Possibly faulty PSU?

barnettgs

barnettgs

barnettgs

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Joined
22 Jan 2005
Posts
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Location
N Ireland
My friend's PC had developed some BSOD recently...a few months after he bought it as second-hand.

It passed memtest but I noticed many capacitors on unbranded motherboard that are bulged with leaks on top that were dried up (not a good sign?!) so I replaced it with new motherboard.

However, it didn't solve the problem as BSOD appeared again during XP installation! It's the same everytime until I swapped memory stick and problem disappeared....it looks like a faulty ram after all.

The PSU is Q-Tec and could it be the one that caused capacitors in motherboard some problems? Cos the voltages seemed to be bit unstable (constantly moving up and down) especially on 5v and 12v in BIOS:

5v - from 5.030 to 5.085
12v - from 11.741 to 11.923
-12v - 12.4
-5v - 5.6v

5v SB - 4.7v
Battery - 3.2v

What do you think? After replacing motherboard and ram, I'm not sure if it's good idea to replace PSU as well...after all, it's AMD 2000+ XP system!
 
Get rid of it. It could quite likely be the cause of the leaking capacitors on the motherboard. I'm not too clued up on the safe voltage levels, but I would replace the PSU anyway, before it blows up.
 
killer_uk said:
Get rid of it. It could quite likely be the cause of the leaking capacitors on the motherboard. I'm not too clued up on the safe voltage levels, but I would replace the PSU anyway, before it blows up.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I'm trying to keep the costs down for a friend...he say he'll sell it once it's fixed.

I'm not sure whether bulged capacitor is the result of being faulty or caused by unstable power (unlikely?).
 
yes sorry, i thought i was replying to another thread

In this case i would replace the motherboard. Of course you must weigh up the costs and see whether YOU think its worth it.
 
barnettgs said:
Hmm, I'm trying to keep the costs down for a friend...he say he'll sell it once it's fixed.

I'm not sure whether bulged capacitor is the result of being faulty or caused by unstable power (unlikely?).
Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't read you post correctly, I thought you were still having blue screens but you say you changed the memory! I don't know a lot when it comes down to electronics. Best wait for a better answer! :p
 
Ok, just opened up PSU and found 5 bulged capacitors with dried brown stuff on top! Two large capacitors seemed to be ok!

Well, got to replace PSU as well after ram and motherboard!
 
That is a nice case actually. I just built a pc for someone using that case and it's psu and i have to say i was quite impressed. Decent psu with good outputs on the rails (for it's size) and it's nice and quiet too. The psu also sit's in it's own sort of wind tunnel at the top of the case. Case build quality is excellent and it comes with a single 120mm Antec Tri-cool 3 speed fan. There is room for a single 80mm at the fornt and on the side panel but they are not supplied.
 
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