Power Supply Burnout

[KnightConvoy]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the boards, at least as far as membership is concerned. I have a bit of an odd problem that I can't seem to find an answer for.

I have an ECS K7S5A motherboard with an Athlon XP 2000 processor, 768MB PC133 memory, an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 7500 video card, a 60 GB hard drive and a 160 GB hard drive with a 400 watt power supply.

I'm currently building a P4 3.0 GHz Socket 478 on a Foxcomm 661FXME board with 1 GB ram, built in video (until I get the kinks worked out), and two 160 GB hard drives.

At first, I used the same 400 watt power supply from my Athlon system to power it, until I noticed a burning smell and the computer cut off. I pulled the system out from under the desk it was at to make check to see if anything was noticeably wrong. I saw nothing so I started it back up (running a Knoppix cd) to see if there were any initial performance problems. I kept the case pulled out until I was finished for the night, which is when I pushed it back under the desk and before I powered down. I never got a chance to power down, I smelled something burning and it cut off and would not come back on.

I tried switching out power supplies to see if that was the problem. I have another 400 watt power supply and checked to see if it would start, which it did start. I cut it off to prevent any damage to anything. I went out and bought an XG Vortec 600 watt power supply. I know it's probably overkill, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I'm kind of afraid to start the computer back up as I'm afraid that I missed something else that could cause this rather expensive power supply to fail. Does anyone have any pointers? Should I be safe from here on out? Thank you for all that made it through this awfully long explanation and thank you for all your help and knowledge.


--KnightConvoy

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Hopefully, once you`ve hooked up the new psu, everything will be fine.

I do understand your trepidation, but unless you go ahead and try the new psu, you`re not going to know.

Regards and good luck Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[KnightConvoy]

Ok, so I've got it started up and I'm checking the system settings. Are temps of 41 Celsius for the CPU and 27 Celsius for the system normal? I thought the CPU had to run a little cooler, but perhaps I'm wrong. If I adjust the fans on the power supply I can get the 41 down to 39, but I still feel like something is wrong. I smell something similar to what I experienced when the last power supply failed. Could I be missing something?

Thank you guys for all your help.

 

[KnightConvoy]

Well, shortly after my last post, it worked its way up to 43-45 Celsius so I did a little searching on here and from what I can tell, it's a normal range. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Your temps don`t seem to be that high, so I wouldn`t worry too much about that.

As for the burning smell, I`m a little more concerned.

Check that there isn`t any short circuit anywhere. When you built the system, you did use the mobo standoffs didn`t you?

It could also be the smell left over from when the old psu blew.

Regards Howard

 

[KnightConvoy]

I was thinking the same thing, that perhaps its just left over from the previous incident. I didn't let it run long enough to see if it went away and it wasn't very strong or anything. There's no such thing as new computer smell is there? LOL, I'm just kidding and yes, I used the standoffs.

Thanks for your help.