How can I tell if my psu sucks?

[dudeman007]

Alright running in my system is a p4 3.2, asus p4c800-e del. w/gig of ram, 9800 pro, one 120 sata hdd, and one cdrw/dvd rom drive. I bought some cold cathode lights to add to my window, and whenever I turn them on my comp freezes and I can hear my fans revving like they need more power and only get surges of it. This is REALLY annoying as my cc's are useless. I'm using the Thermaltake W0009 420W psu that was included with my Lanfire case. So how can I tell if this psu just sucks? Hopefully it's a crap psu and not a crap model.

 

[LiLithTecH]

I would say the Cathodes were the culprit.
Could just be a bad invertor.

 

[dudeman007]

Thanks for the relpy LiLithTecH. Anyone else have another say?

 

[mrweirdo]

well a thermaltake should be good but one rule of thumb if the psu your using feels light when you pick it up then it is probably porly made. One way you can find out your psu quality for sure is by checking its voltages with a dummy load and multimeter and if you have one placing it under a ocillascope(i think thats how you spell it) to check for the level of electronic noise.

 

[dudeman007]

Originally posted by: mrweirdo
well a thermaltake should be good but one rule of thumb if the psu your using feels light when you pick it up then it is probably porly made. One way you can find out your psu quality for sure is by checking its voltages with a dummy load and multimeter and if you have one placing it under a ocillascope(i think thats how you spell it) to check for the level of electronic noise.

Is there anything I can check in the bios to match up to?

 

[LiLithTecH]

It's 'oscilloscope' MrWeirdo.

There really isn't much in the BIOS that would allow you to
pinpoint the problem. If the PC freezes, the built in sensors
freeze to,so you will not have an accurate reading.

If you are using Win2k-XP, did you check the EVENT LOG?

 

[dudeman007]

Originally posted by: LiLithTecH
It's 'oscilloscope' MrWeirdo.

There really isn't much in the BIOS that would allow you to
pinpoint the problem. If the PC freezes, the built in sensors
freeze to,so you will not have an accurate reading.

If you are using Win2k-XP, did you check the EVENT LOG?

er...where can I find that

 

[LiLithTecH]

The Event Log can be found in:

Control Panel \ Administrative Tools \ Event Viewer \ System

 

[dudeman007]

:disgust:
Great...cc's are dead.