Power Supply & dual monitors

[Sheila Foss]

Anyone know what is the power supply size if running dual monitors, especially on an older machine?

Thanks

[Bloody Jack Kidd]

Depends on how hungry the video cards are... big 3D rendering GPUs (largely used for CAD/animation and gaming) can require gobs of power.  2D graphics however do not have the same requirements.

[Sheila Foss]

The machine is a Dell Dimension 2400, the video card is in a PCI slot, since the mboard has no PCIe or AGP slots. I would have to check what type of card they put in for the dual monitors, only one port so the adapters sticking out the back looks like an octopus setup.    I did up the CPU RAM to 2G.   

I think the PS in it now is a 200 or 250

[Hans Manhave]

You could find a 400 or 450Watt PS, open the CPU box and plug that in (without fitting it in as it is probably another size).  You could use that momentarily external PS to plug in all the drives (HD, CD, floppy) and take some load of the built in one.  Start that PS first then after 15 seconds or so turn on the rest of the computer.  Just some options to see if wattage is the problem.

[Sheila Foss]

I do have one new Thermalake 430W here in the office, I could try that.   It's a machine I am watching, since I have had to work on for different misc. happenings.

The latest problem, programs were taking forever to open, she couldn't get any work done.  Tons of nVidia errors in Event viewer.   Found out the card was slightly popped up in the CPU, probably from heat.

Modems always have a tendency to do that, too.