Hi

A couple of years ago I bought an HTPC to Forcet Computers (Forcet does not exist anymore) This HTPC is based on AOpen HT80D box. It was working ok for more than a year but it began to crash after no more than half an hour working. Windows event viewer messages shows an unexpected Kernel Power issue. The HTPC has a GigaBit motherboard (intel i3 processor) , a Bluray device , and a low profile ATI Radeon HD5450 graphics card with a passive cooling system.

This box includes a 275 W silent PSU (even though AMD recommends 400 W or more for its graphics card). For the crashes initially I thought of an overheating issue with the graphics card, but after doing testing with another card which includes a fan I discarded that. Now everything points to PSU failure, even though its fan seems to work. After half an hour or less the HTPC crashes, but then reboots again after an hour or maybe less (notice that system clock has frozen since crash).

How could I test (no using another PSU of course) if this is a PSU issue?

I think I could change the PSU, but I don't know whether Aopen sells it separately or not, so does anyone know of another PSU same size (small) to replace the original one?

Aopen HT80D specs available at global.aopen.com/products_spec.aspx


Thanks in advance for your help.

Just scanned around for some pics of the case & PSU... it could be a TFX PSU, in which case, one of these Seasonics would be a good match: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Seasonic_ ... M_Gold_TFX

Whether the PSU is the culprit, w/o another PSU to try, hard to tell. Best thing to do is monitor all the sensors you can find on the board, try throwing on some stress testing programs (like Prime95 or Furmark), log the temperatures and see if there's a correlation between a particular item's high temperature (like FCH, VRM, CPU, GPU etc) and the time of the crash. If there is, maybe it is overheating of that (those) components that's the problem. If not, and it still crashes anyway, it could be the PSU... but it could also be a flaky motherboard. The fact that the system clock is frozen suggests that the CMOS battery on the board is dead. I might start by checking/replacing that battery.

Good monitoring programs to try -- Speedfan and AIDA64. The latter is somewhat more user friendly. Look for Sensor under Computer in the main menu of the program. You can also use these to monitor various voltages on the system. The 12V, 5V 3.3V lines should all be within 5% of those values 99% if the time. If the crashes come when a voltage line dips or peaks, then you know it's... either the PSU or the VRM on the motherboard.

Hi Mike:
Thanks for the Seasonic suggestions. The PSU is actually an AOpen one, with its own part number, but it's not available (or I'm not smart enough to find it...) in their web site. On the other hand their sales procedure seems to be quite complicated, so maybe trying to get a one through an easiest way could be the solution.

About CMOS battery, I already changed it. The frozen clock issue is now quite weird. When all this began, after the htpc crashed then clock and date ware set to a standard point in the past when rebooting. I then changed battery, and now the problem is different. When it crashes the clock time stops at the moment of the crash, but day, month, and year remain with the correct values in the present. So maybe, as you mention, the real problem is with the motherboard and not the PSU ... Then I thinking this HTPC is becoming the worst investment of my life...

I'll monitor with the software you recommended the PSU and the motherboard as well.

Thanks for helpful feedback, I really appreciate it

Oscar