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PSU Does this sound like PSU failure?

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by Yotta, 1 Jun 2009.

  1. Yotta

    Yotta Minimodder

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    My son's PC has just started crashing, or rather switching itself off, no blue screen, no restart. In the past it's always been one of those PCs that never seems to crash however much it gets pushed.
    It will run for an hour or so, then crash. It might crash after a minute or two after a restart, or go for much longer, so it's fairly intermittent. There's a short series of motherboard beeps that lasts 3 or 4 seconds just after the monitor goes blank and everything powers off:. Recorded it with a dictaphone:
    http://www.easy-share.com/1905483388/beep.mp3

    Gigabyte 7vt600p-rz motherboard
    Athlon socket A processor
    2GB ddr ram
    6600gt gfx
    Tagan 480 U01 psu
    Samsung HD502IJ
    XP SP3

    Problem is, I haven't got any spare components to swap out.

    TIA
     
  2. gaz_360

    gaz_360 Make that change

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    might sound stupid, but have you made sure everything is plugged in nice and tight, especially the 20/24 pin mobo connector?

    It does sound like it could be PSU related. Do you have a friend with any parts that you could borrow?
     
  3. Yotta

    Yotta Minimodder

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    I'll check all the wires when I get a moment.

    I've never had a psu failure before, or a hdd failure. Had ram errors and the usual software glitches, that's about all. So can anyone give a brief run-down of what happens with the various hardware failures, because I was wondering if it the issue was hdd failure.

    Also, are the warning beeps powered by the cmos battery or the psu,? I'd assumed it was the cmos battery.
     
  4. marlowdrummer

    marlowdrummer Minimodder

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    Hmm, that sounds like a temp warning to me. Have you checked the CPU fan to make sure it's still running/CPU is not overheating?
     
  5. Yotta

    Yotta Minimodder

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    The cpu fan was the first thing I checked after the first crash. Also had the pc sat in the bios and watched the temps, cpu seemed normal for this pc, around 54c.

    I might leave it at the bios overnight. So if the fault was hdd, would it in theory stay up ok in the bios indefinitely, but still crash if it's a psu fault?
     
  6. Blademrk

    Blademrk Why so serious?

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    don't know if that would work, (I don't know much about psu's) but I would assume that the power draw in the Bios screen would be lower than the power draw while running the OS.

    The graphics card, for example, would draw more power when it's actually working harder (displaying 3D images/folding etc...) or the HDD would draw more power if it's caching/reading/writing.

    If the PC was left in the bios screen I would have thought the power draw would be pretty constant (and low) and not trigger a reboot.
     
  7. RinSewand

    RinSewand What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah, it's unlikely ot be a hard drvie problem as they don't normally cause reboots and tend to manifest themselves as error messages, corrupt data, or bluescreens, non of which you've mentioned.

    Tried installing any temp monitoring software in windows? CPUID Hardware monitor is a good all round one, might show you something is a bit out.

    RwD
     
  8. Yotta

    Yotta Minimodder

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    Just had a closer look with the case open. If I run prime95, it crashes within a few seconds. First of all it's the monitor that goes off, then the short series of beeps start whilst everything inside the pc is still running. As the beeps stop, the pc shuts down. Could it be the gfx card, as it's the monitor that goes off first?
    Tried running cpuid, all looked normal.
     
  9. marlowdrummer

    marlowdrummer Minimodder

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    Could one of your fans, CPU or System, be slowing down when it gets hot, binding the bearing?
    I recognise the error sound, but I've not built a Socket A in years. Thought it was overheating, but starting to think it is a bad fan/mis-reporting speed.
    Can you check your BIOS and see if the Fan Fail warning is set for both CPU and System fans. If it is, and you feel comfortable with this, try turning the warning off for the system fan warning first and see if that stops it shutting off. Obviously, you'll want to keep your finger on the power switch in case it starts getting too hot, keep an eye on it with CPUID or similar (speed fan etc).

    All the best.
     
  10. Fod

    Fod what is the cheesecake?

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    i'm inclined to say that your motherboard is failing.

    also check the voltages of the 5v, 3.3v, 1.5v and 12v rails in your BIOS. each value should be within 10% of the stated value.
     
  11. Yotta

    Yotta Minimodder

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    After a bit of searching the web I found a list of the relevant beeps.

    No Beeps Short, No power, Bad CPU/MB, Loose Peripherals
    One Beep Everything is normal and Computer POSTed fine
    Two Beeps POST/CMOS Error
    One Long Beep, One Short Beep Motherboard Problem
    One Long Beep, Two Short Beeps Video Problem
    One Long Beep, Three Short Beeps Video Problem
    Three Long Beeps Keyboard Error
    Repeated Long Beeps Memory Error
    Continuous Hi-Lo Beeps CPU Overheating

    Took cpu heatsink off, cleaned up old thermal paste, added some fresh paste and reseated cooler. Bingo! Been running for 5 hours or so without issue.

    Cheers to all who replied.
     
  12. marlowdrummer

    marlowdrummer Minimodder

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    Cool, glad it's sorted mate.

    TTFN
     
  13. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

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    Weird that it'd suddenly do it, although I suppose warm weather could've just tipped the paste over the edge...

    At least it's sorted!
     

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