Power Supply dieing?

[thecoalman]

I have a Fortron 520w PS that's been running constantly since November of 2003.... In the past I would occasionally get an error where the graphics card would say it's not getting enough juice and it was restricting performance. It's a nvidia GeForce 5950...

Anyhow in the past simply blowing out the dust within the PS solved the problem.... not this time though. When I first got the error it spawned about 30 error windows and even after clicking the OK it would spawn more. I blew out the dust and it doesn't spawn a whole bunch of windows but I will get one on startup or shortly after...

My guess is that it is time for new one, just wondering if it's common for a power supply to slowly die? All at once... what's the usual.. I never had one die on me before.

I'm going to be building a new machine soon so I figure if it's not the supply I could always use it in the new machine anyway.. any other advice.. I've also tried reseating the card, new drivers, reseating the plug on the card, tried a different plug....

[ROF]

In most cases a power supply simply dies. You wake up one morning and your PC is silent. Sadness fills the room.

It's not unheard of for a power supply to slowly go into the grave but this is usually preceded by noisy fans, erratic sounds, or as you've seen error messages caused by underpowered devices.

Since this is a good sized power supply I'd say you might be trying to power to many things. The Intel865 sucks a tremendous amount of juice as do the multiple video cards, hard drives, and opticals you have installed. Even with everything you've listed in your profile you should be within the limits of the supply. How many external devices you got attached to the machine?

I'm thinking the errors aren't related to power but might by symptoms of a larger issue.

[Treebeard]

[quote="ROF"]In most cases a power supply simply dies. You wake up one morning and your PC is silent. Sadness fills the room.
[quote]

I read this line and started laughing my butt off b/c its so true(the sadness part).

[thecoalman]

Actually it's 530W now that I looked on the sticker...

Just a printer and a scanner hooked up at the moment. Set of speakers but that all has external power. I'm only using 3 of 5 pci slots, soundcard, wireless & standard 56k/fax.

Guess it's off to the computer store.....

[redwudz]

I think the best insurance would be to replace it. If you still have the same problem, at least it would mean you have two good PS's. If it's ready to fail, you might have saved your MB, etc., from a premature death, not to mention your data.

I had one PS that, without warning, fried everything in the PC except for one of the hard drives. All gone. Cheap PS, my fault. I heard the sound of an electrical short and a then there was a little puff of smoke and all was silent.

[rallynavvie]

Fortron is a good PSU but even good PSUs can die after a while. The 5950 was a known power-sucking video card. In fact if you upgraded to a mid-grade GeForce 6 series card like a 6600 or even a 6800 you will get better performance and use less power. Some 6800s are pretty power-hungry too though.

You may still just want to get a new PSU. That 530W is overkill for what you're using it for it sounds like. You should be able to spend $70-100 on a good Antec supply and be good for several more years or move it to a newer computer if you upgrade in the next few years. I'd still recommend a 480W for that rig though. The TruePowerII are great PSUs for the money.

[ROF]

I had a 430W true power die on me(see story above). Even so I still bought a True Power II.

Sometimes "stuff" happens and things die. It doesn't mean the next one is going to. Fortron is also a good power supply brand. They are a little expensive but still good. A few good budget brands I've used are powmax and raptor. I'm running a raptor 500w in the machine I'm using now.

[TBoneit]

From the opening post it sounds like the PS has been somewhat abused inadvertantly but if it was run until the video card complained and then the dust blown out to restore it sounds as if it may have been running hot for a extended period of time.

In a dusty environment I open up the supply, use a soft brush with a vacumn cleaner, pull the fan and clean properly, possibly lube the bearing (under the sticker) with 3 in 1 20w motor oil not their thin stuff. The only time I blow out anything in a PS is if it is tight.

as ROF say's We had decent luck with PowMax PS's for an economy model.

I haver seen Power supplies that would still run under a light load but shut down under a load they should have supported and used to be able to handle.

As redwudz said I have seen a PS arc, die and take everything with it, not always but I have seen it. Happened to my brother in fact, talk about sad, bad enough to tell a customer everything islost/fried without it being family. Even the memory bubbled.

[thecoalman]

From the opening post it sounds like the PS has been somewhat abused inadvertantly but if it was run until the video card complained and then the dust blown out to restore it sounds as if it may have been running hot for a extended period of time.

Possibly bt I do some maintenace, usually about every 6 months or so I'll do some housecleaning... Matter of fact it was only a few months ago the last time I cleaned it out. I'm not one to wait until it's caked on everything. My case does has one of those dust collectors, not sure what the name is for it but it I'm assuming it's statically charged... it collects quite a bit of it and it's the main entrance for incoming air. beside the normal cracks here and there.

Anyhow I'm probably going with at least a 600w one, I'll get a smller one for this machine if it's the power supply and transfer the bigger one to my future rig.

[thecoalman]

Well got a new one... Antec True Power 480w. I loaded up Battlefield 1942 and no error so I gues it was just fizzling out. Would have purchased a larger one but htis was the biggest one they had and I didn't want to wait.

Tell you one thing it's a hell of lot quieter than my old one and I even haven't put the side back on. Before any one asks no the old one wasn't making any unusual noises, just loud fan noise.

[rallynavvie]

Is that the TruePowerII? I've been interested in running one of those since they finally went to a true dual-rail 12v feed. Those should run newer systems with heavy graphics really well.

[thecoalman]

Sure is, ran one line directly to the card.

Does anyone know if it matters what way you install it physically? There were no instructions, didn't need ny but that was one thing I wasn't sure about...

[rallynavvie]

I don't think so, and I don't think you have many options to install it wrong. As long as the fans have room to breathe and the cables are all plugged into the proper places then you should be fine.

[thecoalman]

I don't think so, and I don't think you have many options to install it wrong.

Just two choices really the fan will either be on the top or bottom, I didn't want to sound like a dimwit but wasn't sure if that made a difference. I put it on the bottom for easier access when I hit it with the can of air.. Cabling wasn't a problem..

I still can't get over how my machine has become... there's some fan only cables for the case fans. Apparently it controls the case fan speed, I'm assuming it speeds them up if the power demand increases? Right now they are barely running, much slower than they did before???

Haven't really done anything to see if the speed up..

[ROF]

In most cases you'd have to re-drill the screw holes in order to put the power supply in upside down.

[thecoalman]

In most cases you'd have to re-drill the screw holes in order to put the power supply in upside down.

No redrilling and I could have installed it either way. The case has a plate that goes on the PSU which only goes on one way. The plate can be attached to the case either way.