Page 1 of Strange PC Power Issue?

Hi Everyone
Been away for sometime and see i have been a member for nearly 10 years!! where does the time go? Get to the point Mark, sorry!

PC I built 3 and bit years ago, AMD Dual Core, 2GB, 500gb, Win 7 Ultimate - Starting showing strange starting issue about a week ago, when I press power it would take about 20 seconds before the pc would start, then it would get worse with me having to press the power button 2 or 3 times and wait before any sign of life? Once starting pc worked fine?

Now nothing?

I can change any part its just finding whats wrong?

Any help appreciated

This item was edited on Sunday, 24th April 2011, 12:59

Hi mate :) long time no see :(

Sounds like you need a new psu, dead easy to fit,

Hope this helps

This item was edited on Sunday, 24th April 2011, 11:54

That was quick The Ogster, thanks!

I have looked at this site on how to test my power supply and I think I have shorted the pins 15 and 16 ( I just shorted every green wire with every other one to be sure) and tried other power cable and no sign of life?

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/power-supply-test-multimeter.htm

If its the power supply then thats 2 in three years now! I know I buy cheap at under £15 but dont want to spend too much as its an old PC now

Got any recommendations for under £20?

Thanks

This item was edited on Sunday, 24th April 2011, 13:23

I`ve been running a fairly cheap EZ Cool psu for a couple of years & have used a few of them over the years & never had any problems, certainly better than the stock psu`s that come in generic cases, you might pay a little over £20 (iirc mine was £25 from scan) like you, I hate paying silly money for a psu, these are good & reliable for the money..

Hope this helps

Agree with above, sounds like PSU. I had similar thing

http://www.dvdreviewer.co.uk/Forums/PCs_and_Mobiles/t823309/PC_PSU_Problem/page1

My EZ Cool was flawless for a while, then would play up for a few days, then would be fine again for months, then play up for a few days etc, eventually it just wouldn`t power up the PC with all the right bits.

I decided to pay a bit more and get a Corsair this time, early days but it has been fine.

PSUs can be like that though, you can google any make and some ppl will say

a) don`t buy cheap ones they`re crap
b) cheap ones are fine, expensive ones are a rip off, you`re paying for a name
c) cheap ones will take out all your components if they blow up
d) expensive ones are as likely to fail as cheap ones.

There`s some truth in all of them, some ppl are just lucky with components, others unlucky ;)

It depends how much you use your PC and what you do with it. If you use it a lot, have 1 or more good graphics cards, I`d suggest buying a good one.

Saying that, this PC now has a Corsair (one of their cheaper ones), my other PC has cheapo one, but has been fine for. years

I tend to spend about £40-£60 on a PSU, I used to get cheap ones (likewise with RAM) but whilst some have been fine (I`ve been lucky), others have died and fried the mobo. None of them has even come remotely close to the wattage they claim to output when new, let alone after a few years.

Cheap PSUs basically don`t give the power they promise cleanly, which you might not notice unless you push your system and thrash the CPU+GFX card regularly, in which case random freezes and bluescreens are often common place.

They also lack components designed to protect your system against power surges when things go wrong. If you open up a cheap one you`ll see a bunch of areas on the PCB where components look like they should be, but are missing.

They also don`t come with 3 year warranties like a quality PSU will.

I guess you just have to weigh up the following things, how expensive your system is, how much you care if there is a chance it might get partly nuked by your PSU going belly up, and how much you care about its stability.

Personally I want my PCs to crash absolutely never, and most of them are pretty much as close to that as they can be.


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This item was edited on Sunday, 24th April 2011, 17:29

I`ve recently built my own and chose an OCZ 550W modular PSU (got some snazzy LEDs in the fan too). It`s incredibly quiet, all my temps are well within limits and you only have to attach the power leads you need, meaning there`s much better airflow within the case.

Think it was about £40, but as has been said before, you get what you pay for. If you spend less, you`ll get a lesser PSU

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