# Signs your POWER SUPPLY has failed? need help!



## Zachary (Jun 10, 1999)

Hi,

How can I tell if my power supply has failed?? 

my computer has been running fine for over 3 years..it's been on 24hrs for days at a time, but never for more than 1 week.

Just last night I tried to turn it on, but nothing, no sounds, no lights, no fans starting up...nothing at all

I checked the connections, tried different wall sockets, but nothing.

My guess is that it is the power supply...but since I have never had this situation before, I do not know what really may be the problem.

Make: Turbolink Switching Power Supply
Model: CWT-320ATX - 12V(320W MAX)

could it be something else other than the power supply???

tx.

Zach.


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## norton850 (Mar 9, 2004)

The power supply would be a good place to start.


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## doogee (Mar 16, 2005)

It's most likely your power supply or you might have some kind of short on the motherboard.


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## Structural (Mar 17, 2005)

Well usually when I first plug my power supply to the outlet, I will hear a slight hum coming from the power supply. Sort of like stand by sending a slight power singal through your motherboard waiting for you to press the power button. Unplug the power supply, wait about a minute, and plug it in. If you hear nothing, your supply may of blown a fuse or something. Its either that or swaping out the PSU with another one, or, trying a PSU tester.
-Structural


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If you remove the P/S from the system, you can put a load on the 12V supply (any ground and +12V pin) and jumper the power switch pins to fire it up. If you can get it turned on, you can measure the voltages and see if it's working. Even with the supply off, you should have +5V between pin 9 and any ground pin.

http://pinouts.ru/data/atxpower_pinout.shtml is the pinouts of the standard 20 pin P/S, I use an automotive lamp as my load and short pins 13-14 to turn on the supply.


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## Zachary (Jun 10, 1999)

thanks for the help...I do have access to other PSUs...so I will swap it out and see what happens.....I have a strong feeling it is the PSU, as I do not hear any sort of hum coming from it......

would excessive dust cause a mobo to short circuit?? there was quite a bit of dust in my case, but most of it was localized near the fan ducts, only a small bit was actually on the mobo

JohnWill: ....that sounds like a nice idea, but sadly, I am not very knowledgable when it comes to electronics and circuits...I do have a multimeter tester, but I have no idea how to use it 

If swapping the PSU fails, i'll call up my electrician friend...hopefully he will be able to understand exactly what you are saying..

Zach


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

I've seen the same thing happen with improperly seated memory modules.


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## axis77 (Aug 31, 2004)

I think you should go and by your self a $10 atx psu tester, only if its an atx style, that way you dont waste time taking out other psu's and all that hassle. heres the link http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77003


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

GAD! The shipping costs as much as the tester!


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## winbob (Aug 2, 2004)

Guys,

I couldn't resist starting this (ala Dave Letterman)....can you take us all the way to #1?

Top 10 Signs your POWER SUPPLY has failed?

10. Your wall cord glowed like a toaster just before the lights went out!

9. ????


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## Jedi_Master (Mar 13, 2002)

Howdy folks...



> would excessive dust cause a mobo to short circuit?? there was quite a bit of dust in my case, but most of it was localized near the fan ducts, only a small bit was actually on the mobo


Not in my experience, it usually causes over heating, but I have seen ( believe it or not ) spider webs cause a short...

IMHO, what I would try is unplug everything ( ie: all PCI cards, hard drives/CD-ROMS/floppy drive both power and ribbon cables, memory, and even CPU ), and see if the PSU will start...


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## Zachary (Jun 10, 1999)

OK, well...I found a new PSU and swapped it and it WORKED! so yeah it was the PSU that had died...it was fairly cheap to replace, so no worries...

but, now the computer boots and gets to the Windows XP splashscreen for about 10 seconds and then it goes blank and the systems just stops responding! I tried to reinstall XP, but when it gets to the point where it has to reboot again, the screen goes blank and the systems just hangs.... 

what can it be?? can it be a dead CMOS battery? how do I know if the CMOS battery is dead?? has the harddrive failed?? how do I know?? in the POST, the system recognizes both of my hdds and the XP install was going fine for a good 20 minutes before the reboot and the hang

I think i'll start a thread in the software forum to see if anyone has any idea, since it *MAY* not be hardware related anymore.

Zach.


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

It's easy to replace a CMOS batter if in doubt. The process of doing it will probably reload setup defaults, which is something you might want to do anyway.

They typically have a system life of 3-5yrs

Have you tried a Safe Mode start?


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## junglejeff (May 26, 2004)

On your power supplies way out it took something else out along with it, though from what you describe it sounds like you just have some corruption on your hdd which is possible since your power supply took a dive while the system was on. If you don't need to recover some data first I would just whack the old partition & create a new one and go from there. Otherwise you need to connect the hd to another system backup that data first. 

Replacing a cmos battery will do nothing for your current problem. Only replace that battery if after your system is unplugged it goes back to factory settings each time.

BTW - I have seen dust that shorts a system out. Though that was in a dirty warehouse & I suspect the product they were selling in them bags had conductive properties, so it does occur although rare.


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## Zachary (Jun 10, 1999)

yeah I don't think the CMOS is dead as yet...although it may be soon...my system is pretty old, comparatively speaking....as for Safe Mode....well I tried it, and nothing...same hanging situation...i even tried to 'repair' the XP installation...nothing at all.

I was also thinking that the partiton that houses XP might be corrupt.....i'll have to backup my data and then erase the current C: partition and re-create it....hopefully that will solve it....i'll keep y'all posted.

BUT, therein lies my other question......if a partiton is corrupted, doesn't that mean that (physical?) part of the hdd is bad???, therefore any other partition I create again in that SAME spot on the hdd will also be faulty?? 

Zach.


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## junglejeff (May 26, 2004)

No, the partition can get corrupted with out it actually being physically bad, but being 3 years old its days are numbered and you might want to replace it with a 120 Gb drive for the hundred bucks - then again if you're happy with the size & you keep you data backed up and would rather take your girlie out for a nice steak dinner for the 100 bucks run it till it dies.


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## Zachary (Jun 10, 1999)

OK I have a feeling the drive is totally screwed up....i was able to salvage my files, but when I started PartitionMagic so I could erase and re-create the C: partition I got this message:

"Disk 2 appears to have partitions using a different geometry (240h 63s). This serious problem can lead to data loss. No parition manipulations should be made using this product or the operating system's products. You shoudl back up the data and erase all the partitions and re-create the new partitions under the new drive geometry...."

then PartitionMagic starts and it displays the entire disk using the colour yellow and warning 'BAD'

in any case, I set the entire drive to be reformatted to NTFS, then the program rebooted and PartitonMagic crapped out with another warning "Error 4"

??? 

i think i need a new drive.....yes?

Zach.


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