PSU Problem?

DefiantAsh · 27 Oct 2010 at 13:03

Hello OcUK.

I have a Acer Aspire One AX3300 - sort of mini-media computer.

It first started ok last year when i first turned it on, and now for the past 2-3 weeks the power to the tower will randomly stop, and then the system shuts down, which is a pain since i have piles of college work to complete for the next couple of weeks.

First i thought it was the cable itself, so i pulled it out and it seems fine, then my attention turned to the fuse which in my case is a 10AMP fuse in the plug. Pulled it out and couldnt see anything wrong with it, put it back into the plug, made sure it was properly secured, plugged it into the socket, put the cable back into my tower, and the power turned on.

I then left it for around a few days, and totally forgot about it and then about 7 days after the initial power-down of the system (obviously i had manually shut it down overnight etc) it turned itself ofd again, so i used the same procedure and it worked again.

Now....in the past 24 hours, its shut itself down 3 times, one of them being only 10 minutes ago, and i was wondering is it a fault wih the actually fuse, because i haven't replaced it as of yet, but i will be replacing it tomorrow when i can get into town, or do you think it might be the actual psu in the system itself?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, i need a reliable system for when i come to rendering just before christmas.

Cheers

Ash

EDIT:

Specs;

Win7 HP 64bit
4GB DDR3 RAM
2x 250gb HDD's
Blu-ray/Super-multi combo optical drive
nvidia geforece G210 512MB (mobility i presume as its not overally good)
AMD Phenom II x2 545 dual core CPU @ ~3.00Ghz

I think thats all :|

Philtor · 27 Oct 2010 at 13:20

It's not the Fuse as this would stop the system turning on full stop. First thing to check is your temps. Download HWMonitor and keep an eye on your temps to see if they might be causing this issue. After that I would be inclined to think PSU in which case I would test another.

DefiantAsh · 27 Oct 2010 at 13:27

philtorrens said:
It's not the Fuse as this would stop the system turning on full stop. First thing to check is your temps. Download HWMonitor and keep an eye on your temps to see if they might be causing this issue. After that I would be inclined to think PSU in which case I would test another.

might be kind of impossible with my system though, with it being a mini-media computer, the tower is like 30cm high by around 8cm wide.

I will surely test the temps, but if it is the temps, how come they have only just started showing now? and the fact if i try to turn on my pc with the plug in, without pulling the plug out and then back into the socket it wont turn on, thats why i only assumed it was the fuse.

Will test the temps now and get back to you, heres a pic of my tower.

Sorry if the size is huge, but the tower is on the left of the image.

Jamiman · 27 Oct 2010 at 13:28

Easy way to test PSU:
(Be careful though!)

1. Unplug, and remove from PC

2. Locate the 20/24 Pin ATX connector.

3. Put a paperclip into the green contact (Where the green wire enters) and then the other end into any black contact (earth)

4. Insert powercord back into PSU

5. Turn on PSU

Turn off psu before removing the Paperclip.

DefiantAsh · 27 Oct 2010 at 13:37

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz326/DefiantAsh/temps.png

here are my temps, and it seems that this program is picking up 2 graphics cards, why is that? i only have a G210 512mb inside the case :| and the 9200 (which i dont have) seems to be clocking almost 140 degrees :confused:

Jamiman · 27 Oct 2010 at 13:45

that could be a faulty thermometer then! and the PC auto-shuts down when the temp exceeds a certain level.

That might be your problem there! :O

DefiantAsh · 27 Oct 2010 at 13:56

Jamiman said:
that could be a faulty thermometer then! and the PC auto-shuts down when the temp exceeds a certain level.

That might be your problem there! :O

i only have 1 gpu though, so how come its registering another one?

P.S: just got shutdown again, and my dad came in with a new amp, and we will see what happens for the next few days, or even a few hours, depends on my system :rolleyes:

DefiantAsh · 27 Oct 2010 at 15:15

DefiantAsh said:
i only have 1 gpu though, so how come its registering another one?

P.S: just got shutdown again, and my dad came in with a new amp, and we will see what happens for the next few days, or even a few hours, depends on my system

Rule out the problem with the fuse, it cut out once again with a new fuse.

Currently put one of the 10 amp fuses into a different psu cable, from my parent computer downstairs, so far so good, im just copying files over to my portable hard drive to make sure i dont lose any college work.

Seems as it might be an inevitability that my warranty has run out, only got 1 year, will see what i can do, if it is up, will open this tower up and see whats what, cheers for advice.