when you order a new one, or just get the same model if you can. As for the overheating, you can actually have a go at fixing that. If it's not any of the fans (which is pretty easy to check) then it's probably your card's thermal paste. Replacing it means you'll have to take the card apart which might break the thing, but it's better than buying a new one straight away. What you'd be looking for is a kind of grey goo that's been put on top of the processors, which has probably dried up. You can get a tube of the stuff at PC stores. i know i could. Just remove the old paste with alcohol or somesuch and replace with a little bit of new paste. Just don't try to scratch it off.
 
Well I checked the temperature on and off throughout the day yesterday, while doing all kinds of different things, including trying to run some heavy graphics games. Sometimes it would enter power save immediately upon trying to load the game, some times it would once I had a scene change in game, such as walking into a tavern in COAS, and sometimes just seem to randomly enter power save for no reason. I opened the case on the computer to check things out and also downloaded two different applications to tell me the temperature of my hardware components. The highest temperature I recorded for my graphics card all day was 78 degrees celcius, which if I understand correctly, is not all that hot. Looking more and more like power supply failure, I believe.
 
Or the card itself is just going bad. Best thing is to just see if you can scavenge a similar graphics card or power supply from somewhere and see if it works better with the replacement, but you should focus on the power consumption/supply for the sake of testing rather than quality. Wouldn't buy a replacement just yet until you're completely sure what it is.
 
Would your cpu by any chance be a Q6600? If so, it is possible to overclock it from 2.4ghz to 3 ghz with a little bit of tape. You might want to do a search on how to do that.

The stock PSU for that computer appears to have a capacity of 300 watts. That is dangerously weak and could be your problem. My quad core computer came with a 500 watt PSU and when I upgraded the video card it didn't have enough power causing many ctd's.

It now has an 850 watt PSU and runs well with a VERY power hungry video card which uses two full size power dongles.
 
Thanks for the help Guys!

Morgan- Yeah I strongly suspect the card itself of being the culprit, I'm looking into seeing if I can scavenge up a power supply, or a spare Graphics card and trying them to help narrow down exactly what the problem is. Just to leave no stone unturned yesterday I cut the power to the computer completely off, unplugged everything, and opened up the side. I checked all the plugs and cords for damage, cleaned as much dust as I could out of the inside and made sure the graphics card was securely plugged into its slot. Then I carefully plugged everything back in, restored power, and fooled around on it to see if it still gave me the "autodetect entering power save" error. Right in the middle of trying to board a sloop I got the error, so I guess its still with me.

Hylie- Yeah my CPU is a Q6600. I'll read up on how to overclock it, doesn't sound too difficult. I need to check and see what the wattage is on my PSU. I'm thinking it could be 300 watts since I remember reading the number of watts on it when I had the computer open yesterday while I was cleaning it.
 
if it really is only 300 watts then that would be the problem, yeah. The thing i've got is quite old already and needs 600 or so.
 
casinostrat said:
Thanks for the help Guys!

Morgan- Yeah I strongly suspect the card itself of being the culprit, I'm looking into seeing if I can scavenge up a power supply, or a spare Graphics card and trying them to help narrow down exactly what the problem is. Just to leave no stone unturned yesterday I cut the power to the computer completely off, unplugged everything, and opened up the side. I checked all the plugs and cords for damage, cleaned as much dust as I could out of the inside and made sure the graphics card was securely plugged into its slot. Then I carefully plugged everything back in, restored power, and fooled around on it to see if it still gave me the "autodetect entering power save" error. Right in the middle of trying to board a sloop I got the error, so I guess its still with me.

Hylie- Yeah my CPU is a Q6600. I'll read up on how to overclock it, doesn't sound too difficult. I need to check and see what the wattage is on my PSU. I'm thinking it could be 300 watts since I remember reading the number of watts on it when I had the computer open yesterday while I was cleaning it.
Click to expand...

It could be the monitor. Power Save mode isn't related to the card, its when the connection between your monitor and the card is disrupted and the monitor decides to stop functioning until it receives a connection... similar to a way when a computer goes to standby or hibernates and the monitor is not physically turned off.

Computing.net is a great place to diagnose computer problems. You can find me occasionally there answering peoples computer issues.

I've been fixing computers for many a years... and in my experience when video cards fail... its blatantly obvious. Drivers crashing, screen flickers, and none of the items you've stated seem to state its the video card.
Check the wires to the monitor.

It could also potentially be your CPU losing power to supply the card. OCCT is a good program at determining temperatures and will let you run a load test on your vcard. Check the cables that go to the card. If your power supply has 2 different cables that can be connected to the vcard, you should switch it. I've had a connector go bad on a power supply wire.
 
Morgan Terror said:
if it really is only 300 watts then that would be the problem, yeah. The thing i've got is quite old already and needs 600 or so.
Click to expand...

Yeah it ran fine for a long time, but the computer is getting a little age on it, (5 years old) and could gradually be loosing functionality.

Catts said:
It could be the monitor. Power Save mode isn't related to the card, its when the connection between your monitor and the card is disrupted and the monitor decides to stop functioning until it receives a connection... similar to a way when a computer goes to standby or hibernates and the monitor is not physically turned off.

Computing.net is a great place to diagnose computer problems. You can find me occasionally there answering peoples computer issues.

I've been fixing computers for many a years... and in my experience when video cards fail... its blatantly obvious. Drivers crashing, screen flickers, and none of the items you've stated seem to state its the video card.
Check the wires to the monitor.

It could also potentially be your CPU losing power to supply the card. OCCT is a good program at determining temperatures and will let you run a load test on your vcard. Check the cables that go to the card. If your power supply has 2 different cables that can be connected to the vcard, you should switch it. I've had a connector go bad on a power supply wire.
Click to expand...

I have been on computing.net, and its a great site! I get on there and read posts I think are interesting, since I am one of those guys that likes to mess around with computers and I can usually find what I need to know either at computing.net or computerhope.com. Your comments about the power cable going to the card were interesting, because unless I simply missed it there is no cord running into that graphics card. it is simply connected into the slot where it is supposed to go , with no other cords running to it. Should there be a cord running to it? The card is an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT.


Well guys I been kinda busy this past two days so I haven't worked on this issue, but tomorrow I plan on doing two things to try and narrow down the problem. First I'm going to pull off the side panel and look and see exactly how many watts that power supply is equipped for. Just out of curiosity, is there a way to determine this without actually opening the computer up and reading the label? Secondly, I managed to get a hold of another monitor, so I'm gonna plug it in and see if I still have the problem. more and more I'm leaning toward the idea that it is not the graphics card. I was thinking about it yesterday, and I remembered one time I had a computer, (not this one, but another one) that did without a doubt have a graphics card that went bad. Just like Catts said, it was very obvious, since you had strange graphics, flickering screens, freezes and pirates with 4 heads and six legs! :shrug I don't have any of that with this, the screen just simply goes black while saying "auto-detect entering power save" Don't know if it means anything, but the computer is set up for three users to use, and it happens quite often when switching from one user to the other, though it happens at other times as well. Well hopefully if I keep working on it eventually something will help. If it comes down to something like the graphics card being replaced (less and less likely IMHO), I can do that since I have done it before, and If the power supply needs replaced, I can probably do that once I read up on it.

Thanks for all the advice guys, this site rocks!
 
Not all cards have an external power supply, or need one. Many of them have two slots for monitor cables though, so you could try connecting your monitor to a different port if you have one.
 
Catts: That could very well be the problem. It has only happened around me once before. Someone's graphic card was fine, but the cable going to the monitor was bad. He put bungee cords on the cable to hold it in exactly the position it needed to be in to work.
 
Quick update: I just took the side off the computer to examine the power supply. It says: "Lite On Model No. PS-6351-2 DC Output 350 watts. The maximum continuous output power ( 5v & 3.3v Excluding the 5v auxilary output) is 160 watts. The maximum continous combined output power (12va and 12 vb) is 300 watts." Everything else is in Chinese, so I don't know what it means, but apparently the maximum output for this power supply is around 300-350 watts? That could be lower if the unit iself is going bad. Also I disconnected and checked the cable that runs between the computer and the monitor, checking it over pretty closely to see if there are any flaws in the cable. everything appeared to be in order, so I reconnected everything again, and I also used the second slot on the graphics card to plug my monitor into, since it has two seperate slots. Still get the same old auto detect error, confound it. I'm getting ready to switch monitors and try that next, and see what happens.

Oh yeah I got another interesting little issue that started today. Before I took everthing apart today, I was trying to play a game and got the usual auto detect entering power save error. When I rebooted, the computer went into a CHKDSK on my C Drive, and after it finished that it started normally. That happened twice this morning and up till today it hadn't been doing that. So, thats something else I may have to deal with. Well I'm gonna try the other monitor out now, and see what happens.
 
I think it's the power supply that needs upgrading. 300 watts is really not much these days, although your GPU does use only 184 watts at most, which should be the main source of power consumption. i hope you find the problem quickly, since you're risking long term damage.
 
it could be a lot of things from the problems you described but my bet is that the graphic card just broke down. A broken power supply usually burns out and you can smell it, power cables are the last thing that will broke down but it could happen, find another graphic card with the same power requiements (or less) and try it on, and try your card on another computer if you can... if not well then you have to buy new parts...start with the graphic card
 
Well guys, I tried using another monitor ad still got the same error, So I guess it must be either the graphics card or the power supply. For a while the other minitor seemed to solve the problem, but right in the middle of a battle while playing Mount and Blade, it did the same thing its been doing: auto detect entering power save error. I went ahead and plugged the old monitor back into place and then decided to disable the graphics card and try the integrated graphics for a while. I fiddled around with it for about two hours, doing all sorts of stuff and got no errors! However, I switched to safe mode, re-enabled the graphics card, restarted the computer and the same errors returned. Also, before I even tried the other monitor I got the dreaded BSOD with a page fault in non paged area message, which is never good. I'm busily looking up exactly what that kind of message on the BSOD means. I think my next step is going to be to replace the graphics card. I can get a new one relatively cheap (between 50-75 U.S. dollars) and I'm willing to invest that much in seeing if it fixes the problem.
 
Good News!!!!! I think I may have fixed the problem!!!! what I did was this: instead of ordering a brand new graphics card, just decided to do a complete reinstall of the old one. I uninstalled all the drivers and everything graphics card related, even did a registry edit to make sure I got it all. Then I unplugged everything and actually physically removed the graphics card from the computer, took it out in a room with a lot of natural light to see with, and gave it a real good cleaning. The fan on the graphics card was filthy, and I used tweezers to remove a huge (3-4 inches long) wad of dust and fuzzy from the fan itself. I could never do this before because the graphics card was was in an awkward position in the computer, and it simply could not be cleaned nearly as effectively while inside. I figure removing that wad of junk has to at least let the fan run better, if nothing else. After I finished cleaning it I carefully placed it back in the slot and put everything back together, then used the disk that came with the card to install on to the system. After that I went to the Card makers website and downloaded the latest drivers, and disabled my antivirus while installing them, just to be sure. After I did all this I restarted and so far, in two and a half hours of doing all sorts of stuff, including playing some games that used to cause trouble quite frequently, no errors. Fan sounds much stronger and better as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and I personally won't consider it truly "fixed" until I can go at least a week without any auto detect errors, but things are certainly looking up! :onya
 
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