CLIFF NOTES FOR THE LAZY:
Story of various problems that my computer developed over months.
Replacing power supply fixed them all.
Good FYI if you're having odd problems you can't fix.
Well, I've always heard to attribute a lot of problems to a power supply dying, but I never really had it happen to me until recenelty; so I figured that I'd assemble all the quirky things in one place that my computer was doing, to possibly help others figure out what's wrong with their own computers.
My computer is:
Asus PC-DL Deluxe, with 2x2.8 GHz Xeons
1 GB Mushkin Black lvl 3 PC3200 DDR
GeForce 6800GT
Adaptec 39160 SCSI adapter
36 GB Seagate Cheetah
SB Audigy2 ZS
DVD, CD burner
Webcam, gamepad, etc
For those who don't know, the PC-DL and most all dual Xeon motherboards, prefer to use an EPS power supply - but it's not required. The PC-DL will allow you to plug in a standard ATX power supply, and it will still function. Just fine. When I first got the board, I already had an Antec TruePower 430 wt PS, so I didn't want to pay for an EPS one. I just used it, and things were dandy for a few months. I overclocked the Xeons to around 3.2 Ghz, and they were running fine - until I upgraded to my 6800GT, that is.
I guess the extra power draw was toooo much for the poor board. The first thing I did after installing the GT was to try to overclock it. It did it admirably, for a day or two, before failing to work much above stock. I figured I had just had bad luck with my card. A day or two later I began getting an odd popping noise from my sound card. This is something I had never before had, and it only happened during games. I at first suspected that the drivers were to blame, and I didn't go to much trouble to try to fix it. This was just when XP SP2 came out, so I was half suspicious of SP2 to be causing the problems.
I reformatted the computer, with the new "SP2 slipstreamed" CD I made, and the popping continued, even when I used older drivers. So I worried the card was dying, but still left it in. It was about this time that my overclock failed, slowly. I had been stable for months, but all of a sudden I stopped posting. I had to turn it down to 3.1, then 3.0, finally just back to 2.8 Ghz to make the computer POST again. This time, I attributed it to the processors having some flaw that had finally made itself known from overclocking.
I began to worry slightly that the motherboard might be at fault.
At this point, the computer began shutting down randomly on its own. I began to be highly suspicous of the Power suplly. But it generally never happened when I was using it - just when I let it sit crunching SETI overnight. I would come in, in the morning, and find it off. Since it's on a UPS I knew it couldn't be a power flash. But it would always come back up again, so I expected it to be fine.
Then the day came last week when it would no longer come back on at all.
It shut off in the night, and never would POST again. I plugged in a spare power supply I had (generic 400 wt) and it posted. So I learned the PS was indeed dead. Suspecting that to have been my problem all along, I ordered a 550 wt EPS Enermax power supply from NewEgg. It got here Monday, and since then....everything was fixed. I can overclock again. The popping noise is gone. The whole computer is happy and not shutting down randomly.
Moral of the story: All kinds of odd issues can come from a bad Power Supply.
Story of various problems that my computer developed over months.
Replacing power supply fixed them all.
Good FYI if you're having odd problems you can't fix.
Well, I've always heard to attribute a lot of problems to a power supply dying, but I never really had it happen to me until recenelty; so I figured that I'd assemble all the quirky things in one place that my computer was doing, to possibly help others figure out what's wrong with their own computers.
My computer is:
Asus PC-DL Deluxe, with 2x2.8 GHz Xeons
1 GB Mushkin Black lvl 3 PC3200 DDR
GeForce 6800GT
Adaptec 39160 SCSI adapter
36 GB Seagate Cheetah
SB Audigy2 ZS
DVD, CD burner
Webcam, gamepad, etc
For those who don't know, the PC-DL and most all dual Xeon motherboards, prefer to use an EPS power supply - but it's not required. The PC-DL will allow you to plug in a standard ATX power supply, and it will still function. Just fine. When I first got the board, I already had an Antec TruePower 430 wt PS, so I didn't want to pay for an EPS one. I just used it, and things were dandy for a few months. I overclocked the Xeons to around 3.2 Ghz, and they were running fine - until I upgraded to my 6800GT, that is.
I guess the extra power draw was toooo much for the poor board. The first thing I did after installing the GT was to try to overclock it. It did it admirably, for a day or two, before failing to work much above stock. I figured I had just had bad luck with my card. A day or two later I began getting an odd popping noise from my sound card. This is something I had never before had, and it only happened during games. I at first suspected that the drivers were to blame, and I didn't go to much trouble to try to fix it. This was just when XP SP2 came out, so I was half suspicious of SP2 to be causing the problems.
I reformatted the computer, with the new "SP2 slipstreamed" CD I made, and the popping continued, even when I used older drivers. So I worried the card was dying, but still left it in. It was about this time that my overclock failed, slowly. I had been stable for months, but all of a sudden I stopped posting. I had to turn it down to 3.1, then 3.0, finally just back to 2.8 Ghz to make the computer POST again. This time, I attributed it to the processors having some flaw that had finally made itself known from overclocking.
I began to worry slightly that the motherboard might be at fault.
At this point, the computer began shutting down randomly on its own. I began to be highly suspicous of the Power suplly. But it generally never happened when I was using it - just when I let it sit crunching SETI overnight. I would come in, in the morning, and find it off. Since it's on a UPS I knew it couldn't be a power flash. But it would always come back up again, so I expected it to be fine.
Then the day came last week when it would no longer come back on at all.
It shut off in the night, and never would POST again. I plugged in a spare power supply I had (generic 400 wt) and it posted. So I learned the PS was indeed dead. Suspecting that to have been my problem all along, I ordered a 550 wt EPS Enermax power supply from NewEgg. It got here Monday, and since then....everything was fixed. I can overclock again. The popping noise is gone. The whole computer is happy and not shutting down randomly.
Moral of the story: All kinds of odd issues can come from a bad Power Supply.
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