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Old 10-26-2008, 11:24 AM   #1 (permalink)
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Power Supply

I have a question about a power supply. I was fixing a friend's computer (I don't know the specs, only that it has a 400w power supply and a 1GHz Athlon processor) when the screen went blank and the computer stopped responding. I turned off the power, tried to restart it, and only the CPU fan would start - not even the power supply fan. The PSU was extremely hot to the touch, and the fan only twitches. Is it possible to run the computer once the PSU has cooled, or is the PSU completely shot?

In addition, I was in the middle of installing XP SP3 when it shut down, how much damage would that do to the computer? Thank you for your expertise.
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Old 10-26-2008, 02:01 PM   #2 (permalink)
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SP3 wouldn't do any damage to the computer, but the shut down in the middle of updating might corrupt the OS.

It sounds to me like the system is just plain old. The motherboard needs to be checked for bad capacitors (just a visual inspection for bulging tops will do, check around the socket and above the AGP slot). If ANY caps bulge, the board is dead. It can be fixed by those that have soldering capability assuming all else is fine, but at this point the system is so old that it won't be worth the effort. Buy a new rig and put the old drive in as a slave and copy the old data to the new OS/drive.

The PSU needs to be checked as well internally and/or externally, or replaced. An external check to do is to unplug it from the wall, pull the PSU out completely and ground green to black (standard ATX plug colors, check pinouts if unsure!) using a paperclip or something similar. Then hook a fan or something to a molex, plug it back in and turn it on. If the fan spins, good. If the fan spins for a sec then cuts off, try adding a hard drive to the load and see if it works. If it still spins for a sec but cuts off, then the PSU is bad and/or shorted out. Replace the PSU. If you are not electrically inclined, don't open the PSU or even mess with it. The capacitors can give you a really bad and potentially dangerous shock....trust me I know, I've had one fry my finger LOL. If you are ok with opening the PSU, an internal check would be seeing if the caps are bulging around the output lines, checking for scorch makrs on the PCB around large resistors and cleaning all dust out.

Anyways, assuming you are capable, pull everything out of the case, clean all the dust and crap off (gotta be some, it's a 1GHz system after all) and then reinstall everything. Reason for this is 2-fold: It gets all the crap out, which is unlikely to cause a short but you can't rule it out, and it also creates new metal-to-metal contact. Sometimes when circuits bridge metals there can be oxidation at the contact, which can eventually lead to resistance and bad contact. Obviously unplugging and replugging can solve that issue.

If the system has been a little unstable recently, then the capacitors were most likely the issue. The last shutdown could be the death knell, who knows. Systems from that time (that being slot A and socket A) were plagued with bad caps across many manufacturers, so very few are still running now. I see more socket 7 systems still running than slot A.
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Last edited by Vigilante; 10-26-2008 at 02:04 PM..
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Old 10-26-2008, 03:08 PM   #3 (permalink)
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I went back to his room to check on the computer again, and the PSU still heats up rather quickly. Again the computer shut down soon after starting up. The recommendation I gave him was to replace the PSU, does anyone know an affordable 400w PSU (by affordable I mean college student affordable)?
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Old 10-26-2008, 04:38 PM   #4 (permalink)
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Free shipping, $37 bucks: Newegg.com - FSP Group SAGA+ 400R 400W ATX12V Power Supply - Power Supplies

Some get cheaper, but they will fail early. I like to think about future upgrades when I recommend hardware, but for a serious budget and thinking about today, not tomorrow, this will do. Known good brand, very good reviews.
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Old 10-27-2008, 04:22 AM   #5 (permalink)
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Newegg.com - Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC 430W ATX Power Supply - Power Supplies

Mail in rebate makes it $28. I have this power supply and it is awesome. Very high quality.
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Old 10-27-2008, 06:22 AM   #6 (permalink)
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Thank you very much for your help. I'll send my friend those two suggestions.
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Old 10-27-2008, 06:58 AM   #7 (permalink)
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I second the Thermaltake by Lasereth.
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Old 10-27-2008, 07:48 AM   #8 (permalink)
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Yeah lasereth's suggestion would be better. It has a higher 5v line current, which is more important to older AMD rigs since back then CPU voltage was pulled from 5v instead of 12v. It probably won't run the next rig, but it will run this one very well
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Old 10-27-2008, 07:48 PM   #9 (permalink)
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Although I'm not sure which model he got, my friend got a Thermalke PSU, and it seems to have no problems so far. I got XP SP3 on it, now it is slowly updating.
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