Death of a computer, Scene 1

iandaina · Post by **iandaina** » September 21, 2005, 11:13 pm

Saturday night I was playing eq, minding my own business when out of the blue...my puter shut down. The power light on the front stayed on for like 10 secs or so after it killed over, then it went out.

I pulled the side off, nothing on the mobo looks burned, nothing smelled burned, the green LED on the board was on, but it refuses to power up. Took it down to a barebones system-nothing. Tried a diff power cord-nothing. Unplugged it from the power strip-you guessed it...nothing.

I'm thinking my power supply fried. My husband on the other hand thinks the mother board is bad. (I hope not I just bought it in february)

Anyway, I am totally friggin clueless, any ideas?

Fash · Post by **Fash** » September 22, 2005, 12:30 am

you'll hafta start by trying another power supply, with those symptoms.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » September 22, 2005, 12:31 am

Take a working power supply from another computer and hook it up. If it works, at least you'll know what the problem is. Did you reset the CMOS? What motherboard do you have, and what power supply?

iandaina · Post by **iandaina** » September 22, 2005, 1:13 am

Leonaerd wrote:Take a working power supply from another computer and hook it up. If it works, at least you'll know what the problem is. Did you reset the CMOS? What motherboard do you have, and what power supply?

The mb is an asus a7n8x-x, and the power supply is a 430w that came with my tower. We tried resetting the cmos by taking the battery out, no change. Tried another power supply, it was a 300w and it wouldn't do anything. Put the old one back in and the green LED on the mb came on.
The fan on the cpu and the one on the side panel would spin about 1/4 turn, then stop when I would push the power button. We also tried shorting the power pins to bypass the switch, but it was a no go as well.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » September 22, 2005, 2:05 am

The fan on the cpu and the one on the side panel would spin about 1/4 turn, then stop when I would push the power button

That could be because you were using a 300W power supply. It depends on what kinds of bells and whistles you had on your computer, and it could very well be that 300W just wasn't enough. What cooling setup, processor, video card (etc) do you have? I would try disconnecting any unnecessary case fans from the motherboard and power supply (i.e. any fan that isn't directly on a piece of hardware) and see how the 300W power supply reacts. If you get more than the "1/4 turn" that you experienced the first time, then it can only be good news. If you have a newer Nvidia model video card, it's likely using up boatloads of wattage.

I looked up the manual for the a7n8x-x and found that it has jumpers which are used to reset the CMOS, as almost all current motherboards do. Simply flip through the manual to the section that explains which Jumpers are used to reset the CMOS, and do so (it should be adjacent to the battery). Make sure you wait 10-or-so seconds before returning the jumpers to the location they were originally in. Also, make -sure- the battery has been removed before you fiddle around with the jumpers. Simply removing and returning the battery is not enough to reset the CMOS.

To quote section 1-12 of the manual:

The minimum recommended wattage is... 300W for a fully configured system. The system may become unstable and experience difficulty powering up if the power supply is inadequate.

iandaina · Post by **iandaina** » September 22, 2005, 2:18 am

The original power supply was 430w, even with the system stripped to barebones the 300 wouldn't power it up; barebones = 1 stick (512) of ram, cpu (athlon xp 2700) and maybe vid card (9700pro), i'm not sure if he had it hooked up or not.

I'll get in it tomorrow and reset the cmos by the jumper, see what that does.

The fans turning and the led coming on was with the 430w, the 300w wouldn't even have the led come on. I'm sorry this isn't making a whole lot of sense, it's been a long day and my thoughts aren't coming through plainly. Thanks for muddling through this with me, much appreciated =)

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » September 22, 2005, 2:30 am

Thanks for muddling through this with me, much appreciated =)

No problem here. =) Just make sure the battery has been removed, the computer turned off, and the power cord removed before you jumpinate the computer

Sargeras · Post by **Sargeras** » September 22, 2005, 9:22 am

Hi Daina!

iandaina · Post by **iandaina** » September 22, 2005, 9:06 pm

Power cord unplugged, battery removed, jumper jumped, no power =(

The fans didn't do their dance, but the green led on the mobo came on.

In other news......

LOVERMUFFIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:<3:

I miss you sir

Moonwynd · Post by **Moonwynd** » September 22, 2005, 11:19 pm

Daina!

Ebumar · Post by **Ebumar** » September 23, 2005, 1:36 am

That really sounds like powersupply. See if you can scrounge up a 400w, have a friend bring one over or something. It should power right up.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » September 23, 2005, 2:01 am

450W-ish power supplies are quite cheap. If it doesn't fix the problem, take it back.

Adelrune Argenti · Post by **Adelrune Argenti** » September 23, 2005, 3:27 am

I had the exact same problem on a couple of systems. Both were the power supply.

iandaina · Post by **iandaina** » September 23, 2005, 7:22 pm

Moon!

How are ya? I miss you as well!

Hooked up the puter to a friend's ps today, fired right up so it's definitely a power supply.

Next thing is, shopping! I've been looking at antec and thermaltake mainly, any other good ones to check in to?

Thanks a ton for all the help, much

Kylere · Post by **Kylere** » September 23, 2005, 7:25 pm

http://www.frozencpu.com/scan/se=Power% ... d=nrEZ2epX

Frozen CPU always has decent powersupplies.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » September 23, 2005, 7:43 pm

I've been looking at antec and thermaltake mainly, any other good ones to check in to?

Mad Dog is a price below Antec, if money is a concern. I've had both brands and can't say anything bad about either of them.

Adelrune Argenti · Post by **Adelrune Argenti** » September 23, 2005, 8:16 pm

I have found that no matter how much money I spend on a power supply, all of them have about the same failure rate.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » September 30, 2005, 11:33 am

THE FOLLOWING PIECE OF INFORMATION IS HIGHLY IMPORTANT!!!!!!

NEVER EVER EVER BUY A PSU MADE BY A COMPANY WITH THE NAME OF AN ANIMAL IN IT EVER

Thank you.