What sort of symptoms are indicative of a power problem with a pc? Like, for
heat, the machine will crash and you may have to wait a minute or two to
turn it on. What about with power? Thanks.
It's important to recognize that a "power problem", is't necessarily a
"Power Supply" problem, but could be the motherboard or other specific
components, a system misdesigned (like high-amperage fan on a
motherboard fan header or other excessive load) or something as simple
as a short in wires or a misplaced motherboard standoff, etc. So
there's the overall power grid of the system, futher each part of it,
the physical PSU box supplying power, and the AC power before it
enters the system. Depending on the particular problem, power-related
problems can be easy or quite hard to diagnose.
They can be more varied in nature than overheating, but a few possible
problems include:
No activity at all when power-on attempted.
Failure to post for several seconds to minutes
Failure to post unless power supply unplugged from wall AC then
reconnected
Failure to POST at all, especially if reduction in load allows POST.
Hard drives not seen by bios, didn't spin up in time
System crash under heavy load, especially from CPU or Video card.
Popcorn smell
Loud POP sound
Crash after somewhat varied interval - fan failure, might be
considered a power problem or might not
Motherboard capacitors on high-side of onboard supply have failed but
other same or similar caps haven't.
Voltage readings are off, as verified by readings from a voltage
meter, OR voltage readings are off but correct at voltage meter-
determination of where the fault lies
System is MORE stable after warming up than when cold.
No crash, system just shuts off.
System won't come out of power managment state, "wake up".
Smoke
Burnt traces on motherboard
There are other possible indicators, but they escape me at the moment.
Rather than looking at this as a list, it's generally better to work
the other way around, look at a symptom and assess the overall system,
possible causes.
Dave
