Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT 256MB

[Mr. tech]

Just bought this new graphics card for my PC... Just installed it and everything seems fine...

I just tested it out on a game but a message kept popping up saying:

Power Indicator
To protect your hardware from potential damage or causing a potential system lockup, the graphics processor has lowered its performance to a level that allows continued safe operations.

When I click Troubleshooting it says this:

I've got a 400W power supply. How do I get more power to my card? Is that the issue?

 

[jeremy]

is that a pci-e or agp 6600gt? if agp you must connect the power plug to it , provide full system specs & psu brand/model , 400w doesnt mean much at all in psus what really matters is the amper ratings and psus of same watt have diffrent amper rating some are much more powerful then others

 

[Mr. tech]

It's an AGP. I've hooked it up to the Power Supply.

The powersupply brand/model is Hairong ATX-400w.

Does psus stand for Power Supply?

Copied these specs from Everest.... Let me know if you need more:

Computer

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 6.0.2900.2180 (IE 6.0 SP2)
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name NETWORK
User Name Peter Sinclair

Motherboard

CPU Type Intel Pentium 4HT, 2800 MHz (14 x 200)
Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-8S648FX(-L) (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio)
Motherboard Chipset SiS 648FX
System Memory 1536 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award Modular (12/24/03)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM2)
Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (256 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E
Monitor ImageQuest L70S [17" LCD] (14081662)

Video Adapter Properties
Device Description NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Adapter String GeForce 6600 GT
BIOS String Version 5.43.02.80.00
Chip Type GeForce 6600 GT
DAC Type Integrated RAMDAC
Installed Drivers nv4_disp (6.14.10.8198 - nVIDIA Detonator 81.98)
Memory Size 256 MB

 

[Mr. tech]

Found this topic... i tried cleaning out the dust and tested it and no errors so far!!!

i'll answer my own question in case anyone else stumbles upon this thread with the same issue...

after a long morning of uninstalling and reinstalling everything under the sun, i have solved my problem. here's the procedure i went through...

1. uninstalled windows update KB908531, still got the nvidia sentinel message
2. uninstalled windows update KB911562, still got the nvidia sentinel message
3. uninstalled windows update KB912812, still got the nvidia sentinel message, determined from this that the windows update was most likely not the culprit
4. uninstalled nvidia drivers, rebooted, installed latest 84.21 drivers, still got the nvidia sentinel message
5. uninstalled all nvidia drivers, including network access manager, nvmixer, and nforce (VERY upset now because windows says my hardware has significantly changed at this point and i must reactivate windows), rebooted
6. booted into safe mode, used driver cleaner pro to remove all nvidia drivers
7. reinstalled all windows updates
8. reinstalled nvidia nforce drivers, network access manager, and nvmixer, rebooted
9. reinstalled latest 84.21 drivers, still got the nvidia sentinel message
10. extremely frustrated at this point, i determined it was time to mess around with the video card itself, so i powered off the system
11. noticed that in 10 months a whole lot of dust can accumulate in a pc, so i cleaned it all out and started up the pc again
12. voila! no more nvidia sentinel message


the moral of the story is, even if your hardware isn't touched, it could still be a hardware related problem. i was absolutely convinced that there was nothing wrong with my hardware because it hadn't been touched in 10 months but in fact a layer of dust can severely hinder your hardware's performance.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=919288

What are your thoguhts?

 

[robertconley619]

Make sure you have enough cirrculation to reduce dust build-up

 

[jeremy]

psu stands for power supply unit , i guess its somewhat possible the card couldnt work properly cuz the agp slot was full of dust so it blocked some power to it , anyway your psu is cheap crap you should seriously consider getting a quality psu , alot of cheap psus will take down other parts when they fail.. could be the hard drive/mobo/opticals.. could be one part could be few sometimes all..