[mythtv-users] Symptoms of not enough PS wattage

[Roger Heflin]

Sam Logen wrote:
> 
> --- On Wed, 9/17/08, Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> From: Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Symptoms of not enough PS wattage
>> To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>> Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 6:54 PM
>> On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 6:03 PM, Sam Logen
>> <starz909 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Hi, I'm wondering what symptoms there could be for
>> a power supply not producing enough wattage.  I have:
>>> both an HDTV card and a PVR-150 card,
>>> two SATA hard drives and a SATA DVD-writer,
>>> one firewire connection to an STB,
>>> an Athlon 3600+ AM2 CPU and two Kingston 512MB Memory,
>>> a cpu fan and a few case fans,
>>> an nvidia 7200 fanless pcie card,
>>> Onboard nforce sound,
>>> a usb LCD and a usb card reader,
>>>
>>> The power supply is a Seasonic S12 380W.
>>>
>>> I'm having some problems with the picture quality
>> of both of my capture cards.  I'm looking into driver
>> and reception issues as well, but I thought I'd ask
>> about power allotment, and if that could be the culprit.
>>> Thank you,
>>> Sam
>> very possible. many times its not just the overall wattage,
>> but the
>> wattage on the different voltage rails. It's the reason
>> a lot of the
>> gamers buy incredibly over powered power supplies, because
>> they need
>> something that has a specific amount of amperage on one of
>> those
>> rails.
>>
>> that said, Seasonic makes some great power supplies, so if
>> your taxing
>> it on one of its rails, you should replace it soon before
>> you fry the
>> transistors in it so you can use it in another system.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Steve
>> http://www.jobs-khakis-chicks.com/MythTV/
>> Before you ask, read the FAQ!
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions
>> then search the Wiki, and this list,
>> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/
>> Mailinglist etiquette -
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List_etiquette
> 
> Thanks everyone, I suppose I'll go and discuss the drivers with the V4L list.
> 
> Sam


What kind of MB are you using?

I have a via board, and if I tax (use) the onboard via sata chips then things 
get choppy on the PCI bus, the pchdtv card looses data several times a second, 
and after hours of use tends to lockup, the 150 cards give errors about losing 
data, in my case it appears to be just a badly designed MB.   If I use the sata 
ports on the PCI bus things are slow but I don't have any issues.

Depending on yours it could be something similar.

                             Roger