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Is my PSU dying ??? PLEASE HELP !!!

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cozmo_d

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2000
Location
Planet X
Hey all for some reason latley ive had a problem turning on my pc

I have to disconect the powercord from the back of the pc for 60 seconds or longer & then plug it back in & press the start switch
what can be causing this ?? its a sparklepower 350 I have a cdrom,cdrw,flopydrive,2 harddrives & a total of 7 fans & im also ocing

it seems to run fine while its on its just geting it fired back up here latley that is the problem

Anyone please help

as far as trouble shooting goes ive changed my voltage protection
powerstrip..... ive switched poles on the 2 pin header for the power/start switch but the problem persists please help
 
Hmm....have you had problems of booting up since day 1 when you got the psu/computer?

To me this seems sort of "on the edge" power-wise.....but i dont know all to much on how much each device uses....Do you have access to a different psu? Like a friends/relatives who's energy rating is higher?

Good luck on finding what the problem is :)
 
Well bubba I dont think im underpowered but I could be wrong

I could disconect some of these fans to relive the powersupply
but I have monitored my voltages via hardware doctor, the 12v flucuates between 11.86 & 11.92 the 5v flucuates between 4.97 & 4.95 so I realy dont think that im drawing too much on the psu

But I found something thats very bad indead & im not sure what too do about it

Seems the house im living in is over 35 years old & when the electricans ran the wiring to my room they didnt run the ground wire over to the ground lug on the electrical outlet that my pc is pluged into I just took apart all the outlets in my room =3 & none are grounded but they are 3 prong outlets !!!

So I broke out my multimeter & did a test on my case

I put 1 leg on the back of the case & the other to a tru ground
(IE: the casing of the rca jacket wich I know for a fact is grounded) & there is 60 volts ac there :(

so I think what is happaning is the powersupply is somehow sencing this ground problem & its not diggin on it!!!

The big question is how can I make a ground for this pc without rewiring the house.

P.S. the power coming into the house has two 120 legs & a ground it breaks off to 120v ac at the outlets the kitchen has all its ground legs hooked up but none of the livingroom or bedrooms are grounded but the 3rd prong exzists on the outlets

I also cheked the breaker box to check that it is grounded & it is

It appears that they(the electricans) ran the grounds for the bedrooms & living room in the breakerbox but never compleated the circuit (Ie:they cut the bare copper off somewhere in the attic

How dangerouse is this for my pc & how the heck can I fix it ???
 
well....by what you are saying this does sound somewhat bad....but how to solve it, this is where i step back and let the knowledged ones step forward :)

good luck on solving your problem...its not good to hear of the problems of a fellow o/cer
 
Would a UPS fix this problem? If you could find one that would work, they basically redigest power so that it's the kind your PC likes. I know nothing about wiring though. I do know that some UPSs come with wiring fault indicators, and that might mean that they won't work with your outlets.

Sounds like you do know what you're doing though. Ever think about callling your electrician up and asking him if there's any way you can fix it easily?

The way I am talking about is really half arsed, but it might get you by. The PC would be protected, but you would not be protected from wiring problems (pretty scary).
 
Hmm, no that ya mention it cursor, a ups sounds like a good idea....coz if i remembe rhow they work what it is is the battery is charged, and then u plug the shiz into it....and then the battery gets charged, and your actually running off of the battery 24/7....this may be only for some of the ups'.....but ive liked these ones, and there pretty well trusted :)....who knows it may be able to solve the problem
 
bubba just be sure you don't start a fire with that crappy wiring job. I know nothing about electricity other than it's dangerous and the wiring is a major source of home fires. Maybe call your local volunteer fire department and get their advice before you go making this a long term solution, OK? They might either know a way to test if you're ok, offer you some advice on how to fix it cheap, or at least get a heads up on directions to your house for when the wiring does go. ;)

Just be careful, man. I'd hate for anyone's house to burn down.
 
cursor said:
bubba just be sure you don't start a fire with that crappy wiring job. I know nothing about electricity other than it's dangerous and the wiring is a major source of home fires. Maybe call your local volunteer fire department and get their advice before you go making this a long term solution, OK? They might either know a way to test if you're ok, offer you some advice on how to fix it cheap, or at least get a heads up on directions to your house for when the wiring does go. ;)

Just be careful, man. I'd hate for anyone's house to burn down.

errr, i guess it must be real late where u are bro....coz i think u ment cozmo_d......or did i say that i would do any wiring =]

lol get some sleep :p

but even tho i think it was directed to the wrong person....do what he said above :D
 
UPS >? what is it ?

I called my landlord about this problem & informed him that there is no grounds on the outlets in 80% of the house

Realy I dont think there is a hazard for fire because the electricians that wired the house tied the neutral leg of the circuit in with the ground leg @ the breakerbox so what this means is that

black wire=power @ the box
White wire= neutral, Jumped to the Ground block wich is A true earth ground @ the box

basicaly for laymen its a 2 leg conection with the neutral leg grounded this sounds good but its not because I have 3 prong devices that want & expect to have a 3rd lug that is grounded
not an old style 2 prong grounded circuit

What realy Ticks me off about this situation is that the builder of this house, so many years ago, took the trouble to install 3 prong outlets, but the electricans that wired it decivied the Electrical inspector by wiring in solid copper connections for all the outlets in the house @ the box, but they only ran the copper grounds into the kitchen & then cut the Copper @ that point & didnt finnish there job. Basicaly neither the Electricans or the Inspector did there job correctaly because the Inspector should have pulled @ least 1 of the outlet covers in the furthest room from the Box to make sure thoes dillstiks did there job. if this was a 2 or 3 year old house I could probly Get the builder to force the electricans that wired this popsicle stand to come back here & finnish what they started but its been 25 years or longer So I dont think I can force there hand Now I am getting woried tho cuz I havent been up into the rafters To check out the situation up there mainly because the landlord had the attic blown with insulation Eeekkkkk I hate that crap
 
WHY CANT PEOPLE JUST DO THE JOB THEY WERE PAID FOR !!!Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

now its falling on me & I dont even own this house
 
Sorry about the confusion. OK, so this is for Cozmo--

ups=uninterruptable power supply. It's basically a power strip with a battery built in. You can find them at any office store or computer super-store. They cost between $20-$500 depending on the deal you find and the capacity you need. APC is the premiere brand, but other companies make quite serviceable units including Belkin and Triplite. These units use the power in your wall to charge a battery (much like your car's battery uses the alternator to charge). The computer always runs off of the battery--not the power coming into your wall. So no power spikes, brown outs, etc. Also, if the power gets cut off to your house, then your computer keeps running for a few minutes off of the battery. Lets you save your work and shut down. Some UPSs come with software suites to automatically shut down your PC if you're not around and there's a power outage.

Check out Circuitcity.com and look for APC BE350U. It's like $40, and is probably all you would need. I've got one and it's great. They have FREE SHIPPING on this thing too, which is great because batteries are HEAVY.

Just remember to only hook up your monitor, computer and maybe speakers (unless you have some huge system!) to the battery part of the UPS. Laser printers especially are known to zap the battery as they pull so much power.

Good luck!
 
cursor said:
Sorry about the confusion. OK, so this is for Cozmo--

ups=uninterruptable power supply. It's basically a power strip with a battery built in. You can find them at any office store or computer super-store. They cost between $20-$500 depending on the deal you find and the capacity you need. APC is the premiere brand, but other companies make quite serviceable units including Belkin and Triplite. These units use the power in your wall to charge a battery (much like your car's battery uses the alternator to charge). The computer always runs off of the battery--not the power coming into your wall. So no power spikes, brown outs, etc. Also, if the power gets cut off to your house, then your computer keeps running for a few minutes off of the battery. Lets you save your work and shut down. Some UPSs come with software suites to automatically shut down your PC if you're not around and there's a power outage.

Check out Circuitcity.com and look for APC BE350U. It's like $40, and is probably all you would need. I've got one and it's great. They have FREE SHIPPING on this thing too, which is great because batteries are HEAVY.

Just remember to only hook up your monitor, computer and maybe speakers (unless you have some huge system!) to the battery part of the UPS. Laser printers especially are known to zap the battery as they pull so much power.

Good luck!


Yes all well said and done...keep the normal rig parts on the actual battery.....but i thot that monitors take a hell lot of "juice".... from the battery, and unless it was something that i like spent a godly amount of money on, i would put it on the normal surge outlets on the battery

Ahh yes, something that does help the batterys live longer, is to totally drain its electrical charges......this has worked on a lot of the rechargebale batteries ive seen (ive even seen this one guy who has droors full of old cell phone batteries that outlived the actual cell phone....try to look around for a "battery discharger" ill look for one also since i suggested it.....once youve got one, do this like every 6-9 months, it should help ur ups stay around longer, so u could save some samolians in the long run :D

cheers :beer:
 
bubba gump said:



Yes all well said and done...keep the normal rig parts on the actual battery.....but i thot that monitors take a hell lot of "juice".... from the battery, and unless it was something that i like spent a godly amount of money on, i would put it on the normal surge outlets on the battery

I always hook up my monitor because if the power goes out, I can probably save everything using function keys, but I want to see that it's saved if I'm working on something important. Then of course I can shut down normally. So you're right, monitors DO suck a lot of juice, but I don't like to fly blind.

bubba gump said:


Ahh yes, something that does help the batterys live longer, is to totally drain its electrical charges......this has worked on a lot of the rechargebale batteries ive seen (ive even seen this one guy who has droors full of old cell phone batteries that outlived the actual cell phone....try to look around for a "battery discharger" ill look for one also since i suggested it.....once youve got one, do this like every 6-9 months, it should help ur ups stay around longer, so u could save some samolians in the long run :D

cheers :beer:

I've never done that, but it's a good idea. I had a back-UPS 350 office go bad last month, but it was like 3 years old. It was the battery. I was checking around for a replacement battery, but it was actually cheaper to just buy a whole new unit. If I had a higher end model (maybe an 1100 VA model or something)--I might look into a battery discharger. Otherwise, why not just hook your CRT monitor up to the battery until it runs down? That would do it. Probably wouldn't take more than 1/2 hour--perhaps more if you had a small monitor.
 
Well this solution sounds viable, But I can just about figure that the ups is gona want a 3 prong wall outlet

but maybe it wont mater Id rather fry the ups than my pc but I wonder iv my case will still be carying that 60 volts thats the part that realy bothers me besides the house burning down lol
 
The UPS will need that 3rd prong, even though in your case that will have no purpose to the UPS, im pretty sure it would not make a difference, since the UPS is "filtering" the electricity..i dont know all to much but i think it would be alright w/the 3rd prong not doing nething.....

cursor >> i see what ya mean now why to keep the monitor on the battery side...hmmm

and im not sure if the way with draining with a monitor would drain every last drop out of it.....but who knows i could be wrong :cool:

And yeh, it usually is a **** load of money to buy replacement batterys....not even worth offering to sell em if you ask me :D
 
But most products sold as UPSes aren't really UPSes, and the equipment is powered directly from the AC outlet most of the time and switched to the battery only when there's a blackout. I have two 300VA APC backup power units, and neither is an Uninterruptable Power Supply because each one lists an interruption time of several milliseconds when it switches from AC to battery.
 
Most? Are you sure? All of the ones i use(a few different APC's, a blackoutbuster, and another kind) have all stated clearly that they run the components off of battery juice while they charge the battery trhough the wall, and charging, is charging..
 
I'm pretty sure that most models under 600-1000 VA are just standby supplies. My APC BK300D (old model, taller than it is wide, only two outlets, on back) has a transfer time of 8ms, and it's 6ms for my Conext (another APC brand) BPC300. The BK300D also buzzes loudly only when the household AC is off, and I think that if it ran off the battery all the time the sound would never change.
 
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