Urgent Help ... Power Supply Problems!!!

[folken718]

Hi, I have a very serius problem with my pc, I have fried 3 power supplies, the first one was a 400w, the second was a 420w and the third was a 450w power supply. The problem is that I don't have a single clue about what is happening with my PC I have all the precautions but I don't know... If someone could help I would really appreciate it. :cuffed:

My System Specs are:

Motherboard: Gygabyte K8NS
Processor: Athlon 64 3400+
Ram: 512 DDR 400
HDD: Sata 80GB Western Digital
CDRW:52x32x52x Samsung
4x8cm cooling fans...

[mickwish]

Where they all the same brand PSU?? Maybe they weren't providing strong enough across one or more of the rails. Over what period of time have you fried 3 PSU's? A week? A year?

Also, what temps do you see for the CPU? If it;s running hot the PSU may burn out quicker.

Where in the case are the fans?? Do any of them cool the area above the PSU?

Hope we can help, somehow.

Cheers
Mick

[folken718]

I have fried 2 of them in a week.... about the coolers distributions, they are at the rear of the gabinet, one on the windows side. My cpu temp are 38-39 normal use, gaming 47-51. I foget to put my nvidia gforce fx 5900 as part of my system specs, what do you recomend? get more fans/coolers? change it's distributions? :crybaby: :crybaby:

[ThRoNkA]

What brand PSU? If you have those generics then they might not give enough power across the rails in terms of AMPS.

[mickwish]

2 in a week?? :eek: That's a problem, alright. :o

Temps seem OK. Nothing overclocked??

How does the PSU failure occur? Smoke out the back of the PSU? Starts to do weird things when you are using it and then locks up? Or sudden blank screen??

I think you have a power supply problem from the wall socket, myself. You need a surge arrestor at a mimimum, or better would be a UPS. Sound like you are lucky not to fry ALL the components!! :eek:

Do you have any power supply problems in your area? Regular power blackouts and such?? Is there any other appliance (like a fridge, air-conditioner, pump) running off the same power circuit?

Get a surge arrestor FAST. :)

Cheers
Mick

[folken718]

Yes all of them were generics... But why are they frying out? my system does use the full 450w power...

Could be some kind of external problem?

[mickwish]

Yep, see my post... :)

Do you have anyone you know (electrican friend, maybe) who could do a check on your power??

Cheers
Mick

[folken718]

First of all I what to thank mike to take time to help me out, about the fridge running on the same circuit I don't know, but i have a surge arrestor (the little box tha prevents from overchage isn't? I am from Mexico I don't know if we are talking about the same sorry ejej) and the time the 2nd PSU died there was only a little smell like a burn or something not big deal, and the 3rd there was nothing, not even a little sound or a clue of what happened... it just go off and died quietly... but i think it is weird because I used to have an older machine connected in the very same wall socket and never happened anything...

[mickwish]

Newer hardware has different power requirements than older hardware, and that includes PSU's. Some PSU's are more sensitive to power spikes and stuff. It could have been a combination of the weak PSU's (maybe they didn't have very good overload protection) and the poor power supply from the socket.

Might need to do two things, then. Spend more on a good quality PSU (most of the good ones have money back guarantees that they won't just "die"), and invest in a good quality UPS. This will almost certainly stop any power probelms from getting to your computer.

Cheers
Mick

[folken718]

I Really thank you about all the useful advices I will buy a better PSU and pray for it to not to die jejeej I really apreciate all the advices.

[folken718]

A Vantec PSU is a GOOD Choice?

[mickwish]

Vantec is a reliable brand with good PSU's. There are many others as well that are reliable.

Cheers
Mick

[Stan]

Vantec, Enermax, Antec... all good... get a 400W.

[Axel]

you should be able to run what you've listed there with no more than a solid 350W power supply. the 450w was overkill.

I'm wondering if you don't have a short within your system somewhere.

51c is in the high range, but still not that unusual. This doesn't sound like a heat issue as it's winter and unless you have the CPU sitting by the fireplace, you still wouldn't be burning out 2 PSU's in a day.... If it's not the house circuit or dirty power coming into the unit - then I'd say something's either shorted out on the motherboard or within one of the components such as the optical drive.

next question - are you plugging the monitor into the back of the power supply or into the wall by itself? A bad monitor powered through the PSU might be doing this to you.

And one last silly question - do you have hybernate set in the power setting applet in control panel?