What on Earth is happening to my PC?

marcosscriven · 12 Sep 2006 at 13:01

First off, I reckon the problem is with the power supply. But I just want to go through the problems here first before I go out a buy another. Questions first, description after:

1) Is it likely to be my power supply, or could it be the anything to do with the quality of incoming mains?

2) If it is the power supply, can you recommend a high quality, quiet, alternative, with enough power for 2x SLI, a few hard drives and optical drives? anything around the 500W mark?

3) The power supply is just under a year old - I can't really wait for the time to send off a power supply, to be fixed and returned. Any ideas if Tagan can send out a new one first?

System:
Tagan TG580-U15 (580W)
AMD 4400+ X2
Asus A8N Sli Premium
2 x Corsair CMX1024-3200C2PT (2 Gb)
2 x BFG 7800 GT
2 x optical drive
2 x hard drive
1 x TV card

So, here's the strory:

a) Computer seemed to be fine for 10 months. All new parts
b) Computer rebooted spontaneoulsy a couple of times. Didn't happen again so ignored it
c) Came to computer one morning and it appeared to be on, but no display. Tried rebooting, still nothing. Tried taking out one stick of ram. Nothing. Tried using the other stick of ram. Nothing. Tried removing EVERYTHING except CPU, power, one stick of ram, and ONE graphics card: Nothing. Tried different graphics card. Nothing.
d) Eventually, thought the mobo was bad, so rebuilt with a DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI. STILL nothing!!!! Arghh. However, the DFI party at least had a beep telling me there was a memory prob. Tried a completely different OLD bit of ram, and it worked.
e) Tried my Corsair ram, both together and separately, in a different computer. Both seemed to cause the computer to not boot. Sent back to Cordsair (great service)
f) Used computer without problems with old memory. Seemed a little slow, but I put that down to less, and slower, memory.
g) Got some bad sectors/CRC failures on my Samsung hard drive. Fixed. Seemed to be ok
h) Replacement memory came. Put them both in - and guess what happened? The CPU fan fires up, the lights at the front come on for a second or so. Then OFF. No beep, no nothing!!!
i) Put the old mem back in. Nothing...

What is this? Is it really the power supply? What's the mechanism by which a power supply does such damage? Will the replacement memory be fried now as well? What if it's not the power supply, what could it be? As you can probably tell, I'm at my wits end here!

I really want my desktop machine back - what should I do? Added to this is the fact that I bought the Tagan here at overclockers, but now live in Germany. Tagan Germany say I must return it to Overclockers

Should I just buy a new one, and dump the Tagan? Can the Tagan ever be trusted again?

Thanks

Marcos

Joe42 · 12 Sep 2006 at 14:27

Well as the only component you didn't swap out was the psu i think its time to try a new one. See if you can send the Tagan back and get a refund so you can buy a new one immediately.

Can you try that old memory in another machine and see if its died?

marcosscriven · 12 Sep 2006 at 14:37

hi

Thanks for the reply. Since writing, I've fiddled a bit more. Cleared the CMOS. It does at least boot into the BIOS now. And even the replacement memory works. Or sort of does, maybe.

You get to the windows loading screen, then everything just goes blank, even though the machine still seems to be on. So maybe that's because I've just fried the replacement memory already?

Arggh. Think I'm going to just have to shell out now and get a new PSU

(

marcosscriven · 12 Sep 2006 at 14:43

Would a 500W Seasonic S12-500 be sufficient for such an SLI spec, or should I go for the 600W?

Chronictank · 12 Sep 2006 at 15:06

marcosscriven said:
Would a 500W Seasonic S12-500 be sufficient for such an SLI spec, or should I go for the 600W?

if your using a Lanparty dont go with seasonic at all, quote from another thead:

Chronictank said:
If plan reusing it in a DFI Lanparty board or a Conroe DO NOT get a Seasonic S12
If they send you a old version of the PSU the 7 day grace period (OCuk included), and Seasonic wont replace the PSU either saying its a known fault and will blame it on the motherboard manufacturer.
It is a very quiet PSU if you dont mind RMA'ing it a few times because you got a bugged version

Personally i would go with the safe bet and get the 600 or 700w
OCZ GameXStream Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply

marcosscriven · 12 Sep 2006 at 15:38

What's OCZ? Overclocks own brand? Sadly I can't get that any time soon as I'm in Berlin, Germany.

Joe42 · 12 Sep 2006 at 15:39

marcosscriven said:
What's OCZ? Overclocks own brand? Sadly I can't get that any time soon as I'm in Berlin, Germany.

OCZ.
They are a massive performance memory company a bit like corsair and their psus have been found to be very good.

Admiral Huddy · 12 Sep 2006 at 16:22

marcosscriven said:
Can the Tagan ever be trusted again?

Thanks

Marcos

This particular model was slatted by PC publications which was a shame because its predecessor was rated so highly. Tests showed that out of all the higher rated PSUs, this one was the one to avoid.

That said, you can test you voltages either using a motherboard monitor to record the voltages or simply use a multi-meter to test if the rails on your PSU is within the allowable tolerance.

Power test for Power output

Turn PC off but leave plug connected.
Take power connector (Molex) and insert black probe into black wire connector.
Insert red probe into red wire connector.
Set multi-meter to 20volts and turn on PC.
Read out should be around +5volts.
Turn off PC and repeat process but this time connecting the red probe into the yellow wire.
Power PC on again and read the read out should give you around +12volts

Allow for some deviation. For 5volts between +4.8volts and +5.2volts and for 12volts between +11.5volts and 12.6volts.

Anything outside these there is certain to be a problem with the power supply.

marcosscriven · 12 Sep 2006 at 18:11

ok - i got the only 600W I could find at my local store, unfortunately about 10% more expensive than OcUK

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Enermax_Power_Supplies.html

Enermax Noisetaker 600W EG701AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU (CA-021-EN)

So - do I open it? Is it any good? Tell me quick! I'm dying to get my computer running again... I've looked online, but it's somewhat confusing with the multiple revisions.