Specs:
Antec Earthwatts EA-500 (500w)
Asus P5N-E SLI
OCZ 2GBx2 DDR2
3.0GHz Intel dual core (don't remember exact model)
2x1TB Seagate drives in RAID 1 array
nVidia 8600 GT
Windows XP Home
My computer has been randomly shutting off for awhile now. Yesterday it shut off by itself again and it won't turn back on. Here's what I've done to find out where the problem is:
1. Flipped switch on PSU off/on, tried different wall outlets, all the obvious things. PSU fan would not even come on when power button on PC was pressed, but there is a green light lit on the motherboard whenever the PSU's switch is on.
2. Tested Power Button on the front for continuity - PASSED.
3. Shorted Power Switch pins on the motherboard - CPU fan spins for a moment then stops.
4. Tested voltages on all PSU connectors with multimeter. The 12's are all reading ~13.02v, the 3.3's are reading 3.54v and the 5's are reading 5.45v. These are 7-9% above, but ATX power supplies are supposed to be within 5%.
I don't know why a power supply would put out a higher voltage, but I'm thinking maybe my motherboard detects the voltage and shuts off when it goes higher than the 5% threshold. The system is a few years old so I'm thinking it just needs a new power supply.
This probably isn't related, but before the final crash yesterday, I was trying to reinstall XP because I couldn't boot Windows after upgrading my video card & chipset drivers from nVidia.
Antec Earthwatts EA-500 (500w)
Asus P5N-E SLI
OCZ 2GBx2 DDR2
3.0GHz Intel dual core (don't remember exact model)
2x1TB Seagate drives in RAID 1 array
nVidia 8600 GT
Windows XP Home
My computer has been randomly shutting off for awhile now. Yesterday it shut off by itself again and it won't turn back on. Here's what I've done to find out where the problem is:
1. Flipped switch on PSU off/on, tried different wall outlets, all the obvious things. PSU fan would not even come on when power button on PC was pressed, but there is a green light lit on the motherboard whenever the PSU's switch is on.
2. Tested Power Button on the front for continuity - PASSED.
3. Shorted Power Switch pins on the motherboard - CPU fan spins for a moment then stops.
4. Tested voltages on all PSU connectors with multimeter. The 12's are all reading ~13.02v, the 3.3's are reading 3.54v and the 5's are reading 5.45v. These are 7-9% above, but ATX power supplies are supposed to be within 5%.
I don't know why a power supply would put out a higher voltage, but I'm thinking maybe my motherboard detects the voltage and shuts off when it goes higher than the 5% threshold. The system is a few years old so I'm thinking it just needs a new power supply.
This probably isn't related, but before the final crash yesterday, I was trying to reinstall XP because I couldn't boot Windows after upgrading my video card & chipset drivers from nVidia.
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