tell me something...what does a PSU do BEFORE dying?
does it put on some kind of protection for computer components so it won't damage them "while it dies"?
another question...which PSU cost around as much as the Antec SP-450 but is more reliable and hopefully more quiet?
thanks
PSU behavior when dying...?
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ive seen a PSU go one of two ways.
one way, you hear a loud POP, you might smell somthin like rotten fish or burnt silicon, and mabey a small puff of smoke, and its dead
the other way is less obviouse. you start getting BSOD's, system instability, random restarts and shutdowns. you may also start having components go bad, like system memory, add on cards, hard drives etc.
i know one time i went through 3 sets of system memory thinking i just had bad luck with bad memory companies and it ended up being the PSU.
one way, you hear a loud POP, you might smell somthin like rotten fish or burnt silicon, and mabey a small puff of smoke, and its dead
the other way is less obviouse. you start getting BSOD's, system instability, random restarts and shutdowns. you may also start having components go bad, like system memory, add on cards, hard drives etc.
i know one time i went through 3 sets of system memory thinking i just had bad luck with bad memory companies and it ended up being the PSU.
Hi, funny you should ask as I've had 3 blow PSU systems come my way in last 10 days and none ever before!
First (1GHz P3) would boot up for 1 - 5 minutes before just switching off and wouldn't come back on for a few minutes, then repeat. Thought CPU cooling at first as improving it helped. Made it nearer 5 than 1 minute, when I swapped the CPU for Celeron 667 I have spare was fine, think the load was just slightly more than PSU could handle with P3. Swapped different PSU (one rated 120w MAX!) and all was well. In this case PSU was only on way out and no damage to rest of PC.
Got Hiper 3S300 as replacement and I'm very impressed with it. Feels weighty and rated for 14A (168W) down 12V lines. The cables are a little thin and the single SATA cable is stupidly short. Will just reach to HDD bays in typical case when stretched directly across the motherboard
Best bit is it has thermally controlled fan (it's 350w brother is rated as 1500 - 3000rpm), OK it's not really silent but I think a good choice for reasonably quiet, budget PC. How much can you expect for £7.99 
Didn't seam to ramp up in the Athlon 64 3500 / Nforce 6150 PC I just built either.
Second PC was P2 350 (I know, I know but what can you do
) which was just dead, no action at all. Cheapest replacement PSU I could get worked fine except original had 92mm fan on bottom that blew in to the case over a massive (~50mm square and ful length of slot1 CPU) heatsink on the CPU. From model number I suspect the PSU may have been a Seasonic in origin. Replacement had standard 80mm fan in rear so I added 80mm fan to heatsink and CPU ran very cool, would probably have been fine left passive but... as PSU failure hadn't damaged any thing I didn’t want to risk it.
Third system is Compaq 1.6 GHz P4 (with SDRAM!). Non standard PSU form factor and possibly pin out to mother board. Uses standard 24pin ATX socket but no play with 20pin PSU. With original get LEDs for few moments and nasty burning electronics smell from PSU. Original PSU use rear mounted 92mm fan and replacements look to be £90-100
I found one on ebay for third of that, wait and see if that fixes it. Know for sure HDD is Ok as I've backed up the data off it.
From what I've heard usually when PSU let go they do so suddenly with a bang or whimper and don't damage anything else, but not always, can fry anything / everthing!
Seb
First (1GHz P3) would boot up for 1 - 5 minutes before just switching off and wouldn't come back on for a few minutes, then repeat. Thought CPU cooling at first as improving it helped. Made it nearer 5 than 1 minute, when I swapped the CPU for Celeron 667 I have spare was fine, think the load was just slightly more than PSU could handle with P3. Swapped different PSU (one rated 120w MAX!) and all was well. In this case PSU was only on way out and no damage to rest of PC.
Got Hiper 3S300 as replacement and I'm very impressed with it. Feels weighty and rated for 14A (168W) down 12V lines. The cables are a little thin and the single SATA cable is stupidly short. Will just reach to HDD bays in typical case when stretched directly across the motherboard
Best bit is it has thermally controlled fan (it's 350w brother is rated as 1500 - 3000rpm), OK it's not really silent but I think a good choice for reasonably quiet, budget PC. How much can you expect for £7.99 Didn't seam to ramp up in the Athlon 64 3500 / Nforce 6150 PC I just built either.Second PC was P2 350 (I know, I know but what can you do
) which was just dead, no action at all. Cheapest replacement PSU I could get worked fine except original had 92mm fan on bottom that blew in to the case over a massive (~50mm square and ful length of slot1 CPU) heatsink on the CPU. From model number I suspect the PSU may have been a Seasonic in origin. Replacement had standard 80mm fan in rear so I added 80mm fan to heatsink and CPU ran very cool, would probably have been fine left passive but... as PSU failure hadn't damaged any thing I didn’t want to risk it.Third system is Compaq 1.6 GHz P4 (with SDRAM!). Non standard PSU form factor and possibly pin out to mother board. Uses standard 24pin ATX socket but no play with 20pin PSU. With original get LEDs for few moments and nasty burning electronics smell from PSU. Original PSU use rear mounted 92mm fan and replacements look to be £90-100
I found one on ebay for third of that, wait and see if that fixes it. Know for sure HDD is Ok as I've backed up the data off it.From what I've heard usually when PSU let go they do so suddenly with a bang or whimper and don't damage anything else, but not always, can fry anything / everthing!
Seb
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Boomerang Rapido
- Posts: 150
- Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2003 11:03 am
- Location: Denmark
I've had 2 PSU die on me with no prior warning signs when it happened. In both cases it happened when I pressed the start button.
The first one blew with a loud bang and flames actually shot out the back... no damage to any other hardware though. I replaced it and everything was fine.
The second one just did nothing. I pressed the button and nothing happened. Disks, fans etc didn't spin up.... well at least I had finally acheived complete silence but that was not really the way I wanted it
The first one blew with a loud bang and flames actually shot out the back... no damage to any other hardware though. I replaced it and everything was fine.
The second one just did nothing. I pressed the button and nothing happened. Disks, fans etc didn't spin up.... well at least I had finally acheived complete silence but that was not really the way I wanted it
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TheAtomicKid
- Posts: 95
- Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2005 3:01 am
PSU Behavior before the big D...
first reply was accurate. It'll either go immediately, with a pop, or else it will slowly die over time.. random reboots, bsod's, etc.
If you suspect your PSU is about to be toast due to the second case, REPLACE IT IMMEDIATELY. Test it on another, known good system if you have doubts, but... either situation can easily damage the attached hardware. The cost of a psu is minimal compared to the time, money and effort from replacing some/all of your components.
And no, there's no real protection. There's usually a fuse inside the casing to prevent massive power overloading and to prevent fires in the case of things like a short circuit, but there's nothing built into the psu that will naturally protect your system... that's what surge suppressors and UPS are for... and those wont save you from a bad power supply, since it's 'inside' the protection.
Seasonic is your best bet for a quiet, reliable PSU, imo. PC Power and Cooling also makes very good units... possibly superior in quality to Seasonic even, but they're not nearly as quiet. Beyond that, there are others that are decent, but I'm not familiar enough to make a recommendation.
TheAtomicKid
(Newegg, and several other online retailers, carry Seasonics, btw. YMMV, but I've had zero problems with Newegg, at the very least.)
If you suspect your PSU is about to be toast due to the second case, REPLACE IT IMMEDIATELY. Test it on another, known good system if you have doubts, but... either situation can easily damage the attached hardware. The cost of a psu is minimal compared to the time, money and effort from replacing some/all of your components.
And no, there's no real protection. There's usually a fuse inside the casing to prevent massive power overloading and to prevent fires in the case of things like a short circuit, but there's nothing built into the psu that will naturally protect your system... that's what surge suppressors and UPS are for... and those wont save you from a bad power supply, since it's 'inside' the protection.
Seasonic is your best bet for a quiet, reliable PSU, imo. PC Power and Cooling also makes very good units... possibly superior in quality to Seasonic even, but they're not nearly as quiet. Beyond that, there are others that are decent, but I'm not familiar enough to make a recommendation.
TheAtomicKid
(Newegg, and several other online retailers, carry Seasonics, btw. YMMV, but I've had zero problems with Newegg, at the very least.)
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TheAtomicKid
- Posts: 95
- Joined: Sat Aug 20, 2005 3:01 am
Oh yeah
If you're PSU is overloaded.. say a weakish psu tryin to power a high powered graphics solution... or worse, SLI... it will give you those same issues, especially troublesome when you fire up 3d mode graphics. Even if the PSU is good, such a situation will rapidly lead to a real failure if you continue to 'peg' the PSU's capacity.
Might eyeball your actual supply and see what it's rated for, then start calculating vs your components. www.pcpowerandcooling.com has, or had, a web based calculator that would estimate your system needs based on your input. This would give you an idea of what you're facing.
TheAtomicKid
Might eyeball your actual supply and see what it's rated for, then start calculating vs your components. www.pcpowerandcooling.com has, or had, a web based calculator that would estimate your system needs based on your input. This would give you an idea of what you're facing.
TheAtomicKid