Blew out PSU by upping voltage. Bought new 1 and now computer restarts playing games

[hellosirimjohn]

I blew out my PSU by upping the voltage so I bought a new 750W Inland Gold series PSU to help supply more power to a new video card. my old PSU was 480w

now the computer shuts down when playing games or movies, or even just using the computer

on both the old and new video card


what could the problem be?


im thinking its the motherboard probably, no way both cards don't work. please help i need to fix this ASAP.


im thinking of buying a new motherboard

My MB is an M68MT-S2.


someone said its that my new PSU is garbage, but I highly doubt a 750 watt PSU is just trash...impossible.

 

[lehtv]

Wattage does not quality equal. Your unit is probably not uite garbage but there are lots of brands that are more reliable. EDIT: actually, I'll take that back. Your unit is probably garbage, sorry- read more. Also, there is no Inland Gold 750W, as far as I can tell. Gold series (which are not Gold efficient, it's just a misleading product name) have 400, 500 and 600W, the 750W unit is Bronze series (which bizarrely advertises up to 90% efficiency)

Can you describe exactly what happened to your old PSU?

 

[lehtv]

Wattage does not quality equal. Your unit is probably not quite garbage but there are lots of brands that are more reliable

Can you describe exactly what happened to your old PSU?

 

[mnewsham]

a 750 watt PSU is just trash...impossible.

There are piece of shit 1000w units, quantity is NOT quality.

 

[hellosirimjohn]

Wattage does not quality equal. Your unit is probably not quite garbage but there are lots of brands that are more reliable

Can you describe exactly what happened to your old PSU?

i clicked the switch to up the voltage and it shorted(i guess)? I saw a spark come from the PSU. did not turn on again

 

[lehtv]

What switch? There was a switch on the PSU for increasing voltage ..?? Or do you mean you overvolted your graphics card with some overclocking software?

 

[VirtualLarry]

i clicked the switch to up the voltage and it shorted(i guess)? I saw a spark come from the PSU. did not turn on again

Was this the red switch in the back of the PSU, labeled 120V/240V? Don't mess with that.

 

[Torn Mind]

The 120V/240V switch controls the voltage doubler circuit. The PSU components downstream converts 240V AC power to the various DC voltages output by the unit. To accommodate the fact that the U.S and elsewhere delivers approximately 120V AC power to homes, the voltage doubler circuit is turned on when set to 120V.

And wattage ratings do not tell you anything definitive about quality. Information requires visual inspection of the unit(check for capacitors used), knowledge about the components, and expensive equipment(load tester, oscilloscope) to evaluate units.

 

[Elixer]

Assuming that he did flip the voltage doubler, then, it is possible that he killed his mobo, and everything else as well, since he did mention sparks, that means that it could have surged on the +12 & 5v lines, and have taken out everything (or damaged them).

The only way to know what is damaged is to take each part on a known working motherboard, and test things one by one.
Also do memtest86+ to make sure the DIMMs didn't suffer damage.

 

[hellosirimjohn]

Assuming that he did flip the voltage doubler, then, it is possible that he killed his mobo, and everything else as well, since he did mention sparks, that means that it could have surged on the +12 & 5v lines, and have taken out everything (or damaged them).

The only way to know what is damaged is to take each part on a known working motherboard, and test things one by one.
Also do memtest86+ to make sure the DIMMs didn't suffer damage.

yeah thats what i mean...i saw sparks come out the PSU. As soon as i doubled the voltage i saw the sparks, and the machine shut off and the PSU stopped working.


directly after I bought a new psu, BRAND NEW 750W, i can't play games or watch movies or do anything too intense, or mildly intense.


im figuring it has to be the motherboard.


these guys wanna charge me 75 just to look at my computer, when i could just buy a new motherboard and test it and send it back if its just "a shitty psu",


because my 3 year old 480w psu was working just fine...till i doubled my voltage, with a new video card that required at least 500.

 

[hellosirimjohn]

Was this the red switch in the back of the PSU, labeled 120V/240V? Don't mess with that.

yes. too late. that PSU is dead now

 

[C101]

Unfortunately, these sorts of problems are impossible to precisely diagnose without someone with the right tools and knowledge getting their hands on the physical parts. What we do know is that something Very Bad happened to the computer.

Based on the description that the computer still sort of works, but crashes when under increased load, I might postulate that you wounded or killed some of the voltage regulators, which are used to provide power for all functions of your computer. (Computer parts take 12V input and regulate it down to lower voltages as needed). If this happens, when the load demands increase, what is left of the power delivery system can't keep up anymore.

Short of methodologically testing each part (and even then, you may still have wounded parts that haven't shown themselves), I'd be thinking about a new computer. The case, fans, and heatsink are probably okay to reuse.

 

[Morbus]

Well, in my experience, if a PSU is struggling with the wattage required by the hardware, you usually notice it before the PC restarts: it becomes unstable and underperforms, and graphical glitches may arise.

That said, it's possible that the motherboard is dying, if the 120/240V switch was used. That's a very VERY bad move... If I were to be in this situation, I'd start by testing out every single component of the PC to see if something is having problems.

That said, that PSU is pretty expensive, so it shouldn't be total crap. Which is to say, it shouldn't be the thing that's causing the computer to reboot. I'd bet it's the motherboard.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Btw, OP, you should take a class in the maintenance and care of PCs. What you did was downright foolish. You might as well have started to stick random wires into PSU connectors.

Or like some I know did, they plugged the floppy power connector into a USB header on the mobo. They were getting blue screens, and possibly, they thought something was disconnected.

 

[silicon]

i clicked the switch to up the voltage and it shorted(i guess)? I saw a spark come from the PSU. did not turn on again

if you are in north america the switch should be at 110v but in europe its 220v.

 

[bononos]

yes. too late. that PSU is dead now

So you flipped the red switch to 240v and saw a spark which means that the pc was running at the same time. What gave you the thought to flip the switch?

What is the brand of your new 750W psu?

 

[hellosirimjohn]

So you flipped the red switch to 240v and saw a spark which means that the pc was running at the same time. What gave you the thought to flip the switch?

What is the brand of your new 750W psu?

i was planning on buying a new psu anyway because i bought a new videocard. VC minimum requirement was 500watts


my dumbass thought i could flip the switch and get more power.


my new psu is inland gold series

 

[Blue_Max]

80Plus Gold.... nice!

Time to run a memory test (Memtest86 still any good, people?) RAM or mobo is damaged.

 

[mnewsham]

Replace the motherboard, if it had decent surge protection it might have saved everything else, but minimally your motherboard is likely fuxed.

 

[hellosirimjohn]

thanks so much guys. if memtest is good i will run it

 

[lehtv]

80Plus Gold.... nice!

It's 80+ Bronze, says so in the upper right corner. It advertises 82% efficiency, the lower limit for passing 80+ Bronze at 20% and 100% loads at 25°C. The product name is misleading.

 

[Morbus]

80Plus Gold.... nice!

It's 80plus bronze, actually. Check the green label on the top.

Better than non-rated, to be honest. I myself am currently sporting a 650W non-rated PSU, and though it has about 70% efficiency (I measured), it's stable, and it got me off a tight corner. I'll buy something better next year.

 

[Blue_Max]

It's 80plus bronze, actually. Check the green label on the top.

Sneaky buggers.

Since mine is on almost 24/7 for folding, etc, I'd like a Gold-rated unit.

 

[lehtv]

Since mine is on almost 24/7 for folding, etc, I'd like a Gold-rated unit.

You might like a Platinum unit too, depending on how much power the folding rig actually consumes and what your electricity costs