Power Supply?

[wagegoth]

Sorry, everyone, more bitching about the Gateway.

I've been having issues with it freezing the mouse cursor or just plain freezing or glitching if I have more than a couple of programs running. The only way to fix it is a reboot. I wasn't sure what might be causing it, but after what happened the other night, my guess is the power supply.

I was ripping some CDs to Windows Media to load to my MP3 player, which was charging. While it was running, I was online visiting some of my saved sites. The cursor froze. I couldn't get it to navigate so I rebooted. After it restarted, I checked the charge level on my MP3. I was surprised. The first time I ever charged it out of the box, I charged it on the laptop and it took about two hours. When I had recharged it at work, it also charged fairly quickly. I calculated that at the rate it was charging on the Gateway, it would take nearly 8 hours to charge from dead (which is wasn't).

This, of course, go the gears turning in my old school head. I had contacted Gateway support a few weeks before about information for upgrading the video card. (OMG, are they worse than useless. At Dell, I could put in my computer's ID online and find out what upgrades and replacement parts I could use on my configuration.) The completely unhelpful email stated the type of card (because in all the hardware info (several pages I printed out) it didn't state the type of video card), then didn't specify how large a card I could install, but said that I might have to up the power supply if I install a larger card.

If you've managed to stick with me so far, thank you. As the gears turned, I thought about Gateway's lack of quality. It would not surprise me in the least to find out that the absolute minimum power supply was installed for the computer.

I'm still planning to upgrade the video card, but I'm thinking that upgrading the power supply might do more for the performance than just support a new card.

What do you think?

[digilight]

Which USB ports were you using. I know that I have seen issues using Front Mounted USB ports for powered devices before. I actually have a Dell here at the shop that the front mounted USB ports aren't worth a tin shit either. If this was on the fronts, try it on the back ports (or the other way around if you had been using the backs).

About the Mouse freezing. what type of mouse is this, A USB mouse, a PS2 (cord with a round connector on the back that plugs in next to the keyboard port), or is a wireless mouse?

[Broomjockey]

upping the power supply won't do more for the computer's performance, it would probably do about equal good. However, if you're upping the video card, you're probably going to need to up the power supply as well. I've yet to meet a pre-built system that doesn't have the absolute cheapest power supply they could get away with, both in terms of wattage AND quality. I tried replacing the card in a Dell I'd bought a few years ago - top of the line, at the time, since it was for gaming - and the power supply couldn't handle it. I don't think Gateway would be any different with a machine from around then. Probably the easiest way to proceed would be to pick the card, check the minimum requirements for it, then get a power supply with about 50W more, as a buffer. Or there's a large number of wattage calculators available on the net, a quick google should find you one.

[wagegoth]

Which USB ports were you using. I know that I have seen issues using Front Mounted USB ports for powered devices before. I actually have a Dell here at the shop that the front mounted USB ports aren't worth a tin shit either. If this was on the fronts, try it on the back ports (or the other way around if you had been using the backs).

About the Mouse freezing. what type of mouse is this, A USB mouse, a PS2 (cord with a round connector on the back that plugs in next to the keyboard port), or is a wireless mouse?

It's a USB mouse.

[lordlundar]

I doubt the power supply is causing the freeze ups, at least not directly. I could see it reallocating power in a conservation approach though, but those are usually for laptops.

I'd be looking more on the software side for this one. Freeze ups from hardware are rare at best.