PCA Forums

High ya'll, hows things going. I been dropping in reading a bit sometimes but mostly been away.

I got a wierd system problem, not realy sure what this one is.

System was working perfect then not used for awhile.
I set it it up and turned it on, fans started up ran a second then system shut down. Did that a few times.
I connected a different P/s and I think it started up and ran ok a couple times as I recall. BUT I just had it sitting in the case, something went POP and I smelled magic smoke. P/s was near system board so it could have been the P/s that smelled bad or the system board and the fans sucked it into the P/s? No more would it start up at all.

I think both power supplies would run when I connected a tester.
I did not mess with it anymore for about a month now.

Today I found a System board I am going to buy local and was going to order a P/s online. I decided to play with the system again and see if I had a working power supply around here for when I get the new board tonight or tomorow.

FUNNY, the P/s in the case will not turn on even with the tester, I opened it up and checked the fuse and thats ok.
I found a P/s I was not sure about, I used the tester and it runs. No load I tested the 12V 5V and they were fine and I get about 7V between them also as I should. Great I figure I have a working P/s on hand.
I hooked it up to the system board and nothing. Won't start up at all, just like I never pressed the on switch.

Now HERE is were it really gets strange I think. We have really crappy power around here and just had tons of rain and good storm. My house power starts kicking up and down like it's trying to go off but not quite all the way off. Ups are beeping once in awhile because of it.
The system I was testing was not on any UPS, I noticed it is trying to run now! It surges on and fans try to rev up then they slow down then speed up slow down, strange. So I turned it off. Then I tried to turn it on, same thing now it is turning on but with up and down power flow. So I checked the P/s again with the meter, sure enough the 12V is 1V, 12V, 3V, 12V, up and down.


So what do I need, P/s? System board? Or after that surging maybe a whole new system?
Do you think the power problem may have fried the ram, cpu or video card? That's all that was installed at the time, no drives or anything.

That was not my main system but the newest one. AMD XP2500 333fsb 512mb ram in it, and an old ATI AIW card about 4MB.
I did have good drives and burners in it, but I pulled them when it first acted up.

I been spending alot of time on the road traveling and not done much with computers for about a year or so now at least other than use them alot. Not much building or repairs or upgrades here.

Did you see anything burned? You may have had bad capacitors and one of them shorted. More infdo here:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195

I haven't seen anything yet but I haven't pulled the board out yet where I can get a really good look at it.
I read that artical, thanks. I will be getting out a couple other boards that are bad and check those also.
I still have what used to be a good system board, then it got where it would not boot right away when turned on and it had to sit awhile, then finanally nothing at all.
I will be checking that one again too now.

then it got where it would not boot right away when turned on and it had to sit awhile, then finanally nothing at all.

Sounds like classic bad caps symptoms. Bad caps don't usually short - they usually open and that what leads to unreliable booting and crashes. But occasionally you get one that shorts. If so, it should look like it exploded or there may be a cracked and burned regulator on the mobo. I also wouldn't trust the PSU that was connected to it. Check the voltages with a digital meter while connected to a tester, then test it on a disposable mobo. I keep a couple of P.O.S. mobos lying around just for that.

Well that system is acting as if it is turning on and off rapidly. I used 3 p/s now including the one from my main box.
Same thing with all of them, CPU fans revs up and down, fast slow. I checked the volts on the molex drive connectors and it's up and down also. Like P/s goes off at about 12V and when it drops to about 2V it kicks back on agian. Using a digital test meter, it never goes all the way to 0V, floats about 2V as low ans 12V as the high.

Well, besides this now, Scoobies system died?
Hers is booting, but video signal is lost often just after the ATI logo appears, some times it makes it to about the user/password screen for W2K.

Last night I spent alot of time with these two systems and half gutted my main box too.\
The one that acts like on/off problem always does that, everything out but Ram/cpu. I used a differnt stick of ram also though.

Scoobies system had the same problem with no video signal detected no matter what till I got it working.
Everything, P/s, Ram, Video card, was swapped and same thing. Used different slots (Pci video cards), etc..

It finnaly started working
I put all the original parts back in and in the same locations I took them out of, it still worked
I had Scoobie play low powered games like UT and other things for about 2-4 hrs, it still worked
She got up this morning, turned it on, ATI Logo and lost video, monitor displays no signal detected message
Later she tried again, got to the W2K user/password screen. Looked like it may have rebooted when Video was lost this time, DVD drives started flashing leds like durring boot, they were beyond that already.

Both systems have been striped to about bare board and CPU with all different parts installed back in.
I would pull the CPU's but can't find my Arctic silver.