Nvidia Geforce 8400 GS issue updated and issue worse 1/16/09

[ruiner]

The other day i got a sparkle Geforce nvidia 8400 PCI card. Every once and awhile it will freeze and crash the game or fill up with odd texures or go green. But on other games like The sims 2 or doom 3 it runs them fine and can be ran at High and Ultra with no issue. The games that froze were command and conquer 3 and stalker, does anyone have any idea why this would happen to only some games and not all of them

Here are my pc specs ( Yes i know it blows but it works)

Windows Xp PRO Service Pack 3
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+ (2164.8 MHz)
RAM 768 MB
Power supply 250 watt


Ok so today I installed a 580watt power suppy. And the issue as gotten worse now no game will run without crashing. Does anyone have any idea?

[Niode]

It's PSU issue. The Geforce is asking for more power than the psu can give causing instability as the PSU has to provide enough power to all the rest of your components. If you have more than one hard drive or a lot of USB peripherals that are bus powered these are all going to put a strain on your lacklustre psu.

Personally I'd trash the entire PC and build a new one. You can make a decent gaming rig for less than £400/$600 easy these days.

[Mozgus]

I had no idea there were any geforce 8 PCI cards. That's crazy.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

had problems like this on one of my older cards. I simply unplugged every USB device minus the keyboard and mouse and worked fine there after.

[marurun]

Yeah, that's definitely a power problem. Bigger PSU would help. Also take note that Nvidia has had lots of manufacturing quality problems with the 8x00 series cards, sometimes resulting in damage from the heat of use. It shouldn't hit you this early but I wouldn't entirely rule it out. Also make sure your PC has enough fans and good airflow to keep temps down.