Power supply failing?

[blue-eye-boy]

My mother in law's computer battle to start. Whe're here for the weekend, and she told me it's been for a while now. Like yesterday it worked fine after we battled to get it running.

What it does, you press the power button, it starts, and go off again immediately. Then for a while, a few minutes its completely dead, then starts, and power down again. Then after a few tries the pc start all the way.

I was thinking power supply? It is almost 10 years old now, so it is about time for things to pop now.

 

[bekdik]

10 years and having problems?

time to move on!

 

[DTBA]

I had this same probleme way way back with my old pentuim 3 800mhz and yes it was the psu, what u can try do is start it up and go to the bios and go to your voltages, keep a eye on them for like an hour i found that my psu was putting out more then 7volts on the 5volt rail it it then shuts it selfdown so if u see any of that a PSU should fix that


hope it helps

 

[agentrfr]

Get a new PC. The components in this one will all fail one by one. Save yourself multiple trips to the shops and get a new one.

 

[P924]

Yeah, that sounds like PSU. Upgrade and get a proper one, it is one of the few components that you don't really upgrade often...

 

[blue-eye-boy]

thing is, she doesnt have money for upgrade, and only plays small games on it. But whats strange now, is the pc is running, but the screen, which is new, doesnt display anything. Normally when the pc starts, the screen follows by itself. But now it stays of.

 

[howardb]

Does the screen power plug in from the PSU? I know some older ones had this. Try powering the screen separately.

 

[Praeses]

thing is, she doesnt have money for upgrade, and only plays small games on it. But whats strange now, is the pc is running, but the screen, which is new, doesnt display anything. Normally when the pc starts, the screen follows by itself. But now it stays of.

Not enough power to the GFX card maybe? Or the inadequate PSU started blowing things

 

[sajunky]

But whats strange now, is the pc is running, but the screen, which is new, doesnt display anything. Normally when the pc starts, the screen follows by itself. But now it stays of.

Question: When it happens press power button, (a) normally it should shut down immediately (assuming Windows didn't started yet). If doesn't, press power button again and hold for 7-10 second, (b) does it switch off? (c) it doesn't.

If (a), power connection to the monitor as suggested.
If (b), it could be power supply or motherboard
If (c), it is 99% chance of faulty motherboard.

Question 2. Does it happen when it was cold (not used for 2 hours or more? Yes - Check for dry capacitors, It could be on PS or mobo. 10 years ago market had been flooded by faulty capacitors.

Post configuration of the computer and power supply rating (from the sticker), but I don't expect this computer was ever built for gaming.

 

[blue-eye-boy]

Does the screen power plug in from the PSU? I know some older ones had this. Try powering the screen separately.

No, the screen is already powered separately.

Not enough power to the GFX card maybe? Or the inadequate PSU started blowing things

What I was thinking too.

Question: When it happens press power button, (a) normally it should shut down immediately (assuming Windows didn't started yet). If doesn't, press power button again and hold for 7-10 second, (b) does it switch off? (c) it doesn't.

If (a), power connection to the monitor as suggested.
If (b), it could be power supply or motherboard
If (c), it is 99% chance of faulty motherboard.

Question 2. Does it happen when it was cold (not used for 2 hours or more? Yes - Check for dry capacitors, It could be on PS or mobo. 10 years ago market had been flooded by faulty capacitors.

Post configuration of the computer and power supply rating (from the sticker), but I don't expect this computer was ever built for gaming.

Thing is, I cant get the pc to run now to get the hardware and configuration info.

I was away all day, and now I tried again. All went okay till the windows splash screen. Then it just gave a black screen, and nothing further, although everything were running inside the pc, I can hear all the fans.

So hell I cant decide whats wrong, psu, mobo or graphics.

 

[blue-eye-boy]

And I just see that I can start windows in safe mode. I did it twice without problems. And twice tried to start windows normally, but no luck.

 

[blue-eye-boy]

Question: When it happens press power button, (a) normally it should shut down immediately (assuming Windows didn't started yet). If doesn't, press power button again and hold for 7-10 second, (b) does it switch off? (c) it doesn't.

If (a), power connection to the monitor as suggested.
If (b), it could be power supply or motherboard
If (c), it is 99% chance of faulty motherboard.

Question 2. Does it happen when it was cold (not used for 2 hours or more? Yes - Check for dry capacitors, It could be on PS or mobo. 10 years ago market had been flooded by faulty capacitors.

Post configuration of the computer and power supply rating (from the sticker), but I don't expect this computer was ever built for gaming.

Sorry, didn't answer all your questions earlier. When I press the power button, nothing happens.When I hold it in, the pc shut down.
Question 2: When I tried to start it this morning, it did this from start. Must say, my in laws say it never did it the whole day, like today. It was always just a once or twice a day.

 

[blue-eye-boy]

And this morning I checked in the bios, that the voltage is good on all the channels.

 

[gcb]

10 year old m/b - my bet is on bad capacitors like sajunky suggested. They are normally visibly swollen and/or leaking. Check out www.badcaps.net for a lot more detail on bad caps and symptoms.

 

[blue-eye-boy]

At last I got it working, but it's not all that well. I dont know what who did on the pc yesterday, but in safe mode I restored the system to yesterday, and it worked. All that I did yesterday, is to clean up the hdd, using the normal windows way (hdd properties, etc.). And then just for in case, I opened the main box, and switched the reset button, and power button plugs. So even if the power button was faulty, it work now again. But it threw a few blue screens again now. So yes, I think the whole setup is not that good anymore, and needs replacing. But for now, and for the few games my in laws play, its good enough.

Thanks all for all the help, as always!

 

[sajunky]

Sorry, didn't answer all your questions earlier. When I press the power button, nothing happens.When I hold it in, the pc shut down.

This indicate that CPU is not starting, as CPU reacts to the power switch. Everything else starts, hard drive, optical drive, but CPU is dead.
When you press and hold, then power is cut by hardware on the mobo, not a CPU itself (ATX standard).

This is indication of either lack of power or noisy power. Not a constant power you can see in harware monitor, but momentary power needed to start CPU and other devices. With noisy power CPU can corrupt Windows too. Look at bulged capacitors. There are also inside power pack, but you mustn't open it. Ask someone familiar with electronis for assistance.

 

[blue-eye-boy]

This indicate that CPU is not starting, as CPU reacts to the power switch. Everything else starts, hard drive, optical drive, but CPU is dead.
When you press and hold, then power is cut by hardware on the mobo, not a CPU itself (ATX standard).

This is indication of either lack of power or noisy power. Not a constant power you can see in harware monitor, but momentary power needed to start CPU and other devices. With noisy power CPU can corrupt Windows too. Look at bulged capacitors. There are also inside power pack, but you mustn't open it. Ask someone familiar with electronis for assistance.

Makes sense. Will take the box with and check the parts one by one. I still think its not worth it to replace just here and there. They Must save up, and let me replace everything.

 

[bekdik]

Makes sense. Will take the box with and check the parts one by one. I still think its not worth it to replace just here and there. They Must save up, and let me replace everything.

Gotta agree. It's not worth spending money on a 10 year old.

Have you considered the refurb market? There's a crown who's name escapes me who specialize in refurb'd dells