OT - Computer power supply voltages?

[Highpower]

My daughter has a gaming machine that won't boot up any longer.
Diagnostic LED's on the board (PartyLan, LP nF4 SLI-DR) show that the CPU isn't being recognized. Won't do a POST, no beep codes, nothing.

All the fans run, but after I did voltage checks I found that all the PSU voltages appear to be a bit low. 5V reads 4.4V, 3.3V reads 3.0V, and 12V reads 11.4V. Searching the web, it appears that this particular brand of motherboard is VERY touchy when it comes to PSU's.

It's a 1000 watt supply, but the voltages look suspect to me - and I don't have a clue as to what the lower "limit" is for voltages on these things. ???

I've been re-seating connectors, swapping memory, disconnecting drives etc., etc., to no avail. What do you say, those of you "in the know"? 8)

[img alt=Reply With Quote]http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/images/buttons/quote.gif[/img]

 

[Tony Wells]

Look for electrolytic capacitors with bulging tops, and or leaks. Most common failure of mobos.

 

[pdentrem]

PSU are very much suspect. I ran into the same problem and the PSU was the problem.

 

[Highpower]

Well, I dug up another (smaller, 480 watt) PSU just to try powering up the motherboard to see what it would do. It flew right through the POST without skipping a beat, so I guess I have my answer.

Seeing as how this is the second high dollar PSU this machine has eaten, > the daughter doesn't want to invest in another one. So I guess I'll leave the smaller supply in there and lose the monster video card it has been running as well. I'll throw in a cheap v-card and just keep it as a backup computer for not if - but when - one of our other machines die.

I don't even want to think about the thousands of dollars we have thrown out in the trash due to outdated hardware / software & peripherals. Just the other day I trashed full versions of old DOS software we had (Wordperfect, Lotus, dBASE etc.) that cost me $$$$ when I bought it all. Same with old computers. They are like buying a boat - nothing but a hole in the water that you throw money into......

Do I sound bitter?

 

[pdentrem]

No you do not sound bitter at all!

I stopped buying new computers and chasing the latest and greatest. The last computers that I have bought I got off lease from outfits like 123compute. Here you can get usually stuff that is only 1 or 2 generations older than the current stuff for not much money. Free software like Openoffice, and only upgrades to stuff I actually use, like Photoshop. I refuse to upgrade Autocad, I can get by with Autocad 2000 for what I need to do, either in 2d or 3d.
Save your aftertax money for real stuff that can make something!

 

[Highpower]

Save your aftertax money for real stuff that can make something!

That's a good point! Actually, I combined the two the other day when I was throwing out that old computer stuff. Found enough old parts to throw together a "Franken-computer". Why... I don't know! :

I had an old tower chassis with an empty drive bay that used a proprietary floppy drive that was missing. I also had an old std floppy drive with a broken off bezel, but they were obviously not made for each other. Does that stop US??? HECK NO!!!! ;D