Hello everyone,
Ok I haven't posted in a while as I have bought a new PC. This actually concerns my old pc that I gave to my friend. The thing is I have recently found out that the pc has had 3 Power Supplies that have failed in about a year's time. Each of these Power Supplies wasn't a cheap model. They were collectively well known brands. I have asked my friend to tell me what is the current model and wattage of the current PSU.
My question is what could cause a repeated failure of decent Power Supplies? My friend isn't much of a techie and he surmised that it maybe is the Motherboard? This Desktop PC is about 4 years old. It is an AMD 4400+ Dual Core 3 Gig RAM DDR3200, The Motherboard is a Gigabyte KA-8N SLI and it has currently an ATI video Card, I think it's a HD5770.
Anyway, I originally had a 350W power supply which couldn't handle the strains of the new video card and the computer's PSU failed. As I was working full time in a very stressful job, I did not have the means to buy a new PSU and install it myself as I would have normally. The end result was we took it to the shops and spent 130 odd dollars AU [80 dollars for the Power Supply itself] for a 600 Watt Power Supply and within 3 to 5 months, that power supply failed.
Currently, the PC works intermittently. It sometimes turns on and works fine and recently, the last 2 days it does not even turn on. I just don't understand how a good brand PSU can fail so quickly?
My friend thinks it might be the Case Fans, as the case I had it in had was a gaming case with 1 big 120mm fan in the front of the Case and two 80 mm fans to the side. He seems to think maybe it is the fans chewing up power but I tend to think not as I ran several peripherals when I had that PC and I was a power user compared to my friend who basically only occassionally uses it and he generally only uses it for old games like Neverwinter NIghts 2. I can't seem to get my head around a possible solution. My theories are as follows:
1. Power Outlet faulty? I thought maybe there was a overload at the power socket where the PC is plugged in or possibly the whole house as he said he thought of that and has moved the plug in for the PC around.
2. Motherboard? If it was the motherboard would it not make those beeping sounds at start? From what I have gathered talking to my friend, it appears that since the PC hasn't started, it has been making distinctive beeps indicating a hardware fault? My PC noob friend has stated maybe it was the connection between the MB and the PSU but I thought that was preposterous as the connection wires would be coming from the PSU and not the MB so the chances that 3 PSU cables to PC are faulty just sounds impossible.
3. Memory. I have not seen the PC myself and only spoke to him on the phone but I will be going over to his house on the weekend to have a look and if need be, bring the PC over to my place to take it apart and start testing each component separately to find the fault.
Also, my friend says maybe its just wear and tear. But surely that does not make sense. I used to own this PC and I was a heavy gamer. I played in the years 2007 - 2010 quite heavily with this pc and I had several joysticks and that was when it had a 350w Antec Power Supply with absolutely no issues. I do know that a mutual friend apparently 'fixed' it last time it broke down [PSU]. He apparently replaced the PSU and gave the interior a clean with compressed air. I have a sneaking suspicion he might have tweaked the voltages but again, I am not sure and I will be confirming with this technician tomorrow. I have instructed my friend to run a dxdiag and send the file to me so I can post it with this thread but I don't think that is gonna happen as it sounds like the PC wont load to windows.
Can someone please give me clues to how to go about indentifying the core problem here? Am I on the right path with my analysis? I just can't fathom that it could be the motherboard. Is it possible for a faulty motherboard to cause failure of brand new decent model PSU units?
Ok I haven't posted in a while as I have bought a new PC. This actually concerns my old pc that I gave to my friend. The thing is I have recently found out that the pc has had 3 Power Supplies that have failed in about a year's time. Each of these Power Supplies wasn't a cheap model. They were collectively well known brands. I have asked my friend to tell me what is the current model and wattage of the current PSU.
My question is what could cause a repeated failure of decent Power Supplies? My friend isn't much of a techie and he surmised that it maybe is the Motherboard? This Desktop PC is about 4 years old. It is an AMD 4400+ Dual Core 3 Gig RAM DDR3200, The Motherboard is a Gigabyte KA-8N SLI and it has currently an ATI video Card, I think it's a HD5770.
Anyway, I originally had a 350W power supply which couldn't handle the strains of the new video card and the computer's PSU failed. As I was working full time in a very stressful job, I did not have the means to buy a new PSU and install it myself as I would have normally. The end result was we took it to the shops and spent 130 odd dollars AU [80 dollars for the Power Supply itself] for a 600 Watt Power Supply and within 3 to 5 months, that power supply failed.
Currently, the PC works intermittently. It sometimes turns on and works fine and recently, the last 2 days it does not even turn on. I just don't understand how a good brand PSU can fail so quickly?
My friend thinks it might be the Case Fans, as the case I had it in had was a gaming case with 1 big 120mm fan in the front of the Case and two 80 mm fans to the side. He seems to think maybe it is the fans chewing up power but I tend to think not as I ran several peripherals when I had that PC and I was a power user compared to my friend who basically only occassionally uses it and he generally only uses it for old games like Neverwinter NIghts 2. I can't seem to get my head around a possible solution. My theories are as follows:
1. Power Outlet faulty? I thought maybe there was a overload at the power socket where the PC is plugged in or possibly the whole house as he said he thought of that and has moved the plug in for the PC around.
2. Motherboard? If it was the motherboard would it not make those beeping sounds at start? From what I have gathered talking to my friend, it appears that since the PC hasn't started, it has been making distinctive beeps indicating a hardware fault? My PC noob friend has stated maybe it was the connection between the MB and the PSU but I thought that was preposterous as the connection wires would be coming from the PSU and not the MB so the chances that 3 PSU cables to PC are faulty just sounds impossible.
3. Memory. I have not seen the PC myself and only spoke to him on the phone but I will be going over to his house on the weekend to have a look and if need be, bring the PC over to my place to take it apart and start testing each component separately to find the fault.
Also, my friend says maybe its just wear and tear. But surely that does not make sense. I used to own this PC and I was a heavy gamer. I played in the years 2007 - 2010 quite heavily with this pc and I had several joysticks and that was when it had a 350w Antec Power Supply with absolutely no issues. I do know that a mutual friend apparently 'fixed' it last time it broke down [PSU]. He apparently replaced the PSU and gave the interior a clean with compressed air. I have a sneaking suspicion he might have tweaked the voltages but again, I am not sure and I will be confirming with this technician tomorrow. I have instructed my friend to run a dxdiag and send the file to me so I can post it with this thread but I don't think that is gonna happen as it sounds like the PC wont load to windows.
Can someone please give me clues to how to go about indentifying the core problem here? Am I on the right path with my analysis? I just can't fathom that it could be the motherboard. Is it possible for a faulty motherboard to cause failure of brand new decent model PSU units?
