PSU question

[Suxxorz]

I am just wondering all of the evil things a power supply can do when it goes bad? Is it possible for a dead psu to make a computer not post? I don't know a lot about computers and don't understand the watt/amp/volt thing. I think my 250w psu died but I can't know for sure. I checked the Sandra thing Saturday and the amps/volts/whatever they are were slightly higher than their rating even when the computer was nearly idle.

Yesterday I went to play a game at 2:00. It was on maybe 10 minutes, went to load into another zone but it never finished loading. After serveral minutes I decided it froze and powered off the computer and powered it back on. It won't even post now but the cpu and case fans start up. The case felt hot where the psu is so I determined it must be the root of all evils. I really have no other scientific way of knowing it's the problem other than knowing 250w sucks and that it was hot to the touch.

I recently replaced the motherboard and cpu so I don't really think that's an issue unless the psu killed those, too. Video card is fine. I don't know about the ram but have no reason to suspect it's a problem. I'm not going to strip it down to the basics and test it because I don't want to do further damage. I think the bios is also only supposed to beep if there's a video or ram problem and it doesn't beep. I just want to know if a bad psu can make a computer not post.

 

[nuke]

yeah it can do it.. if you have a bad psu, it can kill your motherboard too. what is ur spcers in your computer anyway.

 

[BASSMASTER]

Bad PSU's can make your cpu work in all kinds of strange ways. Whether it's fried or not, just replace it. Hopefully that is the problem, and replacing it will fix it. If it's not the problem, well, you needed a new one anyways and you can further diagnose the situation.

 

[Suxxorz]

KM400-M2
Duron 1.8 (downgrade from xp 2600 but couldn't afford to replace it - fried due to my own stupidity when I replaced the motherboard)
1 stick 512 2100
Radeon 9600 (has a heatsink and does not plug into the psu)
80 gig drive
CD-RW drive

Did not have the media reader plugged in, nor a modem, nor the floppy. Just the cpu & fan, case fan, hdd, cd drive, and graphic ard.

Computer was originally a proprietary brand. I put a Radeon 9800se in it to play games. It ran fine for the most part but EQ would lock up in indoor zones for a while. Messing with the drivers seemed to fix it. I didn't know plugging my graphic card into the power supply was a bad idea. One day I went to raid and the screen went black and everything seemed to shut down but the power was still on. I turned it off and back on and it did the same thing when I loaded up EQ. I cracked the side off the case and realized the heatsink popped off northbridge chip. The case was also hot around the cpu area.

After that I couldn't play EQ anymore because it would lock up but the computer ran fine otherwise. I figured the psu couldn't handle the 9800 and stuck the 9600 in there to troubleshoot and lessen the load. EQ still froze with the 9600 which is why I replaced the motherboard. On a new motherboard with less things plugged into the power supply and downgrade in a cpu, the stupid thing still managed to pull the same stunt. I realize that the psu needs to be replaced either way but I am just hoping that I don't to replace the motherboard and cpu yet again. This is getting costly. LOL.

I know this probably sounds bad but like I said, I don't know a lot about computers so this is one of those things where I am learning the hard way. I also think proprietary computers should not come with agp slots or places to add more drives because it's misleading for them to make you think that you can stick extra things in there.

 

[nuke]

you would need at least 350 watt to 400 watt psu.

 

[majistic]

http://www.hardwareasylum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=276

There is a nice little guide for you

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

That was a nice guide. I think I'm armed with knowledge to go buy my own now

Ryan