Power Supply trouble, please help!

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baddass4444

n00b
Joined
Jun 27, 2006
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Hello, first post here, thanks for any help!!!
I would like to mention that I have read the FAQS and sticky messages on Power Supplies.

I have tried 2 different PSU's an Ultra 500watt X-Finity and an ATRIX PSAX-550BL 550watt.
The Ultra lasted about half that night and died, the Atrix lasted about 1 hour then died. Is it the PSU's or something else killing them?

Here's what I am running:

Intel Pentium D 820 overclocked to 3.01ghz
Asus ATI 850pro (with pci-e power slot)
2 sticks DDR2 4200 (1gig and 512mb)
3 LED 80mm case fans
Front Case LED lights
DVD-ROM
DVD Burner
56k PCI modem
1 SATA HDD
1 7200 IDE HDD
1 3 1/2 floppy


The weird thing is, the only power supply I have been able to use consitantly is a crappy Powmax X-Power 550watt - +3.3V@28A / +5V@40A / +12V@20A


Thanks again for any help, this has been a frustrating process having to RMA 2 Power Supplies.
 
There's got to be something killing the PSU's.

Check the outlet with a tester. They're cheap and easy to use. Home Depot or Lowes.

Check the PSU's in another room... or BUILDING! with a PSU tester or even just a simple paper clip. Maybe the PSU just tripped. I know the Ultra has a fuse in it, but typically the internal breaker trips first. It resets by just being unplugged for a couple minutes.

I pretty sure the other PSU is the same way.

So I'm thinking bad ground, incorrect voltage or maybe even a short INSIDE the PC. I once had a couple PSU's that I thought were dead because only a (guess what) cheap Powmax worked. It turned out the CCFL's in the case had a short! The two GOOD PSU's were tripping because they had proper protection. The Powmax has NO protection, therefore kept putting along like nobody's business.
 
I can think of 2 issues:
Nevermind JonnyGURU answered already

I would still check Jonny's page and also this article by SilentPCReview for more info on PSUs Both sites have all the information you need to make the right decision on your next PSU purchase (but you'll have to dig in, shift through the info, use a calculator and then make a decision. Or you could just shot gun it and buy a PPC&C or an OCZ Power Stream)
 
How do I know it's a short inside the PC. Also I am in a basement with only 2 outlets down here, could that have something to do with it?
 
CCFL: Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light (right?).

It could be a CCFL or El wire, or anything that needs a DC to AC converter to work inside a PC (lights, lights, lights).

If you have never been able to run propperly in the basement with a power suply other than the POWMAX, you will want to buy the power tester that Jonny mentioned. Plug it into the wall and it will tell you if your wall outlet is miss-wired


The most extreme solution would be to take the motherboard out of the case, and rest it on a piece or wood or something that WILL not conduct any electricity. Leave the mobo only with CPU, Ram and Video card, if you still dont boot up, something is failing. If you do boot up it's either the fans, the Hard Drive or whatever else you have pluged in.
 
It doesn't have to be CCFL's shorting out. It can be ANYTHING. Best to do what Ozone suggests and run the system BARE BONES to see if it fires up and stays up.

That's assuming either of your decent PSU's come back to life.
 
Ok I tested all the outlets in my basement and everything checked out as "correct"

Could it possibly be the heatsink/fan on the CPU?

I'm using the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134

Another thought I had was, could it be the Ultra X-Finity and Atrix were 2 ,12v rails and the X-Power is a 1, 12v rail. Could that cause any problems?


PS - What power supply would you recommend for my system (specs are above). I was looking at the Silverstone ST56ZF 560W on your webpage jonny..?

thanks for the replies!
 
PS - JOnny, both my X-Finity and Atrix PSU's are completly DEAD. I tried them in other systems and got absoultly nothing.
 
Should make no difference how many 12V rails the dead PSU's have... at least when it comes to determining why they're dead.

And I don't know why a particular fan would cause a power supply to die.

You'd want to look at things like, floppy drive with power conn on pin off, front USB header hooked up backwards, etc.

Or you could just have horrible, horrible luck. At least the two dead PSU's have a warranty. ;) Either one should be enough for your build and are way better than the Powmax. Maybe you should just do an RMA instead of buying YET ANOTHER power supply.
 
I have been RMA'n

Thats why its been so frustrating.


I do have front usb, and when i hooked them up to my Gigabyte GA-8I945PL-G
the manual seemed very confusing - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1951


The markers on the manual and the markers on the case pins for the front USB and front audio were very confusing, in fact I couldn't even figure out the audio.



PS - just an odd thought for you jonny (thanks for all the help thus far) the PowMax X-Power (the only PSU that seems to work) is a 20 pin and the other 2 were 20 + 4 ( I used 24 pin), do you think that could burn the PSU's out. I don't think so, but just wanted to ask!??
 
jonnyGURU said:
Should make no difference how many 12V rails the dead PSU's have... at least when it comes to determining why they're dead.

And I don't know why a particular fan would cause a power supply to die.

You'd want to look at things like, floppy drive with power conn on pin off, front USB header hooked up backwards, etc.

Or you could just have horrible, horrible luck. At least the two dead PSU's have a warranty. ;) Either one should be enough for your build and are way better than the Powmax. Maybe you should just do an RMA instead of buying YET ANOTHER power supply.
Click to expand...


How can I check the floppy drive power connector on pin off, just make sure all prongs are inserted?
 
baddass4444 said:
you still there jonny??
Click to expand...

Went to lunch. Last I checked, I wasn't on the payroll. ;)



baddass4444 said:
PS - just an odd thought for you jonny (thanks for all the help thus far) the PowMax X-Power (the only PSU that seems to work) is a 20 pin and the other 2 were 20 + 4 ( I used 24 pin), do you think that could burn the PSU's out. I don't think so, but just wanted to ask!??
Click to expand...

That's not an odd thought. That's an EXCELLENT thought. Check the bottom of the board to see if it's touching an extra stand off that an extra lead may be shorting to. If there's no short at the bottom of the board, the board might be bad. But the only way to know for sure is to try another 24-pin.

Do you have a 20 to 24 pin adapter you can use with the Powmax? I'm sure nobody here would care if that PSU quit working. ;)


baddass4444 said:
How can I check the floppy drive power connector on pin off, just make sure all prongs are inserted?
Click to expand...

Same answer I'd give you about your front USB: Does the floppy work? Does the front USB work? If they were pinned wrong, they wouldn't. And the other PSU's would work if the PC was stripped down to the bare essentials.
 
Then focus on the fact that the new PSU's use 24-pins and the Powmax uses 20. Check for the short under the board.
 
jonnyGURU said:
Then focus on the fact that the new PSU's use 24-pins and the Powmax uses 20. Check for the short under the board.
Click to expand...


If I use a 20 to 24 pin adapter with my Powmax that should test out that theory, correct? If the Powmax keeps rollin then its not the 24 pin thing.
 
I would think since all the adapter is doing is splitting off the wires. Same thing happens in a PSU except that the split is inside the PSU housing.
 
jonnyGURU said:
I would think since all the adapter is doing is splitting off the wires. Same thing happens in a PSU except that the split is inside the PSU housing.
Click to expand...


What else could it possibly be if that turns up ok?
 
Jonny, is that it for the PSUs? Is there any other way to make sure they are completely dead beyond any hopes or resurection? Also, do the extra 4-pins connect to common 12v, 5v, 3.3v and ground traces on the mobo? How could a short affect the only 24-pin connection and not the 20-pin?

Badass, It has to be a short somewhere. The following are the usual trouble shooting steps, but you will need a PSU that will fail, not your Powmax that works no matter what. If you have a DC volt meter, i would check 12V (yellow to black) 5v (red to black) and 3.3v (orange to black) signals at each step (write down the numbers) to see if things change after a certain step (find the culprit).

the most thorough and systematic (and pain-in-the-ass) way to find out is to remove all the parts from the case, set the mobo on a piece of wood or cardboard or plastic, anything that won't conduct electricity.

Leave the mobo, with CPU, Ram and video card (and mouse and keyboard). you should boot to BIOS ok.
Hook up any CD/DVD you should still boot to bios ok.
Hook up the floppy,boot to bios
Hook up your fans, again boot to bios.
Hook up the HDD, you should boot to windows ok.
Hook up the front audio and USB. boot to windows.

If everything works, there was something wrong with the case, put the mobo, CPU, Ram and Video card back inside. Make absolutely certain the only metal touching the mobo are the stand-offs that you are using for the screws, andy stand-offs touching the pins on the back of the mobo could kill your mobo/CPU/Ram and not just the PSU.
install components in the case one by one, following the steps above.
 
Ozone77 said:
Jonny, is that it for the PSUs? Is there any other way to make sure they are completely dead beyond any hopes or resurection? Also, do the extra 4-pins connect to common 12v, 5v, 3.3v and ground traces on the mobo? How could a short affect the only 24-pin connection and not the 20-pin?
Click to expand...

He said he jumpered the power_on to ground. Other than opening them up to see if the fuses are blown... which voids the warranty... I'd pronounce them dead. If you don't get anything by grounding the green, there's nothing else you can do without opening the unit up.

The extra wires on a 24-pin 99% of the time meet at common traces. That's why you can operate 99% of the boards out there with a 20-pin instead of a 24.
 
OK I have ran a 20 pin to 24 pin adapter with my POwmax X-Power for the last 3 hours or so, and it has ran perfectly...

whats next?
 
RMA one of the other PSU's and try it again... but with the BARE ESSENTIALS hooked up to the board. Just the video, RAM, one HDD, etc.

Whatever it takes to boot into Windows and hold idle for three hours. Then start plugging other stuff in.

Process of elimination.
 
Alright, just want to let everyone know that the Powmax ran all night with the 20-24 pin adapter.

So I guess that idea is sqaushed. Also does that mean that the mainboard is all good too?
 
No, remember what jonny said, about only a Powmax working on his rig... The other two shut-down as a safety mechanism because of a short somewhere in the case (but i dont think they died).

If you are in the RMA process, wait until you get another PSU and try again, it COULD be that you got 2 bad PSUs..

One last far-fetched option is that the temp got very high inside the case and it killed the PSU (again far-fetched, i would expect the Powmax to die before the others). How are the fans arranged in the case? how are the fans arranged in all 3 PSUs? Was it hotter than usual when the other 2 PSU failed?
 
OK, I guess SpeedFan is on crack, I did a multimeter test and +5V was running at 5.09 idle and 5.09 running Prime95. +12V running at 12.04 idle.
 
Ozone77 said:
Is there any other way to make sure they are completely dead beyond any hopes or resurection? Also, do the extra 4-pins connect to common 12v, 5v, 3.3v and ground traces on the mobo? How could a short affect the only 24-pin connection and not the 20-pin?
Click to expand...
Is it possible that the +12V wire (yellow) on the extra pins goes to a different +12V rail than the +12V wire on the 20-pin part of the mobo connector?

A PSU isn't beyond hope unless its transformer or a proprietary chip burned out because everything else (chips, resistors, capacitors, etc.) can be replaced cheaply or repaired (donut coils with burnt wires).
 
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