Could this be a weak power supply?

Hi,

I have an Asus P4XP-X motherboard (Award Bios) with a P4 2.66 processor. The system, running Linux, began to freeze a couple days ago after running for about a year.

I saw some system integrity problems on the hard drive. So initially I thought the hard drive was dying. When I restarted the machine (warm reboot) it reboot ed fine, fixed the drive errors and ran for a while before freezing again. When I shutdown completely, it wouldn't reboot. No power.

When I disconnected everything, The PS and processor started up and gave one long post repeatedly. As soon as I connected a drive (even a different one than I had originally installed) it would not boot or post.

Could this be a bad power supply? Originally the case came with a 350 watt PS and I changed it to a 400. With the original 350, it wouldn't boot either. As soon as I upgraded the PS it booted. But now, with the 400 I'm seeing the same problem after about a year. I hope that it's just the PS and not the motherboard. Could it be a short of some sort?

 

well my computer did that.. and it turned out something was shorting out one of my fan power connectors
make sure none of the power connectors are damages, and make sure the mother board isnt shorting out somehow (like a screw on it somehow)

 

Sounds more like a dodgey mobo to me...

 

Hi,

Disconnect everything except cpu,hsf,video card, ram and psu and see if it will post. It could be the psu, when the drives start to spin up and draw a lot of power then it shuts off. Hard to tell with out swapping the psu. A failing ps can cause a system to freeze and I have seen some generic ps not last very long, I have also seen a ps fail and take out the mobo and other things with it.

Rick

 

Hi,

Thanks for responding. The only components connected are the CPU and Fan, memory, video card and, of course, the PSU. This results in a series of long beeps continuously. This is the problem that I reported originally. I thought maybe also that it could be a bad memory module? I don't have another one to check it. But I figured that if it were bad memory, the same beeps would occur when attaching additional components. As you mentioned, what led me to believe that it might be the PSU was that the PSU fan, nor the CPU fan would start once I connect the power cable to the Hard Drive. I tried reseating the memory and moving it to different banks and the same conditions occur.

If you have any other suggestions I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, I would go with it being the PSU, try buying one to replace the current one and see what results.

Thanks again.

 

HMMMMMMMMM that beep does indicate the system has no usable memory so if you have minimal components installed that should be it. Yes the same beeps should occur if everthing is installed but sometimes award bios and their beep codes play tricks. With minimal components the computer ties to post but can find no usable mem then with everything pluged in maybe it cannot beep cause the psu is not providing enough power to get that far into the post. This leads me to think the psu went bad and killed the ram. I hope I am wrong.

Rick

 

Gee, I hope that you are wrong too. What I'll do is see if I can get this memory module tested. If it fails, should I replace the PSU also? How do I know if it's only a memory problem?

 

Thats a problem, I think I would replace the psu if the ram tests bad and not take a chance. To test the ram download memtest86 from MG and make a bootable floppy put the ram in another computer that is capable of running it and remove the other ram in the computer, if it posts reboot with the floppy in and run for3 passes for a quick test but better to run 8 hours or so.

Rick

 

make sure that ram is installed in those dimms right all the way and check your cables.....

 

Another thought just occured to me, plug everthing in exept the ram that way the drives will draw power when the system tries to post and see if it beeps if not bad psu

 

OK,

Disconnected memory, only PSU, CPU & fan, and power cable to HD (no ide cable connected).

When I initially connected the power cord and hit the power switch, the CPU fan receives enough power to start briefly, then shuts down. If I press the power switch again, nothing.

If I disconnect the power cable to the HD (everything above is the same except the power to the HD) I get the continuous long posts.

 

Replace the psu, the second time you hit the power button it did not have enough time to reset and give that little extra power to spin the fan let alone anything else. It still don't look good for the ram but after you replace the psu then we will know for sure. I know you tried a different drive so that ain't the problem. Still hope I am wrong about the ram!

Rick

 

Hey Doby,

Guess what, you were right! And wrong! (thank heavens)

I replaced the PSU as you suggested, put my old ram in and it booted right up and has been running for hours. I'm relieved to know that my ram appears to be OK. But it's interesting to see how a faulty or inadequate PSU can cause symptoms which could be misinterpreted for so many other computer problems. I had thoughts of crashed HD, blown MB, bad memory, bad processor, etc.

You were on the money, and helped me a lot. This isn't the first time either. You helped me on problems before. I really appreciate it. This site is great. Much respect to the MGs.

Thanks.

 

Glad we figured it out and you only had to replace the psu, when they go there can be all kinds of bad things going on.

your welcome
Rick