Just installed a carputer, have a problem...

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12-27-2005, 08:49 PM
jtillery

Just installed a carputer, have a problem...

I just installed my carputer today and I having a problem with it. I had it running for 4 hours (with the car running) without any problems. I restarted the computer, and got an error that it could not load windows since hal.dll was missing or corrupt. I tried the recovery console, couldn't get it going so I reinstalled windows. Worked fine for an hour or two. Then while editing a frodoplayer ini file it locked up. I restarted the computer and got the error again. I wasn't at my house, so I drove home and parked the car for an hour, after that it booted up fine. Did a couple more things then restarted the computer, and got the hal.dll error again, restarted it, and it loaded windows but everything loaded very slow.

It seems to me like the hard drive is not getting enough power and is either slowing down or quitting all together. Any other ideas? I know my setup is pushing it as far as power is concerned, but I had the components around the house that I wanted to try to use.

Here is my setup:
2000 Mustang
Xenarc 700tsv
Opus 150
P4 2.6Ghz 533 fsb
1 stick 512 meg ddr PC3300
Western Digital 160gb hard drive 8 meg cache 7200 RPM
Biostar Motherboard with onboard Geforce video
Creative Labs Audigy 2 PCI sound card
XM PCR USB
USB Gyrations wireless keyboard and mouse
16x DVD Drive (power disconnected when not in use)
XP Media Center

The power for the Xenarc is not hooked into the OPUS yet. I plan on using an XM direct with serial connection, but was unable to get it working yet.

I am going from the audigy straight to my Precision Power DCX800.5 amplifier. I have MB Quart components in the front and rear, and 1 Orion XTR 12" sub. The computer is mounted in the trunk.

I have a Celeron 2.2 GHz that I was going to try, but it is at work. I wasn't sure if that would make a big enough difference in the power though. I am thinking about picking up a new laptop hard drive and giving that a try instead of the WD 160gb, but wanted to get some other opinions first.

Thanks
12-27-2005, 09:02 PM
b8bboi

Pushing it?

I just ran a rough power consumption calculation with your CPU, HD, RAM and the Audigy and I got 167 watts (minimum).

Check for yourself.

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_sup....php?cmd=INTEL
12-27-2005, 09:23 PM
jtillery

I ran this calculator:
http://carpc.kyferez.com/Tools/PSUWattageCalculator.php

I come up with 153 watts without the DVD drive and 178 with it. I disconnected it once I got Windows installed. It also says those numbers are a worst case scenario, and you should be able to get away with a smaller power supply than what the calculator says. I don't think I should be able to run a smaller power supply than the OPUS 150, but from the calculator I would think it should handle it. I have seen several other members of the forum running similar setups to mine on the OPUS 150, but there are also people who claim it cannot be done...

It sounded like from your post that you think it is definitely power, but it wasn't clear...

I think there is a good possibility it is power, but it seems strange that it ran perfect for 4 hours then the problem came up. You would think if it was power, it would happen right away. Also, when I had problems with it, the OPUS status light didn't blink the sequence to indicate that it was overloaded.

I think if it is overloaded it would be on the 12v rail. That is why I thinking about switching to a laptop hard drive, to move some power to the 5v rail. One thing I have seen conflicting information on is if newer Celerons draw power from the 12v rail or 5v rail. If it draws from the 5v rail, I was thinking I could switch to the 2.2GHz Celeron to get some power off 12v.

Thanks
12-27-2005, 09:43 PM
Heckle0

Sounds to me like the drive is dying and needs replaced. Or that when you reinstalled windows it just did a repair and not a full new install.
Run a chkdsk on the pc when you get it up and running again.
If it keeps happening i think its the drive.
12-27-2005, 09:51 PM
jtillery

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heckle0

Sounds to me like the drive is dying and needs replaced. Or that when you reinstalled windows it just did a repair and not a full new install.
Run a chkdsk on the pc when you get it up and running again.
If it keeps happening i think its the drive.

The drive is 3 months old, I have been using it the whole time to store movies on my home theatre pc. Haven't had any problems with it, until I put it in the car today...

I formatted it and did a fresh install of XP MediaCenter before I had the problem. Then I did the same thing again after the problem...

I agree it does seem like the drive is dying, I ran chkdsk and it didn't find any error, I also ran the utility that came with the drive and it didn't find errors. I am pretty sure it is running out of power, I think I am going to try to pick up a laptop drive tomorrow and see if that helps.
12-28-2005, 06:34 AM
DarquePervert

1) You could get an Opus POL PSU and be done with it.
2) You knew going into this that the power was pushing the limits of the Opus 150w. The object is NOT to max out the capabililities of the PSU, but to provide adequate power to the components you have.
3) You could also replace the Opus PSU with a DSATX that runs 220w and has all the same bells & whistles.
4) The CPU is pulling power from the motherboard, which receives 12v, 3.3v and 5v from the PSU. A quick Google search tells me it's drawing from the 5v rail. So your logic of reducing the load on the 5v rail by swapping out a laptop drive is sound. Another alternative is to get a USB enclosure for the optical drive that has an external power supply and powering that.
12-28-2005, 04:42 PM
jtillery

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarquePervert

4) The CPU is pulling power from the motherboard, which receives 12v, 3.3v and 5v from the PSU. A quick Google search tells me it's drawing from the 5v rail. So your logic of reducing the load on the 5v rail by swapping out a laptop drive is sound. Another alternative is to get a USB enclosure for the optical drive that has an external power supply and powering that.

The Pentium 4 and 3.5" hard drive draw most of theirpower from the 12v rail. 2.5" hard drives pull all their power from the 5v rail.

After I looked at the OPUS specs again, I noticed that it is rated for 5amps continuous and 6.5 peak on the 12v rail. This is much lower than I thought. According to my calculations a Pentium 4 draws about 5 amps, and my 7200 RPM 3.5" hard drive draws 2.2 at full spin-up. I think when I was having the problem is when both the hard drive and processor were at max draw.

I picked up a 2.5" hard drive today, all I could find locally was a 40gig 5400 rpm. I will eventually replace it with an 80 gig or larger, but needed it up and running by Friday morning, so I didn't have much of a choice. I loaded up Windows Media Center, setup Frodoplayer, and transferred my music and videos. I ran everything for about 6 hours without any problems. This weekend will be the true test, I am leaving Friday morning and will be driving 7 hours each way to visit my inlaws.