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What are the symptoms of an overtaxed PSU?

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jam100

New Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2003
Location
San Francisco
I couldn't find anything in the forums that had this - apologies if I missed it. When I try to boot my machine, it often will begin to powerup and then die - the power just turns off- before even entering in to the memory test. This can happen several times before it "catches" and then it would continue to a normal startup.

I've recently added a Ti4200, upgraded sound card and a second-hand SCSI card and LVD drive to an older 200W Dell system. I didn't think any of this would tax the PSU but could be wrong. This did not happen before I added the extra hardware in to the machine.

Once the machine is running, I have no problems and haven't seen any random reboots.
 
Does sound like the PSU is straining.

Try disconnecting the power from one of your drives and see if you can make it in ok.
 
Well I do not know what to tell you the symptoms are of an overtaxed psu, however if you get it up and running and you have mbm5 or a similar utility you can view the readings on the voltage being supplied to see if they are close to low... when all components first draw power it could be pushing it over the edge or real close. Anyways, I would not run ANY system on a 200watt power supply, especially not a system that matches with a ti4200.

To narrow things down on my own, I would try removing all components and then adding components one by one and see if a specific one is causing the problem.

I would guess that it is likely that your system is powering off because an initial voltage spike with all components being starting up and your psu can't handle it, but that is just a guess.
 
Thanks - Makes sense - I will try the approach of removing components and adding them in incrementally to see what happens.
As an aside, I've always understood the stock Dell PSU's understate their true capacity and have an actual capacity that substantially exceeds their stated capacity. I guess I should verify that. I'll check with mbm5 - just downloaded it.

Thanks for the help
 
Your PC might have options to delay or stagger power-up of the hard drives. Hard drives take a lot of power upon initial startup. If your PSU is slightly overtaxed during startup, this might help.

And if you do have to replace the PSU, be careful - A lot of Dells use the standard ATX conenctor BUT it is wired differently. If you try a normal ATX PSU you may get some crispy electronics ;)
 
Could it be that in those few seconds, the thermistor for the incoming AC heats up and its resistance decreases enough to let the PSU have a little bit more umph? Maybe it would help to bypass the thermistor and every other component that contributes to the safety, longevity, and reliability of the PSU, i.e., the "woosie" stuff. OTOH, my 250W woosie-free no-name PSU couldn't run my 1.3 GHz Duron for more than 30 seconds at a time, and that was with nothing but a slow video card installed.
 
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.....if you choose to upgrade the PSU, then DO NOT use an ordinary ATX power supply. I have heard again and again of people frying their systems because of this. You can buy specially wired dell-compatible PSUs at PC Power and Cooling. man, why on earth would Dell do that? I really can't make any sense of it.
 
I just went through a week of hell with a simular problem. I was experiencing random shutdowns ... sometimes it would work .... sometimes not. Put in a new Antec 550w True Power. Things seem to be running smooth now.

You can view the whole thread in the Soyo AMD motherboards section of this forum under "Power Supply Issue w Soyo KT 400".

B
 
Rafterman223 said:
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.....if you choose to upgrade the PSU, then DO NOT use an ordinary ATX power supply. I have heard again and again of people frying their systems because of this. You can buy specially wired dell-compatible PSUs at PC Power and Cooling. man, why on earth would Dell do that? I really can't make any sense of it.

I have a Dimension 4100 and I had to use a special connector to use an ATX PSU. Please don't attempt to use a store bought PSU on your Dell/Intel proprietary mobo. If you want I can search around for the site where I got the connector from.
 
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