My uncle's dead PSU?

2009-12-24 15:55:23

#1

Lai: Member; +186|6410

A few days ago, my uncle emailed me that his PC had died. He fucked it up for some reason, reformatted (+MBR) and made a clean XP install. It worked fine, but when he booted it again the next morning, the power switch would just flash and that's it. He figured he'd get a new harddisk; I advised him not to. Then he was like "fuck it, I'll buy a new PC"; which I also advised him not to. His PC is only 2 years old (he doesn't game, edit video's or photoshop at all) and to me it looked like a fried PSU. I took his PC to my place, but couldn't find a fitting spare PSU in my stash, except for an old 125W. Well, at least it buzzed a bit. I tried fitting his PSU in one of my old PC's, and though a led on the Mobo lit up, nothing happened.

As I said, his PC does absolutely nothing, no BIOS, no boot screen, no screen activity at all and none of the fans (including the PSU's) are spinning at all. The Dell powerswitch flashes orange, but that's it. What do you guys think, am I right, is it the PSU? I just want someone else's opinion before I order him a new PSU.

2009-12-24 16:10:40

#2

Flaming_Maniac: prince of insufficient light; +2,490|6966|67.222.138.85

It is either PSU, motherboard, or a very small chance that all the RAM is bad. I would definitely put my money on PSU if you swapped it into a another system and it didn't work.

Of course, you could have hit the jackpot and the PSU could be bad + other things. That's always fun.

2009-12-24 19:10:24

#3

Freezer7Pro: I don't come here a lot anymore.; +1,447|6456|Winland

If the fans just twitch, it's either the power MOSFETs on the mobo that have gone bad (and thus are short-circuiting the PSU), or the PSU itself that has failed.

The idea of any hi-fi system is to reproduce the source material as faithfully as possible, and to deliberately add distortion to everything you hear (due to amplifier deficiencies) because it sounds 'nice' is simply not high fidelity. If that is what you want to hear then there is no problem with that, but by adding so much additional material (by way of harmonics and intermodulation) you have a tailored sound system, not a hi-fi. - Rod Elliot, ESP

2009-12-25 00:45:21

#4

Lai: Member; +186|6410

Freezer7Pro wrote:
If the fans just twitch, it's either the power MOSFETs on the mobo that have gone bad (and thus are short-circuiting the PSU), or the PSU itself that has failed.

No the fans don't twitch at all with the original PSU, hence my suspicions.

It sounds a bit unlikely for the mobo to die after two years, PSU's are more likely to do so. Is their anyway I can confirm this before spending money, other than an educated guess?

2009-12-25 00:47:45

#5

Flaming_Maniac: prince of insufficient light; +2,490|6966|67.222.138.85

Voltmeter an elbow grease? lol

2009-12-25 01:01:38

#6

Lai: Member; +186|6410

Hmmm,.. I have a voltmeter, but I've never tried measuring a PSU/Mobo before. Other than that, it probably does show some voltage, even when its completely fucked.

2009-12-25 05:40:57

#7

Freezer7Pro: I don't come here a lot anymore.; +1,447|6456|Winland

You should try turning the PSU on without anything but a CD drive connected; put a paper clip between the green wire in the ATX-24-pin connector and ground (black). If it doesn't turn on then, it's officially dead. If it does turn on, you should measure the voltage of the red and yellow wires and ground in the MOLEX connectors. You want five volts in the red one and 12 in the yellow one. 4.5-5.5V and 11-13V is acceptable. Anything out of that range, and the PSU isn't up to the ATX specifications, and should be discarded.

If you measure over 5.5V or over 13V, it could easily happen that the motherboard is done for, as hey usually aren't made to handle more than that.

The idea of any hi-fi system is to reproduce the source material as faithfully as possible, and to deliberately add distortion to everything you hear (due to amplifier deficiencies) because it sounds 'nice' is simply not high fidelity. If that is what you want to hear then there is no problem with that, but by adding so much additional material (by way of harmonics and intermodulation) you have a tailored sound system, not a hi-fi. - Rod Elliot, ESP

2009-12-25 13:09:08

#8

FFLink: There is.; +1,380|6950|Devon, England

If you tried the PSU in your PC and it didn't work, surely that means the PSU is gone?

Replace it with a cheap one, and if it does nothing, assume it damaged the motherboard, too.

2009-12-25 13:11:12

#9

jaymz9350: Member; +54|6836

Lai wrote:
It sounds a bit unlikely for the mobo to die after two years, PSU's are more likely to do so. Is their anyway I can confirm this before spending money, other than an educated guess?

never underestimate the crap OEM's use. My secondary rig is my moms old pc which was about 1.5 years old where guess what, the mobo died. Took my old IP35-Pro and a new case (her's was M-ATX) and now it's even better (thanks to OC options)

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