Following the hardware trail, please provide any ideas....

hiyaow · 03-17-2009, 06:30 PM

I've spent the day trying to figure out what happened, hope you can help.

Quick breakdown: One day, I noticed my monitors were not displaying video. When I opened the case, I noticed the case fan wasn't running and the fan on my video card also wasn't running. I disconnected the video fan cable and, using the ole 9v battery trick, ran the video card fan, so not the problem. I grabbed another case fan, and despite plugging it into every fan connecter on the motherboard, it wouldn't run. Again, 9v battery and a couple stripped wires, the fan worked fine. Finally, I disconnected the 6 pin power connector to the video card itself, reconnected and nothing, however when I switched to a second 6 pin power connection, the power shutdown and won't come back on.

So..... am I looking at a power supply that was just dying and is now dead? However, why would one power connection just do nothing and the second cause the computer to shut down permanently?

Thanks for any advice!!!

**wrench97** · 03-18-2009, 01:44 AM

Sounds like a Power supply problem, What brand and Model PSU and Video card do you have?
Any hot swapping of power leads can have adverse results on components.

Do you have a Digital Volt Meter to test with? > Test your power supply with a multi meter

03-17-2009, 06:30 PM	#1 (permalink)
hiyaow Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 1 OS: WinXP	Following the hardware trail, please provide any ideas.... I've spent the day trying to figure out what happened, hope you can help. Quick breakdown: One day, I noticed my monitors were not displaying video. When I opened the case, I noticed the case fan wasn't running and the fan on my video card also wasn't running. I disconnected the video fan cable and, using the ole 9v battery trick, ran the video card fan, so not the problem. I grabbed another case fan, and despite plugging it into every fan connecter on the motherboard, it wouldn't run. Again, 9v battery and a couple stripped wires, the fan worked fine. Finally, I disconnected the 6 pin power connector to the video card itself, reconnected and nothing, however when I switched to a second 6 pin power connection, the power shutdown and won't come back on. So..... am I looking at a power supply that was just dying and is now dead? However, why would one power connection just do nothing and the second cause the computer to shut down permanently? Thanks for any advice!!!

03-18-2009, 01:44 AM	#2 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,583 OS: Win7	Re: Following the hardware trail, please provide any ideas.... Sounds like a Power supply problem, What brand and Model PSU and Video card do you have? Any hot swapping of power leads can have adverse results on components. Do you have a Digital Volt Meter to test with? > Test your power supply with a multi meter __________________ Power Supply and Selection