psu burnout...

[cradle2dagrave]

Hello all. I'm a new poster but have been reading the forums for a while now. Anyway, I was wondering if your processor is over heated, can it cause your power supply (a cheap "Duro" brand 400w) to fry/burn out? Is that a common cause of psu burnouts?

I woke up a few days ago and my hard drive LED light was red but my monitor was not showing anything and I couldn't open either of my CD-ROM (dvd/cd-rw) drives. I couldn't reset it or power it off without hitting the switch in the back either. At the time, I could get it to power back on by hitting the power button but I was still not receiving any display on my monitor, the hard drive LED light would stay lit, and I could not power back off my computer without hitting the switch. I opened the case (I knew what I was doing) and reassembled everything to make sure all cables and modules were in place, but when I attempted to turn my computer back on, I got nothing. Before I received the red LED light and the fan on my CPU was moving (didnt check the one on my psu like a dummy).

I know my CPu was running pretty hot before-hand (60-70 C) but I didn't take any steps to cool it down. I've already ordered a new amd xp 2000+ with better cooling paste/better fan, but I'm just hoping that my psu is the only other thing I should have to replace and not the mobo. Also, what fan would be adequate for my "future" system? I do a lot of gaming, but not any other cpu intense activities.

Previous specs:
ecs k7s5a 3.x mobo w/ lan and audio
athlon 1.1ghz
geforce ti4200 64mb no tv-out
crucial 512mb pc133 sdram
74gb 5200rpm eide hdd
8x cd-rw
dvd-rom

future specs (as in, tomorrow when i receive the items in the mail)
ecs k7s5a 3.x mobo
amd xp 2000+
crucial 512mb pc2100 ddr266
geforce ti4200 64mb and the rest is the same as above...

Long post, but hopefully someone has the time to read and reply...

 

[Teq]

Ok, sounds like you have a little tech know how... Do you have a voltmeter?

You really need to check the voltages on that power supply before you go sacrificing a new CPU!


As for the cooling problem... check out the Spire and Thermaltake websites.

http://www.spirecooler.com/

http://www.thermaltake.com/

Look for copper bottom, aluminum fin coolers that are rated for your CPU chip. Also see the articles in the "Thermal Compounds" thread in the CPU discussion... lots of good info there.

 

[jihiggs]

if the psu was running hot, either the fan on it was dead or you put too much load on it.

my computer is so fast, it completes an endless loop in less than 4 seconds!

 

[lhgpoobaa]

its possible for a dead/dying cpu to damage the PSU... but its more likely for a dying PSU to damage the CPU.

If a PSU dies its most often due to:
A. power surge thru mains power.
B. poor build quality
C. overloaded burnout.

If its overloaded it probably wasnt very good quality anyway... and there are ALOT of poor quality powersupplies out there.

And yes, even though its a "400W" unit they can still burnout easily if they are of shoddy construction and cheapass materials.

Get a decent 350W enermax, toptower, vantec or antec PSU.

For a medium level system a quality 300W unit should be sufficient.
For a high end system, 350W
if you plan on overclocking, 400W or greater.
You can never have too much power.

and remember, quality counts!



<b>Anyone claiming they can see the difference
between 450 and 500 FPS in Quake3 deserves to
be severely beaten with a rock. </b>

 

[cradle2dagrave]

Thanks for the replies. After reading the article about PSU's at firingsquad.gamers.com, I understand the importance on not being a psu tight-wad. My "400w" old PSU was:
28a for +3.3v
30a for +5v
11a for +12v

It was only a matter of time anyway...

One more question, does anybody think an Antec TruePower 330w would be fine for my system? I won't be upgrading for a while (talking at least a year or 2) any of the components, so worrying about having enough power for the future is not an issue

ecs k7s5a mobo
amd xp2000+
512mb pc2100 ddr266 RAM
geforce ti4200 64mb
74gb 5400rpm hdd
fdd (maybe)
cd-rw
dvd-rom (don't really need this either)

 

[RobD]

That should be fine for your system. At least your know that this model won't crap out before it reaches 330. I have a TruePower 480(I know, I thought <i>what the fu..</i> and bought it) and it rules.

 

[lhgpoobaa]

oooh sucky 12v current man

yes the 330W antec should be fine!

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