Very very strange problem...

[yumpum]

Hey all, Thanks for the help, Basically my PSU is too noisy. But the strange part is, I have tried another, brand new one, and it is also too noisy. It starts off quiet then gets louder and louder, and is still noticeable even at idle.

The very strange part is after being sure that the overheating was because of the air in the case, I bought a case fan - no change. So today I had the idea of putting the psu outside the case just to be sure it was the air and not the psu's working too hard.

Well it was still overheating. Both of them, outside the case..

So the PSU's are working too hard, right?

The strangest part is it never use to do this, and my pc is not high demand power wise.

(amd phenom ii x4 955 3.2, HD 5770, 4gb ram, dvd drive, hard drive, tv tuner, M4A785TD-V EVO MOBO)
According to psu calculator I need about 380W, I have been using 500W and a 480W (the 500w is the OCZ stealthxtreme, the other is pretty poor, x-power GTX light)

I only recently installed the tv tuner, and its happened since then pretty much, but with it out , and even using onboard GFX card, same problem...

When installing the tv tuner, I forgot to screw it in and dislodged it whilst pc was on, pc hung, but rebooted fine.. did I break something?

What would cause this to suddenly happen?

Thank you

 

[Twoboxer]

The 500W should certainly run that rig, and nothing special about heat or noise was mentioned in its review. What *was* mentioned was that the psu would not deliver more than 500W, so its not putting out more than that lol.

How is the power coming *into* the psu? Low line voltage might make the psu work harder to deliver what the PC needs.

Is the psu on a UPS? If so, try running without it if you can and see if there's a difference.

As for the card falling out, check the mobo carefully: Remove the tuner; examine each pin in the relevant slot, look for discoloration anywhere on the board. Boot up. Does the 500W psu still run hot without the tuner?

 

[yumpum]

Hey, Thank you so much for the detailed response.

Unfortunately I am not sure too sure what low line voltage is. I have it plugged into an extension which is plugged into the wall, that's about all I know. However it has always been this way so not sure what could have changed.

Having checked UPS definition, it is not one.

I am going away until wednesday today, but I will check the mobo when I am back. Thanks so much for the suggestions, and if anyone else has any ideas I'd love to hear them, driving me crazy .

 

[Twoboxer]

If an appliance designed to use (eg) 120 Volt power from the wall gets lower voltage (think of it as water pressure) it will draw more current (more water) to make up for it. That causes the appliance to run hotter than designed.

Low voltage can be caused by things beyond your control (power company, etc) or an extremely long extension cord (voltage drops over distance) or an extension cord that's too thin (the cord itself may feel warm). These are normally not the problem, but you can try moving the PC temporarily and plugging it into the wall directly to test.

Where are you located? Do you have any other issues in your home with electrical power?