power supply replacement

 

Came home the other nightto find everything quiet, too quiet because I'd
left the PC on downloading.  Noone noticed anything but it is dead.  The PSU
doesnt even flash the keyboard LED so I think it's a gonner.
My old one was a 600W PSU with a 120mm fan.  It ran silently on a mates PC
but mine always seemed to have it howling.  Was the load on it so high that
this caused the noise and premature failure.
What size do I need for an NF4 mobo, FX55 CPU, Arctic Cooling Freezer64 Pro,
4x 512MB DDR400 simms, ATI HD2900XT, 2 optical dvd drives and three HDDs of
various sizes. Sound is onboard so shouldnt effect it loadwise.
I did check a Wattage calculator but it said that 480W would do but I think
Ati recommend 550W for their vga card alone.
What do you recommend?

Robin

 

On Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:49:26 -0800, Robin wrote:


Most have overload protection. Normally unplugging them for a minute and
plugging them back in will start them again. If it starts be sure and make
sure the fan(s) are running. If not then check the fans being stuck. This
will also cause the PSU not to start.


The bigger the better IMO. Less loads on a PSu mean longer life in
general. I buy the biggest rated I can get for under $25 for this machine.
Last one was a 680W running Nvidia 6100 with 1 GB ram (2 sticks), 4 power
hungry HDTV tuner cards, X2 3800+ cpu, 5 drives and 5 fans. For the other
systems I just buy the cheapest I can find 500W or more under $20. The
680W and another 550W are Chiefmax. Been running a year or more without
problems. I expect them to last at least 5 years. Or you can go out and
pay more for one PSU than all my cases and PSU's together.:-)

--
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AMD cpu help http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php

 

thanks Wes for your suggestion of retrying the PSU.  I had previously tried
everything but after stripping it and checking for blown fuses and whatever
but there were none.  Obvious thought was then to try a different lead in
case of blown lead fuse or faulty plug and hey presto it switched on.  All
is well in the house again.

Thanks

Robin

 



tried

whatever

While you were ratting around inside the power supply did you think to look
at the caps to see if any of them were leaking?
I have found a couple of power supplies with leaking caps in the last year
or so.

 

There was plenty of fluff and dust but no sign of leaking caps.  At least
it's working now.

Robin