not sure how to describe this..

[Trippy]

well have had an old problem just haven't gotten around to fixing it.  it seemed to start after i put a new and larger power supply in.  when playing i always get an intermittent "pause" which lasts about 1 second.  during this time i hear a noise from the computer which sounds like it would if you just turned on the computer, not the "clicking like sounds" but the powering up type.

not sure what it is, sorry if description is hard to understand.  the power supply fan seems to always be on, and other than that the computer seems to work fine.  this only happens when asking the computer to "perform."  have no problems surfing the web, just playing games that require higher performance.  

if any ideas, thanks.   trippy.

btw, is a 450 power supply, 3ghz p3, 512 DDR RAM, and radeon 9800 pro.

[StarOfAfrica2]

What type of power supply is it?  Brand I mean?  Is it a good quality one or just "Brand X"?  You cant always trust the rating on the box, cheap power supplies can vary by quite a bit at the connection, especially in a computer with a fast processor like yours, a higher end video card like the 9800 you are using.............

Also it would depend on how many devices you have running off of it, like how many hard drives, CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD drives do you have?  Everything, from the fans to the memory draws power, and the more stuff you have drawing at once the more of a load you put on the PS, and the better the quality it has to be to maintain full power to all its connections simultaneously.

[Trippy]

thx for reply.  i actually pulled the power supply from a "older" computer i wasn't using.  actually wasn't very old, is a enermax power supply, 450W-originally for AMD, now intel based MB. 2 hard drives (1 just recovery) j/s throttle, printer, scanner.   guess have quite a bit hooked up.  maybe i'll just buy a new p/s see if any better, guess around 50 bucks or so.  any good place to buy, i usually browse tigerdirect.com, know of any others?

i love tinkering with computers, guess i have to learn as go along. some things i know O.K, others not at all, is frustrating at times.

p.s, i bought this enermax computer from compusa, was good deal, but largely unsatisfied with the product.  have not seen one since-lol.

[Roscoroo]

the enermax power supplys have a second fan that cycles on and off ... it also stays on for awhile when you turn off your pc until it cools down ..

i bet there nothing wrong with the ps ..

and if its a heavy powersupply its a good one and no need to replace it .

i have a 420 enermax and it runs Sweet

[StarOfAfrica2]

Yeah, before assuming the PS is junk, make sure of everything else first.  Check your processor temps, make sure all the fans on your heatsink, video card, case etc are working.  Check the ambient temp inside the case as well, you may have airflow issues.  See if your BIOS uses "Thermal Throttling" and see what the setting is.

If the second fan on your PS is kicking in, and you still have enough power to run  your apps ok (I'll assume for now you do), I'd check temps first.  If your case temp is getting high enough, you could be getting the CPU really hot.  If your MOBO uses thermal throttling, it will cut cycles off the CPU clock until it cools.  If its your video card getting hot, it could be skipping as well.

[MOSQ]

Originally posted by Trippy
well have had an old problem just haven't gotten around to fixing it.  it seemed to start after i put a new and larger power supply in.  when playing i always get an intermittent "pause" which lasts about 1 second.  during this time i hear a noise from the computer which sounds like it would if you just turned on the computer, not the "clicking like sounds" but the powering up type.

not sure what it is, sorry if description is hard to understand.  the power supply fan seems to always be on, and other than that the computer seems to work fine.  this only happens when asking the computer to "perform."  have no problems surfing the web, just playing games that require higher performance.  

if any ideas, thanks.   trippy.

btw, is a 450 power supply, 3ghz p3, 512 DDR RAM, and radeon 9800 pro.

This symptom sounds to me like you are drawing close to a plane that you haven't yet cached the skin for that session. The screen stutters for a second while the hard drive fires up, locates the skin file, then displays it.

If this symptom is occuring only when you get within 2 K of another plane, I'm sure that's what it is. My old system used to freeze for 2 seconds or more while bringing up a custom skin.

[Trippy]

interesting mosq, i will have to see if i notice that at all.

[Siaf__csf]

My guess is that your harddrive got porked for some reason.

You might have accidentally pushed your IDE cable while installing the PSU - or even broken it.

I had exactly the same symptoms when my hd failed. I haven't found out yet if the reason was badly twisted ide cable or the hd itself, removed it just to be sure tho.

Still have 3 installed anyway.

[Nwbie]

Yep, had those same sounds for about a week before my hard drive porked out, I suggest, If you haven't done it lately to back everything up today just in case...
NwBie

[Trippy]

thanks for replies all, good ideas havent thought of.  so guess i think HD is probably the culprit here.  skins disabled, and feel pretty good about P/S.  thanks for advice, very much appreciate it trippy

[Trippy]

update:

well, as usually it is always the solution right in front of you that is always over looked.  no exoctic solution, i defraged and i think it is fixed lol.  is something i should have done right off the bat, just didn't think it would be the problem.  guess that's what i get for over a step.  thanks all for input, always helpful- trippy