The Energon Pub

The computer I'm using (it's not mine) is having issues over the last two days. It randomly loses power. Sometimes while starting up still or sometimes after being on awhile. Tower just loses power.

I'm thinking the power supply is failing, but wanted opinions. Everything else is functioning correctly, and Windows doesn't seem to suffer for it. All boards are in place correctly, the Ram is tight. The computer sucks, but it was built that way.

So power supply sound reasonable?

Well, it's must an old computer that you're using.

It's either a bad power supply or it could also be a bad outlet. If the computer is plugged into a surge suppressor (which it should be) try plugging it into a different wall socket (not the socket next to the one it's plugged into on the wall, a different outlet completely). If that doesn't work, it might just be a bad power supply, but try changing outlets first.

It's also could be using too much energy if you have more plug in the household it could short circuit the whole computer system (and most definately the entire house).

It's on an APC surge protector. It's not the outlet on that, and the other stuff on the strip doesn't go off. Just the tower.

I'm still thinking power supply. I don't much care for this system though, it's a pieced together custom job that my gf's dad had CompUSA build awhile back. None of the drive colors on it match, for some reason it has 2 seperate CD roms and a seperate cdrom burner, even though combos were available. He likes things done just so and had it built this way.

Pontimax 01 wrote:It's on an APC surge protector. It's not the outlet on that, and the other stuff on the strip doesn't go off. Just the tower.

I'm still thinking power supply. I don't much care for this system though, it's a pieced together custom job that my gf's dad had CompUSA build awhile back. None of the drive colors on it match, for some reason it has 2 seperate CD roms and a seperate cdrom burner, even though combos were available. He likes things done just so and had it built this way.

It has three CD drives, one with a burner? I don't see anything wrong with having one DVD-ROM and one DVD burner. But three CD drives...

Hell I just use a single DVD-RW+ -.

Definitely the power supply if that is the only thing dieing on the power strip.

sounds exactly like what would happen when the plug wentout on our laptop. I'd definately lean toward powersupply, could possibly be as simple as a faulty chord.

New question: Would the power supply shut down if it started to overheat? I'm getting a weird ass sound from it, so I opened it, and the fan on the inside of the tower (front of the power supply) is apparently failing, as it starts to buzz very loudly, and it slows down and speeds up. I blew on it a few times, and it started running better and quieter. Now it's running at a normal speed. Maybe when it's doing that inside there, it's getting hot and shuts off?

It might very well be turning the system off to avoid overheating. Do you have temperature gauges in that system? If you're going over 44 Celsius on the CPU or above 50 Celsius in the case itself, you have a problem. The BIOS might be set up to auto-off when the system gets to a certain temperature. I'd replace the fan first (since their cheap). If that doesn't fix it, replace the PSU. You can get a good 500 watt for $40 on newegg.com

TheMuffin wrote:It might very well be turning the system off to avoid overheating. Do you have temperature gauges in that system? If you're going over 44 Celsius on the CPU or above 50 Celsius in the case itself, you have a problem. The BIOS might be set up to auto-off when the system gets to a certain temperature. I'd replace the fan first (since their cheap). If that doesn't fix it, replace the PSU. You can get a good 500 watt for $40 on newegg.com

Nope, no temp gauge. But it's not doing it as much now that I have the top of the case off. It's done it once or twice, but that's a lot better compared to the 4-5 times before I took it apart. But now I visibly saw that fan not running at full power. It was almost stalling out and making strange noises. I'm going to do what you said and get a new fan for it and see if that fixes it.