Dying PSU or something else?

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

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kieran45
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Dying PSU or something else?

Post by kieran45 » Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:17 pm

First of all, system specs:

Asus P5K, E6750, Ninja, 2GB corsair 6400, 8600GT, AC S2, 320GB Seagate, 500GB WD, Antec Sonata III with 500W Earthwatts.

System has been running for only 6 months.

About 2 weeks ago I moved the PC into a new room upstairs, and after setting it up, it started randomly shutting down. It would just switch off as if the power cord was pulled. It happened occasionally, and sometimes would happen repeatedly straight away when turning on the system, sometimes it would run for hours before happening, or not at all.

I thought that the move could have jiggled something like RAM loose, so I did a complete pull down and rebuild of the whole system.

This solved everything. . . for a while. About 2 weeks after rebuild, the missus unplugged something from the powerboard behind the PC (maybe knocked the power cord?), and it is happening again.

Sometimes jiggling the power cord in the back of the PSU helps, but not always. It will turn off randomly, but last night I could not get it to start up at all. The power would turn on (usually) but then switch off after a few seconds (2-15 seconds).

So the question is, is it my PSU dying, or could something else be causing the symptoms?

VanWaGuy
Posts: 299
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Location: Vancouver Wa USA

Post by VanWaGuy » Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:34 pm

Hi Kieran45,

There are several things that can cause the system so shutdown including CPU overheating, power supply, and probably also memory or motherboard issues.

If you have a spare power supply, that would be a relatively easy one to diagnose.

I had a system that was shutting down because the heatsink was pretty logged with dust, so also making sure that the air intake and outlets are clear, cpu fan is spinning, and heatsink is not clogged with dust. (Check northbridge and southbridge heatsinks while you are at it.)

Was the room warmer when it had issues, and cooler when it ran OK?

There are probably even software possibilities, although they do not fit the worked/notworked/worked/notworked pattern, still it also might be worth getting a "live CD" Linux distribution. Knoppix is one. Anyway, see if Linux will boot and run, and maybe try RAM tests. If that runs fine, but code from the hard drive does not, something could have been corrupted.

jhhoffma
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI

Re: Dying PSU or something else?

Post by jhhoffma » Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:47 pm

kieran45 wrote:About 2 weeks ago I moved the PC into a new room upstairs
Have you tried moving the computer back downstairs? My first thought was that you don't have as good of cooling upstairs? Maybe it's overheating and the PSU is shutting down for thermal protection? Your hardware isn't that power hungry, but I can't see anything else that sticks out.

kieran45
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by kieran45 » Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:15 pm

Hi guys, thanks for the quick response. It is not an overheating or overload issue. Upstairs is the same temp as downstairs, around about 20 degrees C.

CPU temp idles at low 30's, and maxes at high 40's. GPU idles at low 40's and maxes high 50's. Exhaust air from PSU and rear case fan are both cool.

I clean it out regularly, and all components are relatively new, so dust is not an issue.

Riffer
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by Riffer » Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:26 am

Is there anything wrong with the electrical outlet?

bgavin
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Location: Orangevale, CA

Post by bgavin » Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:17 am

I don't know the age of your system, but get a strong light and closely examine the capacitors around the cpu socket.

Look at the tops of the caps for ANY bulging, leaking, etc. If you have any visible signs, your board needs to be recapped. This is caused by poor quality caps, over heating, *or* a defective power supply.

If you have an Antec power supply more than a year old, it most likely has bulging caps inside. Call Antec and make them RMA it. They have known about their capacitor problems for a very long time.

If you have a Bestec power supply, immediately replace it. It is one of the most destructive units, again due to very poor quality caps. You can open up the PSU and take a look down from the top. Anything bulging is reason to immediatley replace the PSU.

I own a computer service business, and see this every day. Bad caps cause stability problems. Only the recent boards such as Abit, Gigabyte, and Asus offer 100% solid polymer caps. These are much higher quality than cheap electrolytics, and will increase your system durability.

kieran45
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by kieran45 » Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:11 pm

I am pretty sure the outlet is fine, other stuff plugged in to it does not go out at the same time as the PC.

I did have a quick look at the board, but I will have a close look, and also have a look inside the PSU. It is an Antec PSU, only about 6-8 months old. I didn't know about the problems with antec PSU's. There must be millions of them out there.

blackpaw
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Location: Brisbane

Post by blackpaw » Sat Jun 14, 2008 9:54 pm

Crap, I'm getting this problem as too - Antec NSK2480 case, brand new, brought and assembled yesterday. And it keeps switching itself off - sometimes only a few seconds after it starts, sometimes after a few hours.

It seems to get on a roll. Once its switches off it won't power up at all. If I leave it for a bit it will power up fine.

Motherboard caps seem ok, how do I check the power supply? do I have to take it apart?

EsaT
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Re: Dying PSU or something else?

Post by EsaT » Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:53 am

kieran45 wrote:Sometimes jiggling the power cord in the back of the PSU helps
Have you tried changing power cord? (for example change it with display)

Also most electric devices aren't as sensitive as PC so mains problem isn't excluded possibility.

kieran45 wrote:I didn't know about the problems with antec PSU's. There must be millions of them out there.
Problem was Fuhjjyu time bomb capacitors in Antec PSUs made by CWT/Channel Well Technology: SmartPowers (yeah right, should have been stupidpower) and TruePowers except Trio.

kieran45
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by kieran45 » Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:17 pm

I checked out all the capacitors on the motherboard and in the PSU, and couldn't see anything visually wrong with them. They do make a mess inside the Earthwatts PSU's with the glue they use though.

Got sick of this happening, and still figured it was probably the PSU, so I decided I was worth a new PSU anyway. Picked up a corsair HX520. Love the modular cables.

Seems to have fixed the problem. Everything has been rock solid for the last week or so since I put it in. Can't be 100% sure, as the problem did go away for a while after I pulled eveything apart last time, but I am fairly confident that it was the PSU, and the new one has fixed the problem.

VanWaGuy
Posts: 299
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:01 am
Location: Vancouver Wa USA

Post by VanWaGuy » Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:29 pm

Had the fan stopped in the PSU? If the system would run, then not work till it has sat for awhile sounds like it must be thermal and the PSU was given time to cool down. I can not think of anything else that would change during the wait.

kieran45
Posts: 38
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:57 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by kieran45 » Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:05 pm

The fan was still working. It wasn't really a matter of not working, waiting for a while, then working again. It was more of a random working or not working situation. Sometimes it would work fine for a day or so, no matter how often the PC was turned off and on, and others it would not turn on at all for most of a day.

Anyway, new PSU and no problems.

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