Post #25,262
1/23/02 12:02:11 PM
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Bad power supply?
Lately my system has taken to powering down all by itself. Sometimes this happens after I've been on all day, sometimes it happens during startup while windows is loading. When I try to power up again, usually the system will show a power light for 2-3 seconds and then power off. Try agian after that and it won't powerup at all, no response, no light, no nuthin'. Occasionally it will succeed in powering up and work fine for hours after that. I have heard what I think are odd fan noises and suspect that overheating may be at fault.
Rather than futz around with replacing the power supply in this cramped box, I think I will get a new case and power supply large enough to let me work inside it without having to become double jointed.
Who is a good supplier for this? I remember J. Pournelle giving an Orchid to PC Power and Cooling, any other recommendations?
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind;
Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #25,266
1/23/02 12:37:23 PM
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New Hardware case....
Enlight make excellent cases. they supply their own power-supplies too. They are very reasonable.
Case and PS from enlight ~$65 american, for a "GOOD" case/PS.You can typically buy them locally.
[link|http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/|PC Power and cooling] is the place for you. They also sell cases and power supplies. Just be ready for sticker shock.
I bought 2 Turbo-cool 450 about 4 years ago from them with an AT(old style) motherboard connector $188 for each.
They have alot of good stuff.
greg, curley95@attbi.com -- REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!
In 2002, everyone will discover that everyone else is using linux. ** Linux: Good, fast AND cheap. ** Failure is not an option: It comes bundled with Windows. ** "Two rules to success in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know." - Sassan Tat
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Post #25,268
1/23/02 12:44:03 PM
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Re: Bad power supply?
A bad CPU fan will cause this behavior with some motherboards. Others just let the CPU fry. Power supplies can, indeed, cause these symptoms as well, as can a flakey ATX mother board. If it's AT, not ATX, it's definitely the power supply.
I use Super Power cases and power supplies. The cases are sturdy (a bit on the heavy side) and open with a single thumb screw. The power supplies have been consistently reliable. Power Supply problems are a real pain and I like to avoid them.
I am very fussy about cabinets on issues of ease of maintenance. I will be maintaining and upgrading the machines I build for many years. If the customer didn't want me doing the maintenance, they'd have bought something cheaper elsewhere.
I recently got an order for a desktop machine and cringed. While I still maintain some desktops I haven't built one for quite a few years because they're so difficult to work with. Nontheless, I ordered a Super Power desktop case and have to say this, they make the best desktop case ever made. Even easier to work with than the mini-towers.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #25,290
1/23/02 1:33:04 PM
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CPU fan
I thought it might be this but on one of the times I was able to restart after it quit on me, I went into setup and checked the cpu temperature. It held steady at 76(f) degrees. I'm not sure about the MB. I assume it's ATX, but I bought the system used and wasn't to picky as long it worked. It uses a AMD K6/2 300 MHz CPU. If I wasn't such a tightwad, I'd go ahead and buy a new barebones Athlon system with case/power supply/motherboard and just install all my old peripherals/internals.
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind;
Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #25,310
1/23/02 3:10:47 PM
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K6/2 300 might be AT . .
. . though ATX was also available. Just look on the back of the cabinet. If there's a removable plate including the keyboard, mouse, serial, parallel etc. ports, it's ATX. If there is no insert plate or there is one with only the keyboard and all ports are in slots, it's AT.
Of course, there's probably some mixed ones. The AT motherboard we used for the last year we used AT accepted either AT or ATX power supplies.
With ATX, the power on/off is handled by the motherboard and the switch is momentary. With AT, power on/off is handled by a real on/off switch. Microsoft found this unacceptable because Windows didn't have control over power on/off.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #25,276
1/23/02 1:08:25 PM
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PCPC is good. Like my InWin Q500 case.
PC Power and Cooling is very good. High quality stuff and you can get very quiet PSs from them. They're not cheap though. [link|http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/index.htm| PCPC power supplies]. I bought a 300 W for my 486 SCSI system several years ago (the system would die after showing about 3 words of the first BIOS message - the original PS died) and it's been on 24/7 since then with no problems.
I've put together a couple of systems with an InWin Q500 case. It comes with a 300 W PS which works fine with P3 and Athlon motherboards. I added 3-80mm case fans to keep things cool. [link|http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=7&manufactory=1320&DEPA=1|NewEgg InWin cases]. Note that shipping a big case like this isn't especially cheap. Also note that the Q500 only has 1 exposed 3.5" bay - you need an adapter bezel, etc., if you want to install something like a Zip drive with a floppy.
HTH a bit.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #25,587
1/24/02 5:14:09 PM
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Those suckers don't even last two years nowadays. :-(
At least mine didn't -- it died on me last Thursday evening, on this two-years-old-next-month machine. :-( (Now you know why I dropped off IIA so suddenly and didn't come back, Carg.)
Took one memory stick and the video card with it, too -- all in all, I just paid 217 Euro (~USD200) to get back to right where I was last week. Why the F don't they put some kind of fuses or circuit breakers either in the power supply or on the mobo???
And no, of course it wasn't the processor fan, *this* time (although I thought so; got stuck in assuming it was the same thing as last time, in October or November) -- because *that* still had most of its one-year warranty left on it... :-(
Christian R. Conrad
The Man Who Knows Fucking Everything
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Post #25,595
1/24/02 5:25:53 PM
1/24/02 5:26:45 PM
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Not my experience
I haven't had a power supply fail since my Tandy 1000, and that must have been fifteen years ago. And yes, I've purchased several computers in recent years. I seem to go through so many CPU fans that I can a spare one on hand nowdays. :(
knock on wood Of course you know what's going to happen now; my power supply is going to go belly up within the week. Especially since it's a new system that makes more demands on a power supply.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
Edited by wharris2
Jan. 24, 2002, 05:26:45 PM EST
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Post #25,613
1/24/02 6:20:08 PM
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Power Supplies going west
I've had a few, but none that have taken any other components with it.
However the one with the failed fan could've taken the whole house with it in time. Now sure how long it'd been running constantly without the fan working, maybe a week. Was certainly a bit warm to the touch. I thikn that power supply was roughly four years old, though it had only been running constantly for one.
Had another machine that had been running constantly for about two years with nary a hitch. But after four months off, the power supply decided it enjoyed not working, and decided to stay that way permanently. And in the grand old tradition of "She'll be right, mate" I bought a second hand power supply for $10. So far so good.
On and on and on and on,
and on and on and on goes John.
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Post #25,616
1/24/02 6:54:10 PM
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Well, there you have it
Within two hours of posting that message, my Windows XP computer spontaneously rebooted.
Bad omens.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #26,105
1/28/02 3:14:23 PM
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Resolution
Sometimes I wonder how I ended up in a field that requires analytical thought. This took me way too long to figure out. Took a good look inside and, finally, outside the case. The room I had been using before for my computer somehow gets all the dust from the heating ductwork. The airholes in the case had been clogged up with dust and on the inside everything was covered with 2-3 centimeters. Sheesh. Got the old trusty can of compressed air and blew it all out. Not one problem since then.
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind;
Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #26,262
1/29/02 8:54:09 AM
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2-3 cm? Holy cow, Batman!
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #26,267
1/29/02 9:09:52 AM
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Whoops. I meant to say milli, not centi. My bad.
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind;
Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #26,289
1/29/02 9:49:46 AM
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ROFLMAO
But the 2 centimeter stuff makes a better story.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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