how to tell if power supply has gone bad

[Anaxander]

my old machine just recently went kaput. it simply wont turn on. i'd imagine this is a power supply failure, because the machine has worked basically flawlessly (as far as power supplying goes) for over 2 years. but, in case there might be some other oddity i'm overlooking, i thought i'd post. if it is a bad power supply, how the hell am i going to get a new one for one of the most proprietary HP's i've ever seen. it was a purchasing mistake, what can i say? that's why its at my girlfriends house now. any help would be appreciated.


-=eeeznutz=--

 

[Souka]

Powersupply shouldn't be proprietary.

Anyhow....did you open the case and do anything? Or did the system just stop working?

Info info info info info info info!

 

[Spiff]

- what happens when you power up the power supply?
- does the fan spin? (on thepower supply
- disconnect power supply from all devices and try turning it on... what happens?

the power supply may be proprietary in shape... but otherwise it's doubtful. If it si from HP, why not jsut get a new one from HP?

 

[madthumbs]

I know that E-machines has proprietary P/S's which tend to overheat when the fan commonly quits throwing sparks out the rear. They are expensive to replace, and cheap quality. If your situation is similar, you may consider a whole new case, and P/S. I bought my case and P/S separately. I got a premium P/S for $55, and a very good case for $20. BTW, one of my previous P/S's quit like that... No power at all, and Another one from CompUSA stank up my house before quitting. I also had one that kept sending my PC into black screen deaths until the main power on P/S was shut down and PC rebooted. None of them were Athlon approved, and they are the only other Power Supplies I had bought, so do research before replacing.

 

[Psylancer]

I think I might be having the same problem from some bad current.

When I hit the power switch, nothing happens--no fans, no noise, nothing. I checked the wiring and it's fine.

Does this sound like a bad power supply to you guys?

 

[Anaxander]

like i said, it was fine one day and then shot the next. i did absolutely nothing to warrant an explanation. no fans spin. NOTHING happens when you hit the power button. i have taken the cover off and pulled the P/S out and unplugged it from the HD and the other drives. just left it connected to the switch, still nothing at all. its like its plugged into a dead outlet (which it ISNT).

 

[Anaxander]

because its over 2 years old and doubtful HP would give a crap. and it would probably cost me an arm and a leg. and the last thing i want to do is deal with HP customer support for hours on end.

 

[fitzm]

The power supply on the two or three different HP machines I've seeen had non-proprietary power supplies so you should be able to just switch it out.

 

[Johnny101]

check to see if the video card is seated properly. if it's out, the fan won't spin in some cases. BTW hp has the WORST customer service. They don't even have an 800 number. So you have to pay for some guy to tell you that you have a defective computer and that they can't do anything about it.

 

[HotWire]

Just lost a clients hard drive after the power supply "A Deer" shorted out..... a 15 Gig Western Digital 7200 rpm drive hit the toilet....after 4-5 months of a lifespan....sounds like it's platter is scraping the inside of the case when you start it....don't fool around get a great power supply it's worth the couple of extra bucks you will spend. You gotta think if ya buy the case (ATX) for $35.00 how much can that power supply be worth???? $10.00

 

[ecrespol]

If all else fails take out the P/S (or is it PoS anyway) and check the fuse.

 

[Anaxander]

how do i go about checking "the fuse"? is it inside the PS? i took the PS out and have thought about cracking it open...........but have yet to. now, for all of you who dont think that this is a proprietary PS, let me describe it to you...........

its a rectangle-shaped box measuring 3" x 3" x 6.5"...........its only 80watts with 3 plugs....one for the HD, one for the CDROM and one for the Floppy. It's made by Bestec and their website has also been no help at all. i've checked out several sites looking for a supply of its shape and such, but no luck.

 

[Spiff]

Does the motherboard have proprietary power plugs? Does the motherboard have proprietary locations for the EISA/PCI/AGP slots and the serial/parallel/mouse/keyboard ports? In other words, would it fit into a standard AT (I'm guessing this is an AT style board) case?

I ask, because the easiest thing to do may simply be to get yourself a new case which would come with a standard 250w powersupply anyway. And if it is AT as I suspect, this should be relatively cheap.

 

[Anaxander]

oh its one proprietary mofo...................its got one of those silly riser cards for the ISA/PCI slots. thats what is making this so difficult. if i got an AT or ATX case for the mobo, i'd have to do some serious jimmy-rigging to get it to work. the riser card comes up off the mobo at a 90 degree angle and has one pci and one isa/pci shared slot. everything else is integrated. yes, this is a slim desktop prorietary machine. which is why this is so difficult and why i'm making these posts.

the mobo is exactly 9 inches square, and like i said, has a sort of ISA looking slot with a riser card plugged into it hosting the PCI and shared PCI/ISA slots.

it certainly sucks, regardless. a friend of mine has a similar machine and i have thought about swapping the PS's, just to make sure that it is indeed the PS causing this, but i'm pretty much positive, as everyone on this board is, that it is indeed the fault of the PS.

maybe i'll just get creative and cut-and-paste an old case together!