Technical > Computer Hardware Help > Troubleshooting a PSU

reply to Freddy

Re: Troubleshooting a PSU

I hear what you're saying. I am hoping I can mimic my friend's problems by letting it run a stress-test for a couple hours and see if it flakes out on me.

I got the PC last night--I didn't have a chance to start it up, but I did poke around inside, and it has:

MSI micro ATX board
AMD 1055t CPU w/a lay-flat CPU heatsink/fan
Four sticks of two types of ram (guessing 8GB)
GeForce 500 series GPU (550 or 560)
2 HDDs
1 Optical drive
Kingwin MK-750 PSU
CM HAF 912 case

He dropped off a Vertex 3 120GB and a Hyper 212+ he said he wanted installed (no idea on the CPU cooler--I'm guessing an attempt at lowering temps) along with some money for misc. extra parts.

My plan of attack, which will probably have to wait until the weekend, is to sweep it out and do all the stability tests before I add anything, then add the SSD and new CPU cooler. His case also has no fans beyond the 240mm one in the front, so I might pick up a couple case fans for him to put on the top and side and create some positive pressure inside the case.

My biggest concern is the PSU. I hadn't even really heard of Kingwin before, and it appears that some of their higher end PSUs get good reviews (the Lazer Golds--ppl seem to like their 1000w and 1200w ones), but the one in question here--an MK-750--isn't even bronze certified and only costs $80 at MicroCenter. In fact, none of the MK series ("Superflower" in OEMs) have any efficiency certifications.

It's hard to find reviews on this model or the MK series (already checked JonnyGuru), so I'm hoping someone here could provide intelligent feedback about whether it's "good enough." If there's a specific test I'd need to run to make that decision, please let me know.

For my friend's build, I'm inclined to think that a 550w PSU is all he needs, but have not yet decided if I need to replace the current one.
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

You're putting too much thought into the PSU. The problem lies with the CPU overheating most likely.

reply to Krisnatharok

So I started pretty much the same way. Booted up, verified temps were in the OK range (CPU was 25 C for a 1055t, 560ti was 29 C), and started a one-hour LINPACK CPU test.

Three minutes after it started, CPU temps were at 59 C when the computer just shut down and wouldn't start back up. 59 C should not cause that type of behavior.

Here is the feedback I am getting from the PSU--this would indicate it is operating correctly, no?



I'm going to give it 5-10 minutes to cool off and see if it will boot back up. If not, I'll start swapping out components, starting with RAM, and see what fried.
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

Is there a blue screen or just a quick power off?

It just died.

I'm too lazy to scroll up, but have you taken a look at the CPU? Not just the reported temps, but an actual look at the CPU? Repaste and reseat the thing.
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A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -MLK

reply to Krisnatharok

It's dead, Jim.

Won't turn back on. A couple of tries had all the fans (case fans, CPU fan, GPU fans) start to turn a couple millimeters before stopping. Nothing will respond now.

On the to-do list tonight is re-seat the CPU, and pull out the PSU and test in another computer to ensure it still works.

I'm not a fan of the PSU to begin with, but the fact that I could get a reading off it (see pic above) while the computer refuses to boot up lends me to believe it's a CPU/mobo issue. I am really hoping re-seating the CPU takes care of it, but if not, I may need to look into replacing either the CPU, or motherboard, or both (which sucks because I have no other AM3 CPU/mobo to try them in).

Edit: I checked the mobo for burst or bulging capacitors and found none. That said, it's a low-budget MSI AM3 board and doesn't even have a debug screen on it.
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

Easy things to try before re-seating CPU: Re-seat the PS connector to the MB, make sure the additional +12V plug is seated properly too.

Also try removing all unnecessary items (e.g. disks, I/O cards, extra memory, DVD drives), except minimum memory, and graphics card (if it does not have integrated graphics). Your goal is to reduce the PS draw to only that which is critical and also remove other potential unknowns. Don't forget to pull the data cables too from drives.

The fact that the power supply tester showed it ok doesn't mean that much. Having fans spin but not much else can very well mean the power supply is shot. I would check with another psu before I would bother dismantling the cpu cooler.

"The fact that the power supply tester showed it ok doesn't mean that much."

reason being there isn't a significant load on it.

reply to koitsu

The Killawatt can show voltage, amperage, watts, watt-hours, and at least one more thing. Unfortunately, it's on the outside end of the PSU (between the PSU and the wall), so I have no idea what type of power the PSU is delivering to the computer.

I ended up getting home from work really late last night and didn't get a chance to play around with it last night. I have a new PSU coming on Thursday but I may pull out one of my own to test it on earlier than that.
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

Thanks for that one, it's a little different from a multi-meter. Also unless your in tech or computer repairs, you wouldn't even need to think of how to set up a test bed for loading parts.

Although an old computer laying around and try the power supply out to see if it is repeated might help; but then not everyone has a half dozen old boxes with no use for them that can afford to risk "live" testing. I always thought they would go to a good home, but with win 7 on the scene, they seem like wasted space sitting in the corner.
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke

So I ended up rebuilding my friend's computer. The mobo was definitely dead. The old PSU would power-on but I wasn't going to hook anything up to it lest it blow up more components. He's supremely happy with it and told me that it was the computer he should have gotten two years ago. At least he's learned his lesson about taking shifty salesmen at their word and double-checking that he gets what he pays for.

As a recap, here's what he was promised:
- Corsair PSU (he got a crappy Kingwin)
- SLI/Crossfire capability (chipset won't support either)
- Crucial ram (mixture of ADATA and something that looked like this)

Also of note is that the original vendor actually took out one of the two 12cm case fans at the front of the case.

Old Specs:
- MSI 785GM-P45 micro ATX mobo
- Kingwin 750w unrated PSU
- Mixture of ADATA and bargain Crucial memory (no heat spreaders)
- 2x 500 GB HDDs in Raid 1

Here are the computer's specs now:

- Cooler Master HAF912 Case (reused)
- Optical drive (reused)
- Galaxy GTX 560ti (reused)
- AMD Phenom II X6 1055t (reused)
- HDDs: 1x 500 GB (second one from RAID 1 array was toast), 1x 1 TB (external, whose case had died but the HDD was still good)
- GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
- CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
- OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
- Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
- Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-550 550W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified, Modular Design, Single +12V Rail, ATX12V v2.31/EPS12V v2.92, SLI Ready, CrossFire Ready, Active-PFC Power Supply

I also beefed up the HAF912's case fans from two 12cm to two 20cm, one 12cm, and one 14cm.

Happily, his OEM copy of Win7 Home reinstalled onto the SSD despite nearly everything in the computer (except the CPU and GPU, really) changing, without it requiring a phone call to MS to unlock.
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.