Acreo Aeneas

Perhaps Sarc or some of the rest of you can help me on this one.

So last week, my mother's PC went poop. The system would power on and off once or twice then the system failed to power up at all. So I went and paper clip tested the PSU. The PSU fan and my case fans would spin, so it couldn't necessarily be a bad PSU. I then went and stripped down the PC to barebone parts (gfx card, mobo, cpu, 1 stick ram, hard drive, mouse, and keyboard). The system still failed to power on, so I went and started taking off part by part from there. I got down to just the mobo, psu, and cpu, and the system still failed to start. So I figure, hey, the storm probably knocked the mobo or it went bad itself.

So skip forward to tonight. I ended up ordering and now have installed a new Biostar motherboard. Once again, I experienced the same on/off fluctuating power issue. So I figured, the PSU went bad and ended up frying my old board. I've then swapped out the PSU and put in a 250W FSP (13A on +12V) and proceeded to start the system back up. And now the system will fail to POST and will restart every 20 seconds or so.

The question I'm stuck at is: Do I need a more powerful PSU or is one of my parts bad?

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Spec Sheet:
Biostar P4M80-M4 (Socket 478, VIA chipset, AGP)
Intel Celeron (2.66 Ghz, 128K, 400 Mhz)
1 x 512MB Elixir DDR333 (in dimm slot 1)
1 x 128MB Nanya DDR400 (in dimm slot 2)
GeForce 4 MX (AGP 8x)
DVD-ROM
CD-RW
Floppy (connected but unpowered)
7-in-one Multicard reader
Aspire ATX Mid-Tower (clear side panel, front LCD temp display)
Fortron Source PSU (250W, 13A on +12V)

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Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th MID Member

Buckets

Sounds like a PSU problem to me but you could also have a short somewhere. That seems unlikely if you just installed a new motherboard and didn't leave any extra studs in though.

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Syntonic

250w seems awfully low. You should already be pushing near the 250w mark with your current system configuration and that's not taking into account capacitor aging and the actual normal output for the PSU under load. I'm not sure if your other components are fried though but there are PSU calculators available to give you a general idea of what you might need.

Zoopy

Sounds like PSU.

Acreo Aeneas

Okay, I'll get a higher output PSU tomorrow and swap it in. Every other PSU in the house are the cheap generic ones that came with my various cases.

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Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th MID Member

=Sarc=

I guess you could try running it with minimum components connected to see if the old PSU was bad. The 250W does seem like it might not run all those devices but it would be good to find out if a new PSU would fix the problem.

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Acreo Aeneas

Well I ended up going through a minimum parts to see if the system will still reboot on me (as suggested above as well) and it is still powering on and off on its own accord (whether it was the old PSU or the FSP).

I'm going to test this again later on today with a new PSU from a local computer store. Keep in mind that I've had the FSP and the other "generic" PSUs for some 2 or so years. They have all seen usage in the past, so I'm thinking the caps and such within each PSU might have aged to the point where they cannot sustain the current system config.

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Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th MID Member

=Sarc=

It does seem like the PSU is bad so far after all your tests. I can't think of anything else that could be the problem... Maybe the outlet you're using or the power strip is causing some trouble but it's really just another thing to test in case it may be the problem.

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deathknight

Could it be something with your case? If your psu supports 400W it should be enough for those parts. If all the parts are in the same case, it may be the case has build up electricity or a short in the power cable. ETC. If you have a separate case try mounting the mobo, ram and cpu in it and see if it will power on and post.

Tonk

test your voltage from your outlet ( adding to what sarc said)

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Acreo Aeneas

Hmm, well I put in a Antec EarthWatts 380W into it and it's still powering on/off by itself (this time after about 20 or so minutes).

I've kept it off for the night and even flipped the PSU switch.

I'm going to go through and have a talk with my dad about this. It might be insufficient power flow from the power strip (connected to a outlet). I might have to have him rewire wires running to the room's outlets to handle a larger load. (I have 5 printers, 3 desk lamps, 4 computers, speakers, and 4 monitors in this room...so too much draw on one AC outlet?)

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Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th MID Member

machowner

on one outlet?

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Grunt 70

take it to another room and test it...you are right that's too much draw...and dangerous too.

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Acreo Aeneas

It's 2 computers on two seperate outlets.

I've gone and spoken to my dad and he says that since my system doesn't experience these intermitten on/offs then it is the computer's problem.

I've been trying to get updates installed on the system, but I've noticed now that Windows will for no apparent reason initiate a complete computer shutdown about 20 minutes or so.

Anyone ever experience something similiar? Possible solution/workaround?

Edit: Hmm, I'll try moving this machine into the room in back to see if the problem arises still.

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Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th MID Member

Acreo Aeneas

Gosh darn it! Moved it to the back room and the thing still powers on and off by itself.

Somethings I've checked for:

• CPU Overheating (BIOS says it's at 30C)
• CPU Fan is spinning and on.
• Swapped Power Cables
• Moved it to another room
• Pulled everything else from the socket except for the computer.
• Changed the PSU
• Changed the motherboard

None of those things have helped.

The only two things I haven't done are: change the case and update the BIOS.

Now what do I do?

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Acreo_Aeneas
Former 9th MID Member