I'm new here, and I am very desperate. I built my computer about a year ago, and everything has worked perfecly in my system except for one thing: The PSU. It all started around 5 months ago. I was at a LAN party and my computer just turned off out of nowhere (and I was showing off in the Apache helicopter in Battlefield 1942: Desert Combat! ) I tried turning my computer back on, and it would just turn on for about a second, and then turn back off. My colleagues said it was the PSU, so we put it another cheap one, and unplugged all of my fans, and it turned on. The PSU was dead. Next: I go to my local PC store and purchase a 400 watt PSU, an upgrade from the 350 I had just blown. A month later, it quits. So I go and get it replaced at the store. The SECOND 400 watt I was using was running good for a while, until I got my new hard drive. Then my computer would turn on, and then turn off again after about 4 seconds. Luckily, it didn't blow the third replacement PSU, but I obviously needed a new one. I run to the big city near me and purchase a 400 watt Sparkle power supply. My friend had used a Sparkle for a while now, and is running more hardware in his computer than me! So I knew this would be enough. He said some hospitals use Sparkle PSUs in their small computers. They must be dependable! Well, today, my computer has been turning off whenever I boot into Windows. It just turns off, plain and simple. So I unplugged some fans, and it hasn't turned off since. What do I need? A damn 100,000 watt PSU or what? This is what I am running: Athlon XP 1900+ 768 MB PC2100 DDR RAM 20 GB 7200 RPM Western Digital HDD 80 GB 7200 RPM IBM HDD 160 GB 7200 RPM Maxtor HDD GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 MB CyberDrive 48x burner Thermaltake CPU Temp. Monitor (no molex required) Dual Temp. Monitor (two molex' required) 2 80 MM fans 2 80 MM LED fans Tri-LED red light for case lighting GlobalWin CPU fan (Super Silent) Sparkle 400 watt power supply (this thing is literally HEAVY) LAN card Soundblaster Live! That's it! The guys at the local store said that the 400 watt Sparkle should easiliy power what I have. So why does my computer keep blowing PSUs or making them turn off? PLEASE help!
are you 100% sure it's the PSU? check all the cables and especially the powerbutton... if the button is bad ith might "hang" making the comp. turn off after a few seconds... still don't explaint the sudden turn off's though...
Everything seems to be in order. Could there be a short of any type on the motherboard or something? Maybe in some of the other components? I guess my main question is, does 400 watts from a pricey PSU sound enough for what I have listed?
Motherboard. This sounds a lot like the problem I had, and I too replaced the PSU as well (thankfully I got a 400w Antec second-hand for only $50), but it didn't stop the problem. I had to keep the PSU on and plugged in to the motherboard for a period of time (which grew the more I pissed it off...I mean, disconnected) before it'd finally boot up normally, otherwise I'd hit the button, it'd turn on for a second, then shut off. I can't tell this for sure, but I'm fairly sure it was due to me never using anti-static gear, and my excessive handling slowly but surely killed it. Plus, the fact that you've replaced the most important part of your computer 3-4 times means it's probably the second most important piece.
This will be hard to believe, but bare with me. I have a twin brother, and we (imagine this) ordered our computers together, the same parts and everything. About 3 months ago, his motherboard (same model as mine) BURST INTO FLAMES. I was sitting in the same room, and I saw an orange glow reflecting off the side of his monitor. I ran over, and the motherboard was on fire, I could see it through the modded window. I quickly unplugged the PSU, and the fire stopped. Luckily, it didn't damage anything in the computer, but the motherboard was KIA. He sent it back and they send him back the SAME ONE except FIXED. They didn't even replace it! It's a Gigabyte motherboard. It has scorch marks everywhere. They didn't even clean them off. What I'm saying is, it it really, really wouldn't surprise me if my motherboard was the problem. Thanks for the help guys, I'll check into a new motherboard or see if I can borrow one to test it out!
Apparently about one in ten Mobos leave the factory dead. There is also a capacitor problem with most of them, as regularly described at Overclockers.com, which may have something to do with mobos now reaching frequencies that weren't exactly in mind when the caps were originally designed... So yes, I would definitely look at the mobo (particularly its voltage regulation circuits).
I had the 7VRXP that died. Maybe Gigabyte fell victim to the bad capacitor problem (damn corporate espionage). I'll have to check mine now.
