I have a homebuit system. I’m having the the problem where it powers itself off. When it does I have a smell of burnt electronics. I don’t know if the problem is with the Power Supply , Motherboard, or CPU.
I do know the colder the room the longer it will run. I’ve checked the fans and they are clean of dust.
I have a 300 Watt generic power supply and the motherboard is an ECS nForce3-A with 1GB of DDR 400 ram (2 512 chips). The CPU is a 1.80 Ghz Sempron.
How can I tell which is going bad?
It is most likely to be the cpu overheating.
Check your motherboard’s web site. You may be able to download a monitor program which can show you the cpu temperature. If not, let the computer run for a bit then quickly shut it down and go into the BIOS setup. Usually there’s an option in there that will let you view the cpu temp.
Anything over about 50 deg C is a problem. Over 70 deg C is a major problem.
My bios does show the temp It is set to shut down at 70 but I don’t believe the temp is the issue.
My Voltages according to the BIOS are
+3.3 is 3.18
+5 is 3.99
+12 is 11.48
I did just boot the system and started surfing the dope and it powered off. I turned it on again went into the bios and it shows it’s at 50/122. The +3.3 went as low as 2.94 then it kicked off.
If the system is a couple years old, I would replace the power supply. That is the most likely culprit, and power supplies seem to be getting less reliable lately.
That’s what I was expecting so I bought a case + power supply bare bones kit. I was hoping to just be able to remove the hardware from the old case and put it in the new one but of course that was not possible,
I went to a local store where the employees (normally) know what they are doing and asked for a bare bones case with powersuppy for an ATX system. The employee went into the back and brought out a boxed unit… He showed it to me on the sales floor and while I felt it was a tad bit underpowered (300W) for future use I figured it will be fine. It had enough bays for my optical drive and two hard drives.
While we are talking I tell him what kind of hardware (model of the existing motherboard) I’m moving into the case. He agrees that it’s most likely the power supply that’s the problem but if it’s not I’ll need a new motherboard, cpu and ram because I do need a faster processor and none of the current boards support DDR 400 ram.
So I take it home and dissemble my PC. I notice that the video card’s fan is very dusty so I go out to Staples and buy a two pack of canned “air” I then came home and blew the dust off the video card.
Next I take the side off the case and try to unscrew some of the risers because they are in locations my motherboard doesn’t have holes. And they won’t turn. So now I take off the other side of the case and see the risers don’t go through the case.
I say to myself I’ll improvise some cardboard washers for the spots where I don’t have holes to screw into the risers. That’s when I notice the board won’t fit and I scream!
I think he sold a Mini-ATX case to me and not full size. I can’t tell for certain because there is no model number anywhere on it. Their hours are 9 to 6 so I’m either going to have to take time off from work and go in the morning or I’m going to have to give up some overtime tomorrow.
I’m almost positive I’m not putting the board in incorrectly
Why did you get a new case? It’s a whole lot easier to replace a power supply than move the motherboard, your drives and everything to a new case. Can you still try the new power supply in your old case?
I bought a new case because the sides didn’t fully close anymore on the old one. Plus the ball bearings for the case fans were starting to make noise.
I figured to change the supply I have to unhook the cable to the mainboard and all my drives so it wasn’t much more work to do the hw swap.
Cheap power supplies are the culprit for a LOT of system problems. They tend to be really bad at voltage regulation, which can shorten the life of everything in the system, and the manufacturers often skimp in other places too. You really don’t want to stick with the generic, no-name brand of power supply that comes with a cheap case (see http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/534 ). You can find high quality power supplies in the low power range (300, 350 watts) from good brands like SeaSonic or Antec.
I agree that in many cases the cheap supplies will cause problems down the line but this store won’t sell a brand until they are satisfied with the quality. That’s one of the reasons they have been around for over 15 years in an area where computer stores don’t last.
It could also be other things like a connector going bad. I had a similar situation and when I finally got around to checking the main power connector on the motherboard had completely melted. The only possible repair was to solder the wires directly to the motherboard and that’s what I did.
The best way to find out is to open the case and check where the smell comes from.
Also, check that the fans are, not only clean, but actually turning. The fan on my PSU will not start on its own and soon I am reminded of that by the toasty smell. Then I start turning with a toothpick and everything is fine. I need to get around to disassembling it and refurbishing the bearings.
While you have it disassembled you should be able to sniff around and locate the problem. Something will smell burnt, maybe the power supply, maybe a capacitor on the board, maybe right around the CPU if it has been dislodged and spoiled the thermal paste.
Yeah the supply smelled burntish. I returned the case to the store because they sold me a Micro-ATX case. I can understand the error because the box said ATX. I had to go to a different store and spend 2X what I did to get a case. I don’t particularly like the policies where I bought the replacement case but it was a necessity that I got the system up tonight…
I’m about to attach all the cables now.
Most PSUs that come with cheap cases are crap and that is a simple matter of economics. If you want a decent PSU you are going to need to spend some more and get one separately.
I agree MOST supplies with cheap cases are crap but the first store I went to does carry cases with decent supplies for decent cost. The case I ended up buying from the second vendor was cheap (80.00) with a 500W supply so I don’t expect it to really be able to handle 500W but for my needs it will handle it.
Well it’s back together. I powered it up in the kitchen and no strange sounds or smells. I’m putting it back in it’s place in a few min and we see what she does.