PSU is dead or alive?

[kopykat]

Hi,
My computer suddenly shut down and wasnt willing to turn back on again, first conclusion was that the psu must be dead. Solution - connect a different PSU and see if everything works again. Once I have done that the computer started and after about 10 minutes the same exact thing happened - computer shut down and not willing to turn back on. So i took the psu out and checked to see if it died as well, i connected it to another computer it started up - i clicked the power button to turn it off and the next thing i see is smoke . the fried computer worries me less, but what the hell is wrong with the first system?

 

[Crashman]

You could be getting bad power supplies. Of course you could be trying to connect standard power supplies to older Dell computers as well. Either could cause the symptoms you described.

Oh, I just remembered you said it ran for ten minutes, scratch the second possibility, I think you're getting bad power supplies. Probably manufactured by PowMax or something.

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[kopykat]

from what i described can the problem be related to something else rather than the psu? most likely that its cause the psu units suck - they were both no name brands.
but i just wanna be sure before i go and buy a good psu.

 

[Crashman]

High quality power supplies have thermal and overcurrent protection and shouldn't fail even if there's something wrong with the board...they just shut off when overloaded.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[kopykat]

in other words, i should get a normal psu?

 

[Crashman]

I just told you, good power supplies protect themselves, cheap ones usually don't. I'd go price shopping for the best price on a high quality unit, rather than risk another failure using a lowe quality unit. You won't know if there are other problems until you gat a power supply that doesn't blow up every 10 minutes.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>