Horrendous PSU problem....

AllanWalton

AllanWalton

AllanWalton

Associate
Joined
19 Aug 2010
Posts
9
hi,

I'm having an awful problem with my rig and it's beyond my technical ability to get to the bottom of it so i'm running out of ideas and was hoping you could offer some suggestions and advice.

I put together a new PC at the start of the year with the following components:

Radeon HD5850
Fractal Design R2 PSU (650w)
Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 (Socket AM3) Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955
samsung 2TB Hard drive
Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 memory
Sony DVD drive
Windows 7 64 bit

It was fine for the first three months or so (apart from a windows 7 problem with restarting a pc from sleep mode and large hard drives causing a BSOD but a hotfix appeares to have fixed that) but then it started turning itself off (the power was turning off rather than BSODing or shutting down).

This gradually got worse and more frequent and then it stopped working completely.

I got the PSU replaced and it started working again but the same thing happened with it except it stopped working completely after just 5 days (so it didn't gradually get worse this time it just went).

The gfx card requires a 500w PSU (although the psu isn't listed in the certified list on AMD's website) so a 650w supply should be adequate (so I don't think it's trying to suck too much power through and blowing?). Looking at the total amperage on the 12V rail, the requirement is 40A and the PSU provides 50A so i'm not sure if that's likely to be a problem (?).

I don't think it's an overheating issue as the PSU is cold to the touch when running and I've got both sides of my case off to prevent air flow issues.

My only other guess is that there is a problem with the rig and the motherboard installation causing a short somewhere - Once I've got a replacement psu I'll be taking out all the components and trying to run the rig on top of the mother board box.

Does anyone else have any suggestions about how I can track down the problem and fix this asap? Is it possible it's a broken component somewhere? Should I be looking into getting other items replaced?

I've not got a lot of money and don't have another rig to test components in although I've been offered a cheap gfx card to try and test that against my ati one.

If anyone has got any other suggestions please let me know thanks.

Allan

:(
 
Try running with a minimal setup.

Mobo, Grfx, 1 Stick of RAM, 1 HDD.

A 650w PSU should be sufficient to power your rig. I'm not sure who the OEM manufacturer of your PSU. 50Amps of 12v should be more than ample for your needs though.

Could be a short between motherboard and case. If the above fails then try assembling outside your case on a suitable surface.
 
beefybarn said:
You have'nt given us the most important piece of info...what make is the Psu.
Click to expand...

Yeah i did:

Radeon HD5850

***Fractal Design R2 PSU (650w) ***

Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 (Socket AM3) Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955
samsung 2TB Hard drive
Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 memory
Sony DVD drive
Windows 7 64 bit

;)

Cheers for the replies gents - it's really appreciated - I thought Fractal design had a good rep - they certainly seem like a professional outfit from mails back and forth and the website with the list of awards and what not.

As I said, the PSU isn;t one of the AMD certified ones so I'm going to buy another certified one but I think it's highly doubtful to get two PSU's go awry in the same manner.
 
ATNG also oem for .... icute, Startech,Coba,X-Factor,Coolmax,X-Spice,Cooltek.

Not a great list but not many of those brands are not sold in UK.

I would not rule out a PSU issue, but I would test with minmal setup as said above.
 
I would hold off on buying the PSU for the minute. It could be a fault elsewhere that is actually causing the problem. The problem could also be destroying your PSU.

Does your PC start at all? Any fan activity? Motherboard lights?
 
at the minute no, stone dead.

I'm guessing it's the PSU (purely because it was last time). I've got a spare fan so I'm gonna try the paperclip test on it tonight to make sure:


I'm going to return it to the vendour tomorrow - I had a look at the mobo + other components last night and there doesn't appear to be any physical damage elsewhere.

When the new one comes over I'll take the rig out of the case and try it so if there isn't a short between the mobo and the case i can rule it out.

fingers crossed.
 
I'm gonna bump this back to the top few pages as I've got my PC back from the dead.

It's currently running on top of a cardboard box with only 1 stick of RAM and a ****ty (but proven to work) nvidia gfx card so we'll see what happens over the next few days.

So it was the PSU, no other visible damage to any component (took it apart properly and put it back together outside the case).

Watch this space.

:D
 
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