Is my PSU dead or is it my MoBo?

[motamedn]

My old build (~5 yrs ago) just stopped working. I leave it on most of the day and I came to it already dead for some time. The case's green power light was slowly turning on and off and nothing was displayed on my monitor. I unplugged the PSU, discharged everything then unplugged all components and opened the sucker up. There was no smell coming from the PSU or components.

When I reconnected the power cable the computer (the next day) started making a high pitched squeal that only went away a few seconds after I unplugged it. While it was reconnected to power, I tried powering up again and the fans swirled once and then nothing happened except for the same pulsating green light of the case's power indicator (nothing on the monitor still; I think that indicates either PSU/MoBo/CPU/RAM is the culprit). My money is on the PSU...but I can't be certain and its an Antec, so I'd think its somewhat reliable (albeit old)

Now if I hadn't donated my older case I would try that PSU out and see if that's the root of my problems but unfortunately I don't have one laying around anymore.

Is there a way I can tell for certain that the PSU is the issue? I haven't tried resetting the CMOS yet.

Thanks!

 

[obsidian86]

list full specs please

 

[motamedn]

I don't remember them. Its 5 years old. What I could gather from looking inside:
PSU: Antec 450W Smart Power (SP-450)
RAM: Corsair 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR400(PC3200) (2 x VS512MB400)
GPU: NVidia GeForce 6600GT 128MB
MoBo: MSI....MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R (MS-6702 ver 1.0) (http://www3.dealtime.com/xPF-MB-MSI-VIA-K8T800-K8T-NEO-FIS2R-RT)
CPU: its AMD but I don't know what speed. Athlon something or another but I can't tell by looking in the case and I don't recall.

I have several HDs, a DVD-RW, a tuner and Audigy 2 ZS in there as well but for reasons listed above i don't think they are the cause

 

[motamedn]

upon further review I think it is the PSU: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1Q6W6LDYK25TO

I just hope the rest of the system is intact..

 

[obsidian86]

most likely the case but you wont be sure till you try

 

[motamedn]

it was the PSU. I found another thread (linked above) that had a few people with the same symptoms. Just picked up a temporary replacement and it loaded up great!

Thanks though Obsidian86. If I hadn't looked up the actual specific specs I wouldn't have found that it is apparently a somewhat common problem with that PSU.

 

[motamedn]

Best answer selected by motamedn.

 

[motamedn]

If i wanted to update the RAM, would they have to match up? I have 2x512MB right now but max is 2GB. could I just get 1 stick of 1GB (same DDR400 PC3200 RAM) even though the sizes dont match up to the other two?