Computer eats PSUs?

[Kalessian]

Thanks in advance...

This particular machine was running for a year or more with an Abit AN7, 9800 pro, 1gb DDR400, AXP2800+, 2 Opticals, a SATA drive and an IDE drive.

One day, it just died out. The AN7 has a diagnostics LED panel, and the code reported a power issue. Figured the PSU had just died - it's happened a bunch in the past. It was a Coolmas Taurus 500 watt.

So one of those popular X-CLIO 450 watts was purchased to replace it. No changes to the system at all, just plopped that new PSU right in where the old one was. Booted it up, and nothing. Either the PSU was DOA or it died instantly. I thought this was very curious. On to the spare backup PSU...

It's an enlight 360 watt. It's always run fine in the older system it was in. This time only the essentials were booted - no hard drives, etc. I got some weird errors, and an occasional PSU siren on the BIOS diagnostics speaker. I removed the extra RAM stick and the 9800 pro, replacing it with a 9600XT. Now the machine was the AN7, the 9600, the PSU, and a 512MB stick of RAM. The AN7 got to the POST screen, but it hangs there. No way to even get into BIOS. I surmised that maybe the 360watt was inadequate.

But when the enlight PSU was returned to it's old machine that it ran fine in, I got MASSIVE stability issues. Random reboots, etc, that never happens this morning. All PSU related errors. The enlight is alive, but barely. It's useless now.

This machine has gone through at least 2 PSUs, and maybe 3 if the Xclio wasn't DOA.

Can a motherboard eat PSUs?

 

[montag451]

How about the power supply coming into your psu?
What is that like?
Can you try a different outlet?

 

[FlyingPenguin]

Incoming power line is possible but extremely unlikely. If your house voltage was that bad, you'd have problems with other electronics. Besides, computer PSUs are pretty robust on the incoming side.

More than likely there's a short circuit in your computer that's damaging the PSUs. Could be anything shorted mobo, bad card, a wire that got the inulation scrapped off somewhere and is touching the metal chassis.

First off, check for bad capacitors. If any caps are bulging or leaking, you probably have a shorted cap and I'd toss the mobo. Photos of bad caps here: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195

Look for a shorted wire - most common problem. Lots of sharp edges in these cases. See if there's a wire somewhere with the insulation cut through. Maybe you accidently got a wire caught under a screw or in the cover and pinched it.

Pull the entire mobo out of the case, disconnect EVERYTHING except one memory stick (no cards, not even video) disconnect ALL wires. Connect a PSU to it (one you can afford to toast just in case). Make sure the mobo is sitting on something non-conductive (I just sit it on a card board box bigger than the mobo, like the box mobos get packaged in). Short the header pins for the power switch with a screw driver and see if it fires up. You should get a beepo error because there's no video card. That would be a good sign.

Next install a vid card and try again - see if it posts. Proceedd to connect ONE THING AT A TIME and examine each item for damage before connecting it (shorts, burns, damaged wires, bent pins, etc).

HOPEFULLY whatever shorted out didn't do any permanent damage to the mobo which would be my major concern.

Hope this helps...

 

[Kalessian]

Thanks, I'll try that...

Doubt I'll find anything, though.