Spaztic_Reaper

Ok, my friend has recently started to have problems with his pc. Whenever he starts a 3D game he says there is a clicking sound coming from the computer, the application runs, but if he tried putting in his sapphire x850xt, the pc usually shuts down within a couple minutes after coming to the desktop, this happens everytime, and he does have the most recent drivers for it.

Here's the specs w/o the sapphire card:

AMD Athlon 64 dual core 4200 2.2ghz
2 Gigs RAM
Samsung 350GB Sata HDD
Rosewill 450W PSU
GeForce 6120 LE onboard gfx.

He can't see any wires near the fans that may cause the clicking either.
Thx for your time.

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

BlueMak

What do you mean "if he tried putting in his sapphire x850xt"???

Clicking noises usualy come from an about to die hard disk drive. A graphics card can't do such noises unless it has a problematic fan.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

kris23

PSU sounds to be the problem, a system restarts or shuts down if the PSU is giving out.

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Spaztic_Reaper

By putting his sapphire x850xt in i meant by installing the card and installing the drivers for it, but each time he did this the comp would shut down a couple minutes after coming to the desktop. I doubt his HDD is dying, it's brand new, but then again so is the power supply. I think you may be right kris, cuz that would explain why it shuts down when the card is installed since it draws more power thru the 6 pin connector.

__________________
And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

are the Nvidia drivers fully removed i suggest getting a freeware version of Drivercleaner to clean this system up just in case its a BSOD thats doing this...

that or reformat the system

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Spaztic_Reaper

Yeah, I'm gonna have him do that next, don't believe he ever thot of it. He hasnt seen any BSODs, and could driver mixups be the cause of the clicking as well? His psu is barely a month old.

__________________
And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

well it could be a dud... it happens

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BlueMak

So you mean the problems appear only when you use the specific graphics card? What about the clicking noise, only then too?
If both yes and if the card works on other PCs then it does sound like a PSU issue, perhaps.
If the clicking noise takes place 850 or not, then I still say it sounds like a probably bad hard drive, new or not it matters not.
The PSU should in theory be able to provide enough power to the system, unless of course there is something wrong with it or it is a very bad PSU (of the very inneficient variety, not the "bad bad boy" variety).
Of course it is possible, if the clicking noise appears whether or not the newer graphics card is installed, that both the HDD and PSU are responsible.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

OldBuzzard

If I remember correctly (remember I'm old), the X850 was fairly 'power hungry".

Now going to the Rosewill site, and looking at the specs on all of the 450W PSUs listed, and looking at Newegg, and seeing the Stalion Series 450 as the only one available, and taking the risk of ass-u-me-ing that it is the PSU that he is using...one thing stands out. 14A on one 12v and 16A on the other. That's kinda marginal. Couple that with the fact that on Rosewill's site, the only reference to temperature is 25C, which is lower than you will EVER see in actual use, and since a PSU's performance degrades with a rise in tempature...I'm gonna say that he needs a better quality PSU.

Tell him to bite the bullet, and spend the extra $$ for a high quality PSU, like the Corsair 450VX (33A on the 12v tested at 50C), or similar. They will have the AMPERAGE to do the job, and will most likely cure his problem.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Spaztic_Reaper

Well he managed to get it working when the card is not installed, it was just a drivers problem, after i had him sweep the ati drivers and reboot with the nvidia ones installed it all worked fine, I'll tell him to check into a better psu once he decides to reinstall his x850 or get a better gfx card, thanks for all the help.

__________________
And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."