I have been searching 'smart doctor' for answers to my problems with this video-card monitoring software. I have a Asus v8460(gf4TI4600), when I first installed it (over a year ago now) with the smart doctor program (version 1.5 or just above, can't remember, the one with the nurse skin, lol) it worked great. As I updated the card drivers from Asus and the program smartdoctor (to above 2.7) I started getting startup errors such as 'service database is locked' and 'cant start service, unable to load database' pop-up messages while loading windows. When it did load successfully the software was reading my card gpu temp wrong and the voltage would jump out of bounds. Asus tech said I needed a new fan. I totally removed the program and drivers(reg. entries and EVERYTHING), uninstalled the card then reinstalled the card with original drivers and no smart doctor. All booted perfect again. Reinstalled v2.7 (or above) smart doctor software and back to errors and bad card readings. By the way my motherboard monitor software(by gigabyte) read the videocard as all within spec. with normal gpu temp of 64deg not the 84deg smart doctor was reporting (when it loaded properly, lol). Also the fan speed runs at 5075rpm all the time which is also normal. All the voltage readings were on the mark or just below (because i'm not pushing the card in windows). If your having problems with newer versions of that software just uninstall it. As the other ppl said NEVER switch the power supply to 220v (that's for european countries) you will almost definately fry your mobo, cpu, ram and possibly more cards installed. Personally, I stick with the asus drivers (as they contain the enhanced portion of the driver specific to asus cards) even though they are always a couple of versions behind nvidia or ati. Kathi's post is also correct about 1.5 volt card voltage and 350watt (minimum) power supply issues.
ps. keep in mind this is assuming you keep your case clean inside and don't smoke at your pc. This is also assuming you dont use the tweak or overclock features of the Asus software which just shorten the life of the videocard. Also if I use the nvidia provided drivers rather than the Asus ones smart doctor wouldn't load on my system.
Don't get me wrong, I love my asus card (there support is top notch and I plan to buy another one, but jumping fences to the asus ati x800, lol) and am a hardcore gamer. But i'm positive that newer versions of smart doctor don't work 100% (in my system anyways) and can give false readings and\or start-up errors.
Here are my system specs;
intel p4@3.06Ghz at 533fsb with h\t
gigabyte ga-8ihxp mobo
kingston 1024mb(4x256)RDram pc1066 (runs @533mhz)
2x maxtor 80Gb diamondmax-plus, 8mb buffer, ata133
onboard promise ata133 raid(0,1) in striped(0) array
asus v8460ultra\deluxe, geforce4 ti4600, 128mb ddr, 4x agp
sound blaster audigy2 ZS platinum
creative inspire 7.1 speakers
cdr\w and dvd rom drives
enermax case and 350w p\s with light and 5 case fans
running windows xp pro
