# [SOLVED] Is my PSU dead?



## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

I hope you can help...

I was using my pc last night when it suddenly powered off, as it might in a power cut. All other components stayed powered up. I checked all the cables and power switches and changed my supply cable and they were all fine.

Since then it has been dead. Pressing the power on button does nothing. No fans start, no lights come on, no beeps are heard.

I've done a visual inspection of the motherboard and it looks fine, there are no obviously burned out components or capacitors damaged.

So, does it sound like my PSU just died or could there be another explanation before I go out and get a replacement?

If I need a replacement how can I tell if my PSU is AT or ATX as it doesn't say anywhere on the labelling. 

Thanks


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## Terrister (Apr 18, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

It does sound like the power supply. Take the cover off and there should be a label on the power supply with the info you need. 

If not, post detailed information on your computer and we will match you up with what you need.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Thanks.

The label just lists the power input and output, but not the type of PSU. The current PSU is a 350W output. It's manufactured by FSP Group Inc. Model No: FSP350-60MDN. 

The pc is a Medion Titanium 8383XL. I am intending to place an additional internal hard drive in the near future and replace the cooling fan unit for a quieter model if this is relevant to the power output I need. Otherwise the pc is unmodified from the original unit.


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Do you have the specs all sites i fund are in german


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

You mean that I'm intending to replace? Yes, the Medion 8383 is notoriously noisy.

The 8383XL is a 3.4GHz P4, mine has 2.5GB RAM (standard spec is 512MB), IDE DVD drive, IDE DVDRW, 250GB Western Digital SATA HDD. I will be adding a 250GB Seagate Barracuda IDE HDD and replacing the IDE DVD drive with a SATA DVDRW.

Let me know if you need more info.


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

what video card does it have?


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

nVidia GeForce 6610XL GPU 400MHz PCI with 128MB DDR3 Memory @800MHz


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## a2amali (Dec 11, 2007)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

First check if the fuse is gone in the power chord, try using the kettle chord. If its ok then second thing would be to remove everything from the mother board except for CPU and and graphics and see if it boots up, then put one item in at a time.

If nothing works still then ok get an ATX power supply 400W i dont think anyone makes AT power supply anyway.

Make sure the power supply support AMD and intel CPU's. thats all.

Good Luck, hope its only the fuse ;-)


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Definitely not the fuse. I've swapped the cable out for one I know works. 
I have the PSU removed from the case now and I just noticed when I first try the power switch there is a very faint click from the PSU but nothing else happens. No fans start etc.

When you say remove everything from the motherboard do you mean physically? Do I need to dismantle evrything and take my soundcard out, my memory etc?


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Typically, when you have no sign of life at all when you hit the power button, it's either the power supply, motherboard, CPU, or a dead short. Since your system as been assembled and running for quite sometime then that likely eliminates the dead short, leaving the power supply, motherboard or CPU as the likely suspects. 

Do you have a digital multimeter? If so you can test the PSU to see if that is the problem (which I believe it is). 

If you can let us know what country you are in and your budget for a new PSU then we can give a better suggestion on a quality replacement for the FSP PSU that you have now. :wink:


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

I'm taking the PSU to a friends tonight to test with his digital multimeter, that seems the quickest route to ruling that in or out.

I'm from the UK, budget isn't too much of a worry as long as it solves the issue. That said, I'd like it to be closer to £50 than £100 if possible. Whatever, it's going to be cheaper than a new CPU 

I was looking at this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132563/show_product_reviews and this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/11652...ffset=20&review_type=both&review_order_by=RUF working on the basis that the psu calculator on http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine suggests a power output of 430 and your PSU support page suggests a 30% upgrade on that value to allow for future upgrades etc. I have a tendency to leave my pc running 24/7 as it acts as a media server to 2 network devices and my PS3.

Thanks for everyone's attention this this problem, you've all been a great help.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

The Corsair is a fine choice, but the only ones to look at from Coolermaster are the I-Green series, or the Real Power Pro.

Here's link on how to test your PSU with a DMM and ne on how to start it without connecting it to a motherboard.
http://www.techsupportforum.com/f21...ply-with-a-multi-meter-151526.html#post829293
http://www.techwarelabs.com/guides/misc_mod/psumod/


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## a2amali (Dec 11, 2007)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Yes that is what i meant that you physically remove everything from the case.

But if you have disconnected the power supply from the case and you find that that up on switching on you dont even get the fan to move in the power supply then really it sounds to me its the power supply.

If you get one, make sure its good for intel and amd cpu's and min is 400W, good luck


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

I've just "hotwired" the PSU as per the guide. Same as before I removed it from the pc - just a small click but as I can actually see the fan now I noticed also that it makes the tiniest of movements, then nothing.

Can I safely say the PSU is stuffed?


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

The fan in the PSU isn't moving when hotwired? If so, then it's likely dead. 

If you want to run one more test without a DMM, do this:

With the PSU removed, connect one of the cd drives to the PSU, and hotwire the PSU. If you are getting no power to the cd drive (you cannot open the cd drawer) then the PSU is dead.

Although, if the PSU fan isn't working the PSU will need replaced either way. :wink:


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

OK, I connected the hotwired psu to a dvd drive, powered up and lo and behold the PSU fan started and the DVD drawer opened. I reconnected the PSB to the mobo, powered up and no fan and no power to the mobo

So I hotwired again and no PSU fan, and 2nd time round no DVD drawer opening either. Tried several different black wires to make sure it wasn't just a faulty hotwire connection but none worked.

Then when I turned off the psu at the switch at the back and disconnected the power cable again but left the hotwire lead in situ the PSU fan started to spin for a few seconds (with no power connected).

So I tried again, and now the PSU appears to work most of the time when I hotwire it and connect it to a DVD drive, but so far never when connected to the mobo. I am right in thinking I should be able to power up the mobo with just the 20 pin and the 4 pin connectors in situ am I?

Sounding more like there may be 2 problems here??


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

I'm still leaning toward a bad PSU, but it's time for further testing. The fact that it will power up the DVD drive only means it's not completely dead. It likely that it can no longer handle the load required to start the entire system and is shutting down due to overload, that's the click you are hearing when it's connected to the motherboard.

BTW, you don't want to hotwire the PSU when it's connected to the motherboard. Only do that when the main connector is not connected. 

For further testing, strip your system down to just the CPU. No video card, memory, hard drives, cd drives, usb devices, etc. Just the Motherboard, CPU, speaker, and PSU connected. 

Power on....what happens? Do you get power? If so you should hear system beeps because you have no RAM, VGA, etc.

If it powers on, then start adding hardware back to the system until it doesn't power on any longer. (Starting with your memory)

If it doesn't power on in the stripped down state then there are only three possibilities. PSU,MB, or CPU.

Post back with your results. 

I have to go work now, but I'm sure one of our other techs will pickup the thread. If not I'll check in when I get home tonight.

ONe more thing, you can look at the Bech Test link in my signature for tips on troubleshooting your system.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Thanks for all you help, I'm going to have to put this on hold unfortunately as I will be away from home now until Friday but I will try and do this then and post back my findings.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Just one thought I had that might save me having to completely dismantle my pc to test my CPU and motherboard.

I have an old Pentium 2 pc with a 230W PSU. Is that likely to be powerful enough to start up my Pentium 4 with the soundcard, memory, video card etc still connected to the motherboard (but the DVD drives and hard drive disconnected) to test whether everything is working? Or, will this just risk damaging the system further?


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## a2amali (Dec 11, 2007)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

230W PSU it should be ok, give it a go

but in your testing, when you re-tested did you remove the power chord from the PSU and press power button to drain PSU? if not then try it.. if the fan works then it seems that the M/B is causing PSU to shut down. It could be the M/B or some shorting of circuit in the power outlets.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

When I was testing the PSU by hotwiring it I was turning it off at the switch and removing the power cable every time that I removed or replaced the hotwire wire or replaced/removed it from the motherboard. Each time I retested it therefore it had had the cable removed and the power switch turned off/on.

I'll try the 230W PSU tomorrow when I'm back at home and report the results, thanks.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

The PSU from a Pentium 2 system will not work on your P4 system. Something that old would not be equipped with 4pin ATX 12v connector need to power the CPU of a P4 system. I don't think it would be strong enough to start the system anyway.


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## a2amali (Dec 11, 2007)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*



mattlock said:


> The PSU from a Pentium 2 system will not work on your P4 system. Something that old would not be equipped with 4pin ATX 12v connector need to power the CPU of a P4 system. I don't think it would be strong enough to start the system anyway.


Good point, should have thought of that.. the M/B wont work without the 4pin connector.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Thanks everyone for your continued support.

OK, I have removed everything from the motherboard apart from 2 sticks of RAM (I don't know which of the RAM slots I can use as a single with this board and not sure how I would find out easily) including the video card. Still getting the same response from the PSU - just a small click when I turn on and the slightest movement from the fan then nothing.

Any ideas where to go next?


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## a2amali (Dec 11, 2007)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

I would suggest that you get a new powersupply


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Ordered!

I went for the Corsair HX Series 520W Modular PSU in the end, I though it might be good to have fewer leads cluttering up the case to improve air flow. 

Fingers crossed that the rest of the components withstood the PSU dying. I'll report back when it arrives.

Thanks for everyone's help. This is the 2nd time in recent years that this forum has been an absolute wealth of advice and information for me saving me time, heartache and above all cash!. I'm indebted to you.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

The Corsair HX series are some of the best on the market. You won't regret the purchase. 

Keep us posted on your progress. :wave:

BTW, thanks for the Kudos. That is our biggest and only reward, for the time that we freely give to TSF.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Bad news :sigh:

I came back from my holiday to the delivery of my shiny new Corsair. It's a fantastic looking piece of hardware.

Anyway connected it up, hit the power switch and got exactly the same response as I had with my old PSU. That is a slight click, the faintest of nudges from the fan then nothing. So far I have only tried it with just the drives disconnected from the mobo (ie the graphics, sound and memory etc still connected) but as the result is exactly the same as before I'm not anticipating any different response when I test it with the mobo stripped down to just 2 sticks of RAM.

I will try it later and report back but in the meantime if you can suggest where I might go next that would be a great help. I guess it's sounding more likely that my mobo or CPU are fried though.


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## CoOkie (Oct 4, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Have you tried looking at the cpu? Strip it from your mobo, remove the old thermal paste residue and re-apply some new paste. I've experienced something similar with the heatsink not properly being in contact with the cpu, so when I go to boot I get nothing. 
The fact that it's powering your dvd drive and not your mobo I would lean towards your cpu or a faulty mobo.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

What exactly am I looking for with the CPU? Is it likely to be physically obvious if it is damaged? 

I'll need to get some thermal paste before I can do this.

Some investigation into this pc online suggests that there may have been problems with the way the heat sink and fan was attached to the CPU, which might lead to overheating in some cases. Certainly it was quite noisy with the fan working fairly hard a lot of the time. Maybe this would hint that the CPU could have been damaged. If you can let me know what I might be looking for when I examine the CPU that would be great.

If it is the CPU it looks like I might need to spend upwards of £175 to replace it, in which case I might cut my losses and consider a new system. I'm thinking maybe of building my own this time round though...


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

What socket is your system based on, 478 or 775? With either socket type, you can get a replacement in the UK for under £50 including VAT.

http://www.ebuyer.com/cat/Processors-Intel/subcat/Intel-Pentium-4-500---600---800---900-Series-775
http://www.ebuyer.com/cat/Processors-Intel/subcat/Intel-Pentium-4-(Socket-478)

That said, the CPU is usually pretty tough, and would kind of warn that it's overheating. Were you having any issues before died, such as random reboots, BSODs, slowdown?

If you pull the CPU you are looking for any discoloration or burnt area. While you're at is look over the motherboard for the same thing. Also look over all the capacitors on the motherboard for any signs of bulging or leaking. 

When a PSU dies it can take out any number of other components with it, but the motherboard or RAM is the usual victims.

BTW, while you're looking around inside the PC see if you can find the motherboard model number and post that info here.

Thanks,


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Thanks Matt

I must admit I just Googled for P4 3.4GHz processors and came up with the £175 price tag from there. It's reassuring to hear that a replacement would be a lot cheaper. I don't know what socket type I have, how can I find out? 

There were no warning signs of impending failure. No reboots or BSOD, but I did have to reboot after a system lockup a few days before the failure. I had just installed some software though so it may have just been that. The only thing I had noticed was that the fans were running a lot more recently, to the point that I had decided to invest in a silencer kit.

I've checked the processor and grossly it looks fine, there are no blackened areas. It looks essentially healthy.

The motherboard also looks fine, there are no obvious areas of damage and the capacitors all look fine to my untrained eye: not bulging, leaking or blackened.

The motherboard is an MS-7091 Ver:10.

Any tips for cleaning off the old thermal paste before replacing the heatsink and fan?

Thanks


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## CoOkie (Oct 4, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

So how long after you fitted your silencer kit did it go? When you installed the new silencer kit, did it involve taking off the old heatsink? If so did you clean the cpu before fitting the new heatsink...? (I'm presuming the kit included a heatsink and fan) You said that you noticed the fans were more active, this could indicate that heat was an issue.
I use TIM fluid (Akasa) to clean the old paste residue off the cpu and heatsink.
Funnily enough I serviced my friend's pc today which involved cleaning the cpu and heatsink and when I put it all back together and went to switch on, I got nothing. I opened it up again and found that I'd actually put the heatsink the wrong way round; so I corrected it and it booted up straight away.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Your motherboard is a socket 775 board with an Intel 915P chipset. It supports pretty much any 90nm, 800mhz FSB, P4. The only one available at Ebuyer for your board is the P4 541 3.2ghz (your current CPU is a P4 550 3.4ghz) 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142970

I would still lean more toward the motherboard than the CPU. The CPU has a thermal trip point at which it will just shutdown.

You should see if you can test the CPU in friends system prior to buying a replacement CPU, or have it tested at a repair shop.

As for cleaning the TIM off the CPU and heatsink, rubbing alcohol works pretty well if you don't want to buy something like the cleaning solution mentioned above.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*



CoOkie said:


> So how long after you fitted your silencer kit did it go?


Sorry, I wasn't clear. I hadn't fitted a silencer kit. I had just made the decision to invest in one in the past couple of weeks.

I guess the thing to do here is to get the processor tested and then maybe also the motherboard. I don't know of any friends with similar PCs and certainly not any that would be happy for me to start dismantling them. I hadn't wanted to resort to a repair shop but I guess I don't really have much choice at this point.

Any suggestions as to compatible boards if I need to replace the board? I can't find this exact board anywhere. An upgraded board would be ideal I guess, that's still compatible with the rest of my components.

Thanks once more for all your patient help.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

It's probably a little late in the game to be asking this, but how old is your PC? Did you buy it from Aldi? If so, it came with a 3yr warranty and might still be under warranty.

http://www.medion.co.uk/flash/md8383/frameset.html

If not, before I recommend a board I need to know if your case is capable of taking a ATX form factor motherboard (you current board is micro ATX). Can you take a couple of pictures of your tower? A side view with cover removed and a rear view would do nicely.

Most of you hardware will work on a newer board, you'll likely need to upgrade your RAM. Your current setup is running DDR and newer boards require DDR2. Other than that, your remaining hardware will be reusable.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Yep, it came from Aldi but unfortunately it's about 3 1/2 years old now, I bought it in Nov 2004. I would almost certainly have invalidated any warranty by now anyway as I've completely dismantled it 

I took the processor along to my local PC shop the other day but the guy couldn't test it without the motherboard, so I'll be taking both along today, hopefully for a final answer as to which of the 2 is responsible. He's only going to charge me £15 which is a lot less painful than if I had taken the dead system to them in the first instance with no idea what the problem was at all. Even factoring in the cost of the new PSU I might just about break even here, and if I get it sorted I'll have a new whisper quiet PSU at the end of it all, and will be a giant stride closer to a quiet pc.

It's a shame about the RAM as that's one of the few things I have upgraded and really one of the few things I felt was worth keeping. 

I had planned to upgrade the IDE DVDROM drive with a SATA DVDRW to free up an IDE channel to allow me to fit a spare IDE HDD that I have. The alternative would be for me to get a replacement board with an extra IDE channel (the current board only has 1) to allow me to connect 3 IDE devices and keep the existing DVDROM drive which is perfectly serviceable otherwise. I will probably upgrade the video card at some stage in the near future and wouldn't object to a move away from onboard sound if that's a possibility.

I hope the pics below are suitable, let me know if not. Obviously the cpu fan and heatsink and PSU are missing from the system at this time! Thanks.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131182

That's what I was afraid of, your case is MATX only, so your motherboard options are limited. I have to run go work right but I'll check back tonight when I've got time to research your motherboard options.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

check the front on button by disconecting the 2 wires from the m/board and touching the 2 pins with a small screwdriver for a fraction of a second and see if it boots


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

OK, I tested the power on button pins as you suggested and I get exactly the same results. i.e. the PSU fan makes the slightest movement then nothing.

I'm taking the pc to the local shop tomorrow to get them to test the motherboard and processor for me so I can hopefully get to the bottom of this. 

Did you have any other motherboard suggestions? I had a look on Dabs and there were a few MATX socket 775 boards on there with similar specs to the one Matt suggested above, but I wouldn't know what I was looking for other than that. I guess I could always get a new case as well...

1 very simple thing you can reassure me on: the new Corsair PSU has a modular SATA cable, the old PSU did not and the SATA HDD was powered through a standard 4 pin power cable. The jacks on the drive are not labelled but I am assuming that one that fits the SATA power cable must be the right one to use?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

yes they have the sata connections
if you have a spare molex you are better off with them they don't fall out like the sata cables do


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

The pc store reckon it is the motherboard, so I guess I'm definitely in the market for a new board now...

Realistically speaking would I be better to start looking to upgrade completley here and get myself a new case so I have better options with the motherboard, whilst keeping the old processor, HDDs, graphics card and disk drives or should I just stick with an MATX board and the same case and accept that it's probably not going to give me a lot of flexibility?

Also, if I replace the board am I going to have to buy a new copy of XP as this is OEM?


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*



be4con said:


> The pc store reckon it is the motherboard, so I guess I'm definitely in the market for a new board now...
> 
> Realistically speaking would I be better to start looking to upgrade completley here and get myself a new case so I have better options with the motherboard, whilst keeping the old processor, HDDs, graphics card and disk drives or should I just stick with an MATX board and the same case and accept that it's probably not going to give me a lot of flexibility?
> 
> Also, if I replace the board am I going to have to buy a new copy of XP as this is OEM?


Sorry for the late reply. I've been very busy of late and haven't had much extra time to spend on the forum.:sigh:

It depends on your needs and budget. If you are happy with the level of performance out of your current setup or aren't looking to spend alot of money then stick with what you have and aim for more of a direct replacement. If you go with a direct replacement then your current license would still be valid. If you get a newer motherboard, then it's an upgrade and considered a "New" pc which would require a new license under the Microsoft EULA.

Here are a couple of pulled motherboards on Ebay that is direct replacements. They have 30 day warranties.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/B3485-MSI-MS-...photoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713.m153.l1262

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/B3485-MSI-MS-...7717251QQcmdZViewItem?IMSfp=TL080426095a31149


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Thanks again, no need to apologise for the delay in responding, the advice from everyone has been overwhelming.

Well, I'm a casual gamer and regular but not very demanding video and picture editor. I mostly use my pc for email, work (simple text and spreadsheet stuff) and net surfing and currently as a server for my music.

I've been pretty happy with the performance I've had so far, only really wanting to upgrade the fans to quieten the thing down. Money isn't really an issue. I had thought I'd be replacing the whole system and had earmarked £600 or so to build a new one. That said if I get this one to limp along for another 12 months for less than £100 I guess I'll be fairly happy.

I'm going to buy a NSLU2 to act as a network server for my music which will reduce the workload my pc has to do (and it's uptime) by at least 50%

What are you feelings on buying 2nd hand boards? Is it the sort of component you can trust 2nd hand? £50 after P&P does seem quite a lot when there are new boards for £45. Also I notice that those are version 1.2 whereas my board is version 10, does this matter?

If I use a direct replacement board will I be able to just plug my existing HDD in with XP installed on it and it will run, or will I still need to reformat the drive and reinstall XP? Although all my critical stuff is backed up on external drives it would be nice to salvage the little bits I don't routinely back up.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

i think you mean ver. 1.0 not ver.10
the 1.2 will be an upgrade on the one you have
you will probably find after the swap it will just boot up,if you change the m/b for something different run a repair install of windows
buying second hand you just have to use common sense on where you buy it from 
i have dealt with a number of second hand boards without any problems


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Aah! You may be right it looked like ver 10 but the writing was hard to see.


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

I've only bought a couple of pulls but have had good luck with them. The Ebayer has a great rating with only 7 negatives in the last 12 months.

So it's basically your decision from here. There's always a risk when buying a used board, due to the fact that you are dealing with a limited warranty. The fact that the saler offers a 30 day warranty (covers full shipping if DOA and returned within two days) is a bonus. The used boards I bought have only carried a warranty against DOA and had to be returned within 7 days. I think there's a good chance you can squeeze another year out of your system, but you have to decide if it's worth the risk.

As for the board version, there is very little difference in the two version, in fact the manual covers all 1.x versions. Same chipset etc, so you should have no issues with your current OS or the recovery CDs/partition that came with the PC. Version 2.x of the board supports DDR2 instead on DDR1 (not sure if there are other differences)

Keep us posted on your decision and how it works out for you. :wave:


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Well, they didn't charge me for the diagnostics at the pc store which was a bonus. I've decided to bite the bullet and get the replacement board from eBay. Hopefully should be here by the weekend and I can put it all together then. I'll let you know how I get on.

Do you think I am likely to have to do anything fancy with the BIOS other than ensuring the correct boot order and system time/date?


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

It should be pretty straight forward. Load the setup defaults, set your time, date, and boot order. Save and exit, then it's off to the races. :wink:

EDIT:

Just a reminder. Be sure to clean off the old thermal compound and apply a fresh thin coat of Arctic Silver or something comparable. Good thermal compound applied properly makes a big difference in your CPU temps.


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## vIrUs_32 (May 14, 2008)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

yea the psu is dead. i've had this happen to me before....no be deal.


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Well, generally good news. The new motherboard arrived, is fitted and the system boots. I've not been able to access one the IDE DVDROM drive yet but I need to go back into the BIOS and check that it is listed properly. The only other hardware issue is that there is no connection on the new board for the card reader but that's a minor issue, I never really use it and externals are ten a penny.

The major fly in the ointment so far is XP. I was able to boot to the CD and repair the current installation but during the repair it asked for a number of SP2 files which I couldn't locate. I tried to continue the repair ignoring those files but on first boot after the repair had finished XP crashed. It looks like I may have to reinstall XP completely which would be a pain but not an insurmountable issue.

If I were to install XP on a 2nd hard drive to boot to would I have any issues accessing the current drive to retrieve stuff from it, as long as the boot order is changed obviously?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

slipstream the sp into the xp disk with nlite and then use the slipstreamed disk to run the repair
http://www.nliteos.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
you should be able to access the original from a parallel install


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

My OS CD _is_ a slipstreamed version of XP with SP2. That's the strange thing all the files should be present on the CD. A quick Google reveals I'm not the only person to have had this problem though.

I found today that I am able to boot to XP as long as I leave the disk in the drive which is no biggie and has allowed me to check that I had everything I needed backed up. I will just bite the bullet and reformat. It's probably about time it was done for housekeeping reasons anyway, it's been a couple of years. Is a strange problem though none the less.

I have also solved the problem with the other DVD drive not functioning properly too so it looks like the only issues I have now are software related.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

boot into the recovery console and run fixboot
check the windows partition is marked as active


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Sorry for the long delay, I've been away on holiday. Thanks again for the advice.

I ran FIXBOOT C: and recovery console claimed to have rewritten the boot sector. However, on rebooting I get the same Disk Boot Failure message. I can still boot with the XP disk in the drive. 

I have also tried to use the Medion pc recovery software to reinstall the factory default settings and XP but the process failed. I attempted it twice, it went through all the correct steps, but then when I rebooted nothing had changed at all. I'm assuming this is because of the different motherboard preventing the recovery progressing

I'm considering just reinstalling XP, unless anyone has any other solutions at this stage. The pc silencer kit arrived this week from Germany and I have my new SATA DVD drive arriving on Friday so I'd like to put an end to all this if I can and get all the hardware and software sorted this week. My wife would like the pc out of the dining room and me off her laptop!


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

boot with the xp disk in the drive and go into disk management and check the drive is marked active


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

The option to mark C as active is grayed out so it must already be active. There is no option to mark the other 2 partitions as active.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

when you look at the listing for the partition it will say if it is active


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

In which case, no it isn't. It's just described as Healthy (system). The other 2 partitions are described as just Healthy. 

How can I make it active when the option is grayed out? Is this due to a hardware configuration problem with the new motherboard.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

windows makes it active when you format and install
right click on the partition and in the box that opens up there should be the option


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

So, I will need to do a clean install of XP, there is no way to make the drive active without doing that? 

At the moment the right click option to mark the partition as active is grayed out. There are no active partitions at all listed on my system and apparently no way to make any of them active from the context menus.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

then it looks like a reinstall in vista it gives the option i haven't used xp for about 3 yrs i seem to remember it took a reinstall in xp


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

OK, I'll reinstall XP. Thanks. Is it worth formatting first or will I be OK just doing a fresh install over the top?


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

format and do a clean install


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Thanks again dai. I've had another idea though. When my SATA dvd drive arrives on Friday I will be able to install my empty spare IDE HDD. I am now thinking of installing XP on this empty drive, that way I can make sure I have all the settings and data transferred across before finally formatting my current SATA HDD. Belt and braces as it were 

Is there anything I will need to do to force XP to install on this 2nd IDE drive rather than on the current C drive when I do the installation? Do I need to change the drive letters around for example, or will I be given the choice of which drive to install it on when I boot from the XP installation disk?


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## mattlock (Dec 28, 2005)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

You should be able to choose the hard drive you want, but the safest way to do it is simply unplug the power or SATA cable from your current hard drive then install XP to the other drive. Once it has installed reconnect your SATA drive.

BTW, if you have a floppy drive you can try using Fdisk from a Windows startup disk to set the partition as active again. It just might solve your problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315261

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305595/


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Yeah, I did wonder about Fdisk, it's come up a few times on searches, but no floppy drive unfortunately. 

I have also read comments about using a LINUX based OS on CD to do the same thing, but no real explanation of what or how to do this. Any ideas?


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

I wasn't sure whether to post a whole new thread here or just keep going on this one. Let me know if I should move this now. I appreciate that the problem is now HDD and XP related rather than PSU and RAM

I fitted my empty hard drive today, fitted the new fans and heat sink and new SATA DVD drive. Everything boots up and the pc is whisper quiet which is great. Thanks for all your help solving that problem.

I then went through the process of installing XP on the spare empty HDD and everything seemingly went fine. That is, until I removed the XP CD and restarted the pc only to get the same disk boot failure message I had when I was trying to boot from the other HDD (which is currently physically disconnected)

So I replaced the XP CD and booted the system and went to disk management and discovered that the newly created C drive is not listed as active, and what's more the option to make it active is grayed out as it was on the other HDD.

So I now have 2 HDD both with a system partition with XP installed and on neither HDD can I make that partition active.

What I have been able to do is create a 2nd primary partition (F on the HDD and make that active. I am then given the option at least to make the C drive active on the right click menu, but when I did this the F partition stopped being active but the C partition was still not listed as active.

I'm totally flumoxed. Any suggestions as to what is happening here? Why would this happen on a clean install of XP on a formatted HDD? How can I solve the problem? :4-dontkno :upset:

Thanks as ever.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

log on as admin and check if you can then make the partition active in disk management
i have not had this problem as i am reguarly installing op systems and i have a number of drives for this purpose and always have a vacant one which i have formated and made active in disk management prior to installing


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## be4con (Mar 20, 2006)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

Thanks again dai.

I think I've finally managed to solve the problem. I had to tweak some settings in my BIOS relating to hard disk boot order and change the jumper settings on the 2nd drive to slave (which seemed counter-intuitive to me - the master IDE device is a dvd drive) but now both the new IDE drive and the the old SATA drive have an active partition on them and I have been able to boot to XP on either drive (depending on what combination are physically connected to the system)

I've proceeded with the fresh XP installation and the original problem now appears to be solved.

Thanks very much for all you patient assistance on solving this for me.

Dave


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

*Re: Is my PSU dead?*

glad you have it sorted


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