Computer Problems

[Thanatos]

Hello folks, it's Buzzy (norly!) attempting to fix Than's computer that was built for him (his machine, his account, etc etc). Here's the story:

He came home from work one day to find the machine off and a strange smell in the room. He turned it back on and about four minutes later, it smelt again and automatically shutdown. I've finally gotten over here and we've determined that the issue is the power supply (it smells HORRID). We're assuming that it's now unusable. So... we've got a problem... his computer is currently out of commission.

The old power supply was 430w, the spare that i have (and the has never been used) is 350w. I'm assuming that I'm going to have to take something out to make it run... if we can possibly get it to work at all... I don't know how much voltage what uses so I can't guess if it'll work or not.

So what's your folks view on this? Do I need to post a list of stuff that's in it? If so, how detailed? Or should I even bother?

[So Uncivilized]

You probably really need to figure out what hardware you are running, especially the mobo type + processor and the graphics card. The other stuff I think is relatively standard as far as power consumption.

It's always possible that it was a bad power supply. You might find that the 350W is adequate and you can just hook it up. But you don't want to only to find that it's not enough and bzzzt. All gone.

You really cannot go 'smaller' than the boot drive, motherboard and video card these days. If that PSU isn't enough, then it's time to buy one.

How old is the burned out one? Does he have the receipt? Did he buy everything at the same place? Cause if it's just defective, they should replace it. I think they might consider store credit, too, if they sold him an inadequate one along with his other gear.

if it was an online purchase, then that's always much stickier... I dunno. Big purchases like this, that I feel might lead to returns, I try to buy brick and mortar.

Anyway, I just got here first. Clay or Blah or someone smart will be along soon to give you real help.


SU

[spm97]

Buzzy,
There are voltage calculators online, for example:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

You can figure out what size PSU you need...

Spam

[Thanatos]

Sorry, forgot to mention - Than's computer is made from the parts of Buster Mk.1, all his parts are my old ones. So just about everything is about 2 years old. The only difference between Original Buster and Buster Mk. 1 is the HDD (this one is bigger) and the Heatsink (the old one got broke, so this one's new and copper). Everything else is my old stuff.

This ain't new stuff (for the most part) =P

We already know we're likely to have to get a new Power Supply, but it's now a question of "how soon?"


Also, thanks for the calculator Spam, but I honestly don't know how to fill it out. <=/

[spm97]

Post all the internal parts (Motherboard, memory, drives, etc) and we'll help you fill it out.

Spam

[Clay Pigeon]

<paranoia>you also made sure that neither the cpu or the gpu were overheating right? Just because the psu is doing it doesnt mean the other parts automatically cannot be doing it too... </paranoia>

[MrBlah]

A 350W should do fine, but it wouldnt be bad to go out and get another 430w PSU to replace what was bad.

I basically built a system that I think was pretty close to if not better than what Than is using and then upped the ante a touch buy adding another drive, more fans, better GPU, more pci cards and what not, i never topped 300w.

did see that I would be using 670w when I was running my comp at full capacity

[Thanatos]

[quote="Clay Pigeon";p="98265"]
<paranoia>you also made sure that neither the cpu or the gpu were overheating right? Just because the psu is doing it doesnt mean the other parts automatically cannot be doing it too... </paranoia>
[/quote]

I have considered that, but I don't know if I want to test it. Than said he left the machine idling for awhile without any apps running. When I was here last I noted that the machine run at a comfortable 30 degrees celcius, but I didn't want to start it up again in case of something irreversible going on. Perhaps it's worth noting that when I built the machine, the heatsink gave me tremendous amounts of trouble in my attempts to attach it. I've been constantly worried that it's not on right due to poor design... but if the machine was working fine I thought nothing of it... <=/ bad idea, most likely...

But would it also be important to note that the PSU reeks HORRIBLY of... something not good...

Also also, Than said that at any time the fans were not producing hot air... cool air yes, but not hot.


Anyways, Spam, here's the build.

1 x ANTEC SLK1650B Black MID-TOWER 3X5.25 5X3.5 ATX12V 350W (Unused PSU & current case)
1 x Intel Pentium D 820 2.8GHZ LGA775 Smithfield 800FSB 2X1MB EM64T XD Dual Core Processor R *IR-$30.00*
1 x ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe ATX LGA775 I945P DDR2 2PCI-E16 PCI-E 3PCI SATA RAID Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard
1 x Mushkin PC2-5300 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-667 CL4-4-4-12 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit
1 x BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC PCI-E 256MB 256BIT DDR3 SLI Ready Video Card
1 x Antec Neo HE430 High Efficiency 430W ATX12V V2.2 Active PFC Power Supply
1 x BenQ DW1650 Black DVD+-RW 16X Dual Layer DVD Writer OEM

Here's the heatsink:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph ... cid=FN.349
Here's the HDD:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph ... HD.443.877

[gator]

Spam's link for the PSU calculation shows around 235W for the parts, so 350W should provide enough overhead.

[Boss Llama]

Personally, I'm a fan of having an overpowered PSU, because of the occasional spikes that can happen. As important as wattage though, is to be sure that if you have a PSU with multiple 12V rails, you balance to load demand across the rails, so a hiccup in draw won't overload everything. If you have dual 12V rails rated at 20 amps, but everything's plugged in to one, that can cause just as many problems as having too little wattage available for demand. A well balanced PSU can be stable at a lower wattage than a poorly set-up one.

In regards to how soon you should replace the malfunctioning PSU... immediately! When your PSU gives off that characteristic smell (nothing else quite like it!) it's time to never ever use that PSU again. Sure, maybe it's something minor, but it could very easily be something not-so-minor, and you don't want a glitching PSU to suddenly blast your system with way too much juice, or starve a vital component, or catch fire, as they are capable of doing.

As far as the heatsink, I wouldn't worry. If your machine is working fine, the heatsink is sufficiently attached. Last time I saw a machine where the heatsink wasn't properly set on the CPU, it would emergency shut-down itself before it even booted because of overheating, and that was on a far wimpier system that what you describe.