Desktop Power Supply Died

[easysurfer]

So, I was using my desktop when it suddenly turned off. When I tried turning on again, I hear this pop noise, then the smell of something burning.

It looks like the power supply gave up. I have a power supply (PSU) tester, so took out the PSU and tested and that does show no good.

Hopefully, that is the only thing which is wrong.

A good thing I have a laptop (which I'm using now) and hooked that up to my desktop's monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Time to order a new PSU.

 

[RE2Boys]

Hope that's all it took out. About ten years ago I had a two year old emachine and the power supply went bad, took out the motherboard.

And another time, on a five year old emachine, a power supply died and once replaced, everything was fine.

Good luck!!

 

[Sunset]

I've been lucky, never had one give out.

Nowadays machines are so cheap, thats nearly an excuse to build a new 8++ core machine.

 

[mike143]

If you are not in a hurry the Corsair 430w keeps going on sale for $40 with a $20 rebate. Check slickdeals.net. *$20 final price

 

[easysurfer]

I ended up ordering a 750W PSU and a new PSU tester (that fits 24 pin). Price about $55 for the PSU and $7 for the test.

That extra giddy up in power might be overkill for my system, but was only $10 more than a 550W of the same brand.

Amazon.com: Sentey® Power Supply 750w 80 Plus Bronze - Mbp750-hs Metal Blade Power 750 Watts / 120mm Sleeve Bearing Fan / Autoswitching 100-240 Voltage / Active PFC / Single +12v Rail / Certified Power Cord / 5 Years Warranty Computer Power Supply -

I know what I'll be doing come Saturday

 

[ERD50]

I ended up ordering a 750W PSU and a new PSU tester (that fits 24 pin). Price about $55 for the PSU and $7 for the test.

That extra giddy up in power might be overkill for my system, but was only $10 more than a 550W of the same brand. ...

550W!!! 750W!!!!!

What do you with all that power?

I just 2x checked my laptop, and my previous laptop. 21 watts. Including display turned all the way up (18W if dimmed a bit). That's more than 25 times a laptop.

-ERD50

 

[meierlde]

550W!!! 750W!!!!!

What do you with all that power?

I just 2x checked my laptop, and my previous laptop. 21 watts. Including display turned all the way up (18W if dimmed a bit). That's more than 25 times a laptop.

-ERD50

On gaming desktops you can put in super duper graphics cards that do take a lot of power(250 watts or more). These have mutiple graphic processors on the board.

 

[easysurfer]

I use a graphics card. Not a super duper one, but still.

 

[mike143]

Power supply efficiency is at is greatest when it properly loaded. If you oversize it you are wasting money on the purchase and on the ongoing energy cost.

The Corsair 430w I referenced is at maximum efficiency at 50% load and this is the point before the fan starts to increase speed (sound) to keep up with cooling demands.

CX430 — 80 PLUS® Bronze Certified Power Supply

Looking at one of the higher CX series it appears that it has the same 50% load sweet spot.

 

[easysurfer]

Looks like I'll have to add some flashing neon lights or a toaster

 

[easysurfer]

Power supply efficiency is at is greatest when it properly loaded. If you oversize it you are wasting money on the purchase and on the ongoing energy cost.

The Corsair 430w I referenced is at maximum efficiency at 50% load and this is the point before the fan starts to increase speed (sound) to keep up with cooling demands.

CX430 — 80 PLUS® Bronze Certified Power Supply

Looking at one of the higher CX series it appears that it has the same 50% load sweet spot.

You convinced me to get less oomph . I ordered the 550W and will return the 750W. Looks like no flashing neon lights for me

 

[rbmrtn]

Here's a sizing tool for estimating your wattage needs

Power Supply Calculator - The most accurate PC wattage calculator

 

[mike143]

I have been the sole IT person for the company I am with for the past 11 years. Most standard desktop computers are 250 to 350 watt power supplies. We have never had a problem adding a lower end video card. Most the computers are on a 220-330w battery backup which includes one or two 23-24" monitors. For some reason people like to go overkill on power supplies and RAM. I have measured a standard Dell desktop at less than 100w while loading the CPU, Prime 95 and Kill-A-Watt.

Here's a sizing tool for estimating your wattage needs

Power Supply Calculator - The most accurate PC wattage calculator

Seems to be pretty spot on. I built out what I would consider standard for our Dell machines and it was coming in between 200-250w recommend power supply.

 

[ERD50]

On gaming desktops you can put in super duper graphics cards that do take a lot of power(250 watts or more). These have mutiple graphic processors on the board.

Right, that's why I was curious - is he running a full tilt gaming machine, or just typical browse & email & occasional spreadsheet, photo-edit, and is in the 'bigger is better' camp.

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

I ended up canceling the 550 watt order and ordering a 450 watt Antec to replace my trusty 10 year old 400 watt Antec that finally gave out.

 

[hnzw_rui]

I have been the sole IT person for the company I am with for the past 11 years. Most standard desktop computers are 250 to 350 watt power supplies. We have never had a problem adding a lower end video card. Most the computers are on a 220-330w battery backup which includes one or two 23-24" monitors. For some reason people like to go overkill on power supplies and RAM. I have measured a standard Dell desktop at less than 100w while loading the CPU, Prime 95 and Kill-A-Watt.


Seems to be pretty spot on. I built out what I would consider standard for our Dell machines and it was coming in between 200-250w recommend power supply.

Yeah. Lots of people go overkill. Of course, part of that may be due to folks used to low quality power supplies that put rated at 500W (at 25C) but only deliver half their rated wattage at typical 40C ambient temps inside a desktop case.

Iirc, maximum PCIe power draw for video cards that don't require their own 6- or 8-pin power supply connector is 75W. The really low end cards typically only use 20W or less.

Personally, I use 120W PicoPSUs on a number of my builds. It's really pretty amazing how power efficient new Intel CPUs (even quad-core ones) are beginning with Sandy Bridge. Admittedly, Conroe/Wolfdale started the ball rolling.

 

[M Paquette]

One of the more interesting things I keep running across is instability in lightly loaded switching power supplies, particularly ones that cut a few corners to keep costs down. Of course, no PC parts vendor would ever do that.

The switching supplies use an internal oscillating circuit and feedback which alters the generated signal to generate and regulate the desired signal. When under a load substantially lower than the design point for the power supply, the feedback signal is telling the oscillating circuit to throttle way back, and it may wind up operating very close to the point where it shuts down. Voltage regulation can become very poor. That leads to mystery glitches in the PC.

As another poster mentioned, a 50% of rated load operating point is a sort of sweet spot, with good efficiency and regulation.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[hnzw_rui]

As another poster mentioned, a 50% of rated load operating point is a sort of sweet spot, with good efficiency and regulation.

Not really all that practical when modern desktops with even quad-core Ivy Bridge or Haswell processors idle at 10-30W. I try to target idle load at 20% rated wattage. That's pretty much the load where 80 Plus certification testing starts on.

 

[stepford]

While I could have gotten away with a 450W (or even smaller) PSU on my most recent build what I was really looking for was good ripple and regulation performance in the tests. Smallest of the really well reviewed units I found was a 550W (XFX XTR) and since that gave me a bit of headroom in choosing my Graphics Card then so much the better (and snagging the PSU for half price last BF didn't hurt either).

PSUs aren't that expensive and coughing up an extra $30-50 for a decent one every few years has always seemed like a good deal to me.

 

[hnzw_rui]

While I could have gotten away with a 450W (or even smaller) PSU on my most recent build what I was really looking for was good ripple and regulation performance in the tests. Smallest of the really well reviewed units I found was a 550W (XFX XTR) and since that gave me a bit of headroom in choosing my Graphics Card then so much the better (and snagging the PSU for half price last BF didn't hurt either).

SeaSonic. 'Nuff said.
Edit: Apparently, SeaSonic is the OEM for the XFX XTR.

PSUs aren't that expensive and coughing up an extra $30-50 for a decent one every few years has always seemed like a good deal to me.

I do pay for quality PSUs. However, I still try to target the 300-400W range for better efficiency at low loads. Heck, 300-400W is more than fine for a single mid-range GPU. My old i7+GTX 460 build idled at ~50W and just hit ~150-200W while gaming. That's power consumption from the wall. Assuming 85% efficiency (80Plus Bronze), that's just ~130-170W at heavy load.

Granted, 550W isn't really overkill. I've seen folks using and recommending 700+W PSUs on single video card configs (and the cards aren't even dual GPU models).

 

[easysurfer]

If my memory is correct (which I can't guarantee ), my desktop originally had a 300 watt PSU, but when adding a graphics card, there wasn't enough juice so I switched to an older 400 watt. The 450 watter (will arrive tomorrow) should be fine.

 

[easysurfer]

Update...

Unfortunately, it looks like the problem is more than just my power supply.

I think the CPU got fried too.

Now I'm weighing my options. Since my pc is a crappy used Dell, my thought is to get a cheap replacement on ebay of the Dell, then just restore from my image copy.

 

[steelyman]

Update...



Unfortunately, it looks like the problem is more than just my power supply.



I think the CPU got fried too.



Now I'm weighing my options. Since my pc is a crappy used Dell, my thought is to get a cheap replacement on ebay of the Dell, then just restore from my image copy.

Good luck! I also have a Dell (not used) that I wonder if the power supply hasn't seen better days. I didn't know that Dell had (or has?) a penchant for using non-standard components.

It's not high on my priority list, but I've checked out everything else and am glad to have a full backup of files now.

 

[rbmrtn]

It's not uncommon for the mobo/cpu to get fried when the PSU goes out. Emachines were well known for that. Dell has been using standard PSU for a while ( sometimes odd form factors ) but they used actually have non standard connections to the mobo that could fry things. Dells usually have some diagnostic lights on the chassis or mobo , check those. Do any of the fans come on.

Ebay is great to get a nice offlease refurb. I picked up some used HP xw4600 workstations, 500GBHD, Quadcore CPU, 8GB ram for $50 each ( parts worth more than that ) an resold them

 

[easysurfer]

The pc would try to turn on for about a half second, then automatically shut off. Fans don't come one. I do have a test card which plugs into a PCI slot and the code returned indicated no power to the CPU.

I went ahead and ordered a used PC from ebay (same model as the Dell I have), with no OS. (For about $50). I'm hoping, with that I can just transplant all my stuff (hard drives, DVD burner, graphics card, memory) to that computer, then do a restore of my system and data from Macrium Reflect image copies.