Been boggling my mind. Can you clarify?

[melioz]

Hello again, i have a question about my friends computer. He has a DFI lan party NF4 SLI-DR Motherboard The DFI LANParty NF4 SLI-DR - Impression - Legit Reviews, 2gb of ram,450w PSU, and a 7950gt 512mb video card.Currently running xp.

He has been running this rig since all the parts were relatively new to the market. Recently he has experienced huge fps drops in games he has played for years. We started to investigate drivers,tweaks, and the software side of things to no avail. The fps would simply fluctuate based on nothing apparent to us.

We decided to open his case and see what was going on, we noticed that the 24 pin connector had a 20 pin in it leaving 4 extra pins open. There is a 4 pin 12v plugged into the board above the 24pin port. There is also a 4 pin connector that we cannot figure what it is used for that is not connected. The mystery port is circled and marked as number 2.

Now the question is, do you see anything wrong? Is it bad to have a 20 pin connected to a 24 pin port, while a 4pin is connected above. Do you know what the 4 pin port near the chip set fan is for?

Thanks.

 

[philbar71]

the 4 pin is extra power for the mobo, basically to help stabilize overclocks and stuff.

and the 4 pin i think you are reffering to as the one above the 24 pin sounds like the 4 pin CPU power. it would be not good to plug in the extra 4 pins from the 24 pin power connector. your psu should have an extra connector for the "4 pin above the 24 pin mobo connector.

 

[bmxfreakrider]

Have you checked for viruses/spyware/malware? when was the last time it had a reinstall? Nothing really looks wrong from what you are describing, as long as there is sufficient power from the powersupply for the system, and the 4pin is plugged in (cpu 12v). 20 pins in a 24 pin psu main socket is ok, the extra 4 add for system stability, as well as the accessory power port (the molex by the southbridge). That is only really needed if you have all of your usb/pci slots full, or are running SLI/Crossfire. Have you checked the temps on the cpu/gpu yet? when was the last time the system was cleaned? it could just use a good dusting out.

 

[Dauntae]

The 4 pin connected to the 20 pin should be used to make it a 24 pin connector and the extra 4 pin that's by itself should be connected to the 4 pin connector right above the 24 pin connector. As for the fluctuating FPS it could be spyware, a virus or a failing video card but my bet would be spyware draining resources lagging the system down.

Dauntae

 

[synergy]

The circled molex connector (2) on the motherboard is just to give more power to the graphics card. It's not really needed unless you were running a higher end card that needed more juice.

I would try a reformat and reinstall of Windows. If he's running on the same install he's had for 4-5 years then there's probably a whole bunch of issues. The registry gets loaded with junk and slows things down substantially. Disk fragmentation, possible malware, a lot of unneeded files, etc.

 

[patonb]

Wow, I'm surprised it would boot with the 24 bpin not all in... AND what looks like the cpu not powered.