Power Issues

My 3-year old son was messing around with my computer the other night and it froze. I had to use the power button to turn it off, but then it wouldn't boot properly. It wouldn't POST, and there didn't appear to be any video getting to the monitor (it was flashing like it was in standby).

I took it apart, checked all the connections, made sure all of the fans were spinning, etc. I put it back together and finally got it to semi-boot.

The initial boot screen has a message saying: "*** Warning: Your Computer CPU Fan Fail or speed too low *** You can disable this warning message in SETUP"

It also says: "*** Warning:H/W Monitor Status Abnormal *** Please Enter the SETUP to check Voltage , Fan Speed or Temperature"

I went into the BIOS and went into Hardware Monitor. This is what I found:

Chassis Q-Fan Profile Performance
Vcore Voltage 2.35V
3.3V Voltage 2.19V
5V Voltage 1.37V
12V Voltage 8.32V

I put this pc together myself about a year and a half ago. Here are the components that I remember (if I need to get specifics I'll look)

ASUS M2N32 SLI Deluxe w/Wireless
2G OCZ RAM
320G SATA Samsung HD
Athlon 3800 Dual-Core CPU
Zalman heat sink/fan
500W Power supply (I think the brand is HyperX or something)

Do you think I have a bad power supply, motherboard, heatsink/fan? I don't have a lot of spare time to troubleshoot this, so any suggestions are definitely appreciated.

Thanks.

 

You've answered your own question -- a Geek is born LOL.

The BIOS reports that the power supply is bad.

 

Oh, I've been a geek for about 14 years now. Thanks for confirming what I felt was the obvious solution. Just wanted to get a 2nd opinion.

Thanks.

 

Ya, your reported voltages are way down. I'm surprised it still works somewhat.:confused Were you running PCProbe II ATT? Should have given you a warning depending on the parameters you set or default gives a deviance warning at %20 for Vcore and %10 for the rest.

 

I replaced the power supply (the old one was a 600W Thermaltake) with a 550W Antec Truepower Trio. I seem to be having the opposite problem now:

Vcore Voltage 4.08V
3.3V Voltage 4.08V
5V Voltage 6.85V
12V Voltage 16.32V

Any ideas? Dealing with these kind of issues reminds me why I quit doing pc repair and got my CCNA.

Thanks.

 

Someone at work told me that it may just be a faulty sensor. If it was truely putting out 16v on the 12v, wouldn't it have fried everything?

I'm debating whether I should take the PS back or not.

 

Hi Jason,

Most and maybe all PC Power Supplies have over and under voltage sensor circuits as well as over current sensors. The power supply probably would shut down if the voltage on the 12 v rail is really 16 v. When that happens the PSU will not start again until the AC is removed. Prom is correct in that some programs do not read the voltages correctly. Download another and see what it tells you.

Good Luck, Jim