be4con

I hope you can help...

I was using my pc last night when it suddenly powered off, as it might in a power cut. All other components stayed powered up. I checked all the cables and power switches and changed my supply cable and they were all fine.

Since then it has been dead. Pressing the power on button does nothing. No fans start, no lights come on, no beeps are heard.

I've done a visual inspection of the motherboard and it looks fine, there are no obviously burned out components or capacitors damaged.

So, does it sound like my PSU just died or could there be another explanation before I go out and get a replacement?

If I need a replacement how can I tell if my PSU is AT or ATX as it doesn't say anywhere on the labelling.

Thanks

Terrister

It does sound like the power supply. Take the cover off and there should be a label on the power supply with the info you need.

If not, post detailed information on your computer and we will match you up with what you need.

be4con

Thanks.

The label just lists the power input and output, but not the type of PSU. The current PSU is a 350W output. It's manufactured by FSP Group Inc. Model No: FSP350-60MDN.

The pc is a Medion Titanium 8383XL. I am intending to place an additional internal hard drive in the near future and replace the cooling fan unit for a quieter model if this is relevant to the power output I need. Otherwise the pc is unmodified from the original unit.

1 g0t 0wn3d

Do you have the specs all sites i fund are in german

be4con

You mean that I'm intending to replace? Yes, the Medion 8383 is notoriously noisy.

The 8383XL is a 3.4GHz P4, mine has 2.5GB RAM (standard spec is 512MB), IDE DVD drive, IDE DVDRW, 250GB Western Digital SATA HDD. I will be adding a 250GB Seagate Barracuda IDE HDD and replacing the IDE DVD drive with a SATA DVDRW.

Let me know if you need more info.

1 g0t 0wn3d

what video card does it have?

be4con

nVidia GeForce 6610XL GPU 400MHz PCI with 128MB DDR3 Memory @800MHz

a2amali

First check if the fuse is gone in the power chord, try using the kettle chord. If its ok then second thing would be to remove everything from the mother board except for CPU and and graphics and see if it boots up, then put one item in at a time.

If nothing works still then ok get an ATX power supply 400W i dont think anyone makes AT power supply anyway.

Make sure the power supply support AMD and intel CPU's. thats all.

Good Luck, hope its only the fuse ;-)

be4con

Definitely not the fuse. I've swapped the cable out for one I know works.
I have the PSU removed from the case now and I just noticed when I first try the power switch there is a very faint click from the PSU but nothing else happens. No fans start etc.

When you say remove everything from the motherboard do you mean physically? Do I need to dismantle evrything and take my soundcard out, my memory etc?

mattlock

Typically, when you have no sign of life at all when you hit the power button, it's either the power supply, motherboard, CPU, or a dead short. Since your system as been assembled and running for quite sometime then that likely eliminates the dead short, leaving the power supply, motherboard or CPU as the likely suspects.

Do you have a digital multimeter? If so you can test the PSU to see if that is the problem (which I believe it is).

If you can let us know what country you are in and your budget for a new PSU then we can give a better suggestion on a quality replacement for the FSP PSU that you have now.

be4con

I'm taking the PSU to a friends tonight to test with his digital multimeter, that seems the quickest route to ruling that in or out.

I'm from the UK, budget isn't too much of a worry as long as it solves the issue. That said, I'd like it to be closer to £50 than £100 if possible. Whatever, it's going to be cheaper than a new CPU :)

I was looking at this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132563...roduct_reviews and this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116522...w_order_by=RUF working on the basis that the psu calculator on http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine suggests a power output of 430 and your PSU support page suggests a 30% upgrade on that value to allow for future upgrades etc. I have a tendency to leave my pc running 24/7 as it acts as a media server to 2 network devices and my PS3.

Thanks for everyone's attention this this problem, you've all been a great help.

mattlock

The Corsair is a fine choice, but the only ones to look at from Coolermaster are the I-Green series, or the Real Power Pro.

Here's link on how to test your PSU with a DMM and ne on how to start it without connecting it to a motherboard.
http://www.techsupportforum.com/hard...tml#post829293
http://www.techwarelabs.com/guides/misc_mod/psumod/

a2amali

Yes that is what i meant that you physically remove everything from the case.

But if you have disconnected the power supply from the case and you find that that up on switching on you dont even get the fan to move in the power supply then really it sounds to me its the power supply.

If you get one, make sure its good for intel and amd cpu's and min is 400W, good luck

be4con

I've just "hotwired" the PSU as per the guide. Same as before I removed it from the pc - just a small click but as I can actually see the fan now I noticed also that it makes the tiniest of movements, then nothing.

Can I safely say the PSU is stuffed?

mattlock

The fan in the PSU isn't moving when hotwired? If so, then it's likely dead.

If you want to run one more test without a DMM, do this:

With the PSU removed, connect one of the cd drives to the PSU, and hotwire the PSU. If you are getting no power to the cd drive (you cannot open the cd drawer) then the PSU is dead.

Although, if the PSU fan isn't working the PSU will need replaced either way.

be4con

OK, I connected the hotwired psu to a dvd drive, powered up and lo and behold the PSU fan started and the DVD drawer opened. I reconnected the PSB to the mobo, powered up and no fan and no power to the mobo

So I hotwired again and no PSU fan, and 2nd time round no DVD drawer opening either. Tried several different black wires to make sure it wasn't just a faulty hotwire connection but none worked.

Then when I turned off the psu at the switch at the back and disconnected the power cable again but left the hotwire lead in situ the PSU fan started to spin for a few seconds (with no power connected).

So I tried again, and now the PSU appears to work most of the time when I hotwire it and connect it to a DVD drive, but so far never when connected to the mobo. I am right in thinking I should be able to power up the mobo with just the 20 pin and the 4 pin connectors in situ am I?

Sounding more like there may be 2 problems here??

mattlock

I'm still leaning toward a bad PSU, but it's time for further testing. The fact that it will power up the DVD drive only means it's not completely dead. It likely that it can no longer handle the load required to start the entire system and is shutting down due to overload, that's the click you are hearing when it's connected to the motherboard.

BTW, you don't want to hotwire the PSU when it's connected to the motherboard. Only do that when the main connector is not connected.

For further testing, strip your system down to just the CPU. No video card, memory, hard drives, cd drives, usb devices, etc. Just the Motherboard, CPU, speaker, and PSU connected.

Power on....what happens? Do you get power? If so you should hear system beeps because you have no RAM, VGA, etc.

If it powers on, then start adding hardware back to the system until it doesn't power on any longer. (Starting with your memory)

If it doesn't power on in the stripped down state then there are only three possibilities. PSU,MB, or CPU.

Post back with your results.

I have to go work now, but I'm sure one of our other techs will pickup the thread. If not I'll check in when I get home tonight.

ONe more thing, you can look at the Bech Test link in my signature for tips on troubleshooting your system.

be4con

Thanks for all you help, I'm going to have to put this on hold unfortunately as I will be away from home now until Friday but I will try and do this then and post back my findings.

be4con

Just one thought I had that might save me having to completely dismantle my pc to test my CPU and motherboard.

I have an old Pentium 2 pc with a 230W PSU. Is that likely to be powerful enough to start up my Pentium 4 with the soundcard, memory, video card etc still connected to the motherboard (but the DVD drives and hard drive disconnected) to test whether everything is working? Or, will this just risk damaging the system further?

a2amali

230W PSU it should be ok, give it a go

but in your testing, when you re-tested did you remove the power chord from the PSU and press power button to drain PSU? if not then try it.. if the fan works then it seems that the M/B is causing PSU to shut down. It could be the M/B or some shorting of circuit in the power outlets.