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Power Supply dead?

I think my PSU's dead in my family computer downstairs. You turn the power on on the wall, hit the power button, and nothing happens. I can kinda hear a whining from the PSU itself (least I think its coming from there...) This song eventually disapates, at which point it seems to want to be able to power up.

It can range from a minute to 10 minutes before it will turn on. Took my dad earlier 43 power button presses on the tower for it to turn on.

But, once it is turned on, it runs fine. And you can turn it off (not on the wall) and it will boot up again first time.


It is the PSU thats packing in and nothing else...right?


x2 3800+ at stock
DDR 400MHz 2GB
crappy PCI-e graphics card
Genericy 400w PSU.
 
There is a chance sothing else was damaged by the PSU but you won't know till you can get a new unit in there. I recommend moving the PC to a different outlet. To big of a chance for someone shutting the system off with the light switch. This can cause damage to the PSU and the system.
 
You can test a PSU by itself to see if it is indeed "broken" as follows:

Disconnect the PSU from everything (wall, mobo, etc) ...then plug the unit back into the wall socket and connect a couple hard drives to a molex connector to provide a load.

Now....with the switch on the back of the PSU in the off position...locate the Dark Green wire in the ATX connector and using a paper clip (or something similar) "jump it" to any of the black wires in the connector....Now flip the switch on the back to On.......the PSU should start up and run.

Pictures of the jumpstart are here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum..../showthread.php?t=5577
 
But if it didn't work then it wouldn't turn on at all...?

Its on right now, passed Orthos and running memtest now, so far 150% no errors....

So the PSU itself can be pushed when the cpu is on 100%....its just it doesn't always turn on, and there is a whining coming from the PSU. When its on though, the whining goes.
 
The PSU has problems but isn't dead yet. It won't be long before it is dead. With the way you describe it its dieing a slow painful death thtat could damage other system components. So get the PSU replaced. Do not use that old 270W PSU. It won't be able to handle the system.
 
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