room2593 0 Report post Posted November 25, 2009 This is the second time I've had a power supply die within the last few months. I'm getting really, really annoyed.My computer is my life. I do anything and everything on it and with it. When it dies, I go ballistic.This morning, I moved my computer to a different spot, and when I plugged in my powersupply and turned on the unit, nothing really happened. I heard a weird sound like a fan or a hard drive spinning up. It happened once every three seconds or something. Anyway, the computer wouldn't turn on, so I did a hard reboot. The whole farking thing just wouldn't turn on after that. Like, the fans would spin once, and then stop spinning.Are there any ideas, or is my power supply for reals dead? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rvalkass 5 Report post Posted November 25, 2009 The first thought is that it seems odd this happened after you moved the PC. Of course it might not be connected, but it looks like a good place to start. If you've got anything else plugged in to the same socket as the PC, unplug it and let the PC run directly from the wall socket rather that from an extension lead or something. If that doesn't help then open the case and make sure that everything is still connected correctly and no wires are blocking fans or anything like that. If it turns on for a couple of seconds then it sounds like a fan isn't spinning up correctly and the PC shuts off to stop damage to the components.Something else that is possible is that the CPU heatsink may have come unseated when you moved the PC. This is more likely if you have a larger, heavier after-market heatsink rather than the OEM one supplied by the CPU manufacturer. If you can't see any other problems and you have some thermal paste you could always try reseating the heatsink and see if that improves things. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlhaslip 4 Report post Posted November 25, 2009 It could also be a bad fan. It is not coming on and the cpu is overheating causing a controlled shutdown.Check the connections on everything, reset the heat-sink as per rvalkass and let us know.Also, consider moving the system back to where you had it to see if it is a fault with the new electrical circuit??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
room2593 0 Report post Posted November 25, 2009 Okay, It's plugged directly into the wall (which is my personal favorite for fault of failure [no surge strip, stupid stupid stupid]).There's nothing blocking any fans.Would the heatsink actually cause it to shut off immediately? I mean, nothing even spins up.Bad fans really kill the system? I've never had a fan die, so . . .Update: I tried turning it on a couple more times and nothing happened. Fans wouldn't even spin once around anymore. I unplugged all the extraneous drives (I have three extra hard drives) and then tried it again. The fan started spinning around once again.I think that my power supply is for sure dead. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlhaslip 4 Report post Posted November 26, 2009 Would the heatsink actually cause it to shut off immediately? I mean, nothing even spins up.Bad fans really kill the system? I've never had a fan die, so . . .yes, either of these issues will force a shutdown, but usually there would be some 'noise' caused by the fan attempting to start if there was power to it. This laptop I am running failed the first month I had it due to a faulty fan that caused similar system failure because it would not turn on at startup. The cpu would begin to overheat and force a system shutdown, even before Windows was booted. It took Compaq a week in their shop (under warranty) to diagnose it. New fan fixed it up right away. Similar results could occur if the heatsink was not pasted-in properly. The cpu would overheat. Most 'new' cpu's self-detect the heat and force quit immediately.The psu should be easy to check. Stick a wet finger into a cable connection and see if your hair goes straight up. {just kidding. don't do that.} Have someone with a voltage meter check the output of the psu. The repair should be easy enough. You can likely do it yourself.Are you over-clocking? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
inverse_bloom 0 Report post Posted November 26, 2009 (edited) ?Ive had both problems, the CPU overheating problem and faulty PSU's. For the PSU "some" of the power cables stopped working so I'd swap to a spare cable to power up a hard drive. In all my PC's the PSU is usually the first to go. But also with my old AMD XP CPU it would constantly overheat because it was clamped onto the motherboard with a "cheap" heatsink/fan combo that came with the CPU.If these sorts of heatsinks/fans are packaged with current Amd's, then id opt for Intel just for that reason alone. ? Edited November 26, 2009 by inverse_bloom (see edit history) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
room2593 0 Report post Posted November 26, 2009 No, sorry. I don't think it's any of that.I think I just have horrible luck. I might try that wet finger trick though. (ha ha) anyway.I'm just gonna rma it to Coolmax. I think I just killed it, so hopefully they'll change it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
