Power Supplies Going up in smoke!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hop
  • Start date Start date
Hellraiser said:
That's your problem - Codegen and Foxconn are cheap and nasty generic PSUs,
be grateful that they didn't take your motherboard and CPU out with them
when they died. Quit being such a cheap sod, and spend some cash on a decent
PSU - if you look at it as a percentage of the amount spent on the system,
even a decent Antec will be very little, and will ensure your components
continue to work in the way they're supposed to :)

Hellraiser............>


My Mistake, Hellraiser....it was a PowMax case....came with a 450 watt
Click to expand...
power supply...
I'm inclined to fear it is the MSI 5900 Ultra sucking the life out of the
PWS, it has a 12 volt plug in...
I guess it could be the two hard drives but I think the video card has got
to be the prime suspect...
Does anyone know how to test the current draw of a video card while the pc
is running?
 
Damn...mine is only 340W...
Click to expand...
The 400W that didn't work was a Powerline. I really think it was a
mislabeled 250W or it was just junk. The ones I bought were Lead Power,
and Power Magic. The Powerline Came with the case I bought some time back.

A decent 340W PSU is probably ok, but it would also make a good backup for
a 500 or 600W.
 
Hop said:
Does anyone know how to test the current draw of a video card while the pc
is running?
Click to expand...

You can use one of these little things to measure the entire system during
idle and during intense 3D.

http://store.yahoo.com/ahernstore/p4400.html

You could use Motherboard Monitor and set it to update every 15 seconds,
then run 3D for 30 seconds, then alt-tab out with the Motherboard Monitor
Dashboard showing and check the voltages. Try it a few times in case it
updated just after you tabbed out.


--
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Ed Light said:
You can use one of these little things to measure the entire system during
idle and during intense 3D.

http://store.yahoo.com/ahernstore/p4400.html

You could use Motherboard Monitor and set it to update every 15 seconds,
then run 3D for 30 seconds, then alt-tab out with the Motherboard Monitor
Dashboard showing and check the voltages. Try it a few times in case it
updated just after you tabbed out.


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Ed Light

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Thank you Ed, a very useful tip indeed!!
Click to expand...
 
Hop said:
I have a system with an AMD 64 3400+ on a K8T Neo MSI mainboard.
Have two SATA WD 120 gig in a raid 0 on the VIA chipset, not the promise!
Have 2 sticks infineon 512 meg pc3200 in dual channel, a Lite on DVD and
a Lite on CDRW, a SB Audigy 2 and an MSI 5900 Ultra XT with 256 megs...
Click to expand...
<snip>

It probably has something to do with you running that memory in dual channel
mode with a processor that doesn't support that configuration. <g> Switch
to single channel mode and see what happens.

I know, I know...., I'm a smartass, but I can't help it. Learn a little
about computers, spend a little money on a good quality power supply - such
as, but not limited to, Antec, and you should be good to go.

Sick Willie
 
Ed said:
You can use one of these little things to measure the entire system during
idle and during intense 3D.

http://store.yahoo.com/ahernstore/p4400.html

You could use Motherboard Monitor and set it to update every 15 seconds,
then run 3D for 30 seconds, then alt-tab out with the Motherboard Monitor
Dashboard showing and check the voltages. Try it a few times in case it
updated just after you tabbed out.
Click to expand...

Or you could just set it to update the min/max readings as often as
possible, and use the system for a while. Then go and check the min. Also
check that the range of values isn't too high, as this is also a bad sign.

Ben
 
Ben Pope said:
Or you could just set it to update the min/max readings as often as
possible, and use the system for a while. Then go and check the min. Also
check that the range of values isn't too high, as this is also a bad sign.
Click to expand...

Wow, I hadn't noticed the high/low feature. Now I must test...


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