Is my Antec PSU dead?

[BGA]

Last night my computer froze. I rebooted and just as the desktop was loading the PC shut down. It then would not start. I press the power button and nothing happens. If I hold the power button in, sometimes it will begin to start - the case fan, the processor fan, and the GPU fan will start up - but then it shuts off within about 10 seconds.

It seems like the power supply is dead but I'm not sure about that.

What does this sound like to you? Could it be the motherboard? Something else?

The PC is 5 years old.

Thanks for your ideas.


BGA




In case it helps:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Chaintech VNF3-250 mobo
Antec True Power 380S power supply
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb

[GoNz0]

try this with at least a fan hooked up to the psu http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...ient=firefox-a

[sadbuttrue]

You could try removing the cmos battery (after unplugging/switching off at wall) for a few minutes, to reset the bios. I get no end of problems requiring such action if I dare try to overclock my old Ahtlon 64. Maybe your bios settings became corrupted somehow?

[gaz12]

May just be overheating and thus shutting down,try and get some cpu temps from bios if high just clean and re apply some cpu thermal paste.

[BGA]

I bought a new PSU and got the same results as before.

sadbuttrue, I read that the CMOS battery is blue but I don't see any blue battery. Could it simply be a small, flat, round battery? Silver in color? Is it possible that a dead CMOS batter is causing this?

gaz12, it shuts down within 10 seconds of starting and the screen is always black. How could the CPU overheat so quickly?

[gaz12]

Yes its just the flat battery on the motherboard looks like a watch battery,mine only booted to windows then just shutdown the cpu gets really hot without any thermal paste prob worth a try as its only cheap to buy.

[BGA]

Yes its just the flat battery on the motherboard looks like a watch battery,mine only booted to windows then just shutdown the cpu gets really hot without any thermal paste prob worth a try as its only cheap to buy.

I bought some thermal paste today. Someone told me that the CPU will shut down to protect itself if it heats up too quickly and that I should clean the heat sink. But I just cleaned it a few weeks ago. I took it off last night and cleaned off the old thermal paste. I have no idea if it was still functional or not but I'll find out tonight. Thanks for the tips.

[gaz12]

Dont put to much on as u only need a thin layer,hope this cures u problem if not try to clear u bios with the jumper nxt to the cmos battery.

[BGA]

Dont put to much on as u only need a thin layer,hope this cures u problem if not try to clear u bios with the jumper nxt to the cmos battery.

Can you explain this more? I looked at the CMOS battery last night and I couldn't figure out how to get the clamp off. And what is the jumper next to it?

[BGA]

Dont put to much on

Yeah, I was wondering about this too. How thick do I put it on? What would happen if I put too much and some of it spilled over the edge of the processor on to the motherboard?

[gaz12]

Dont worry about the jumper just remove battery and replace,with regard to the thermal paste u only need a blob in the centre then spread over cpu with a thin piece of cardboard or plastic card if any goes over u need to clean it of to be safe.

[scaryjim]

What would happen if I put too much and some of it spilled over the edge of the processor on to the motherboard?

Most thermal paste isn't electrically conductive, so it's not the end of the world if this happens: although some can be capacitative and these need to be handled more carefully. If you just got the ordinary white stuff you should be OK. On the other hand, if you put too much thermal paste on it actually interferes with the heat transfer as it blocks the metal - metal contact that is the ideal situation (the paste is only meant to fill in the micropores and small scratches where the metal doesn't meet naturally).

[Veronica Feldmeier]

Last night my computer froze. I rebooted and just as the desktop was loading the PC shut down. It then would not start. I press the power button and nothing happens. If I hold the power button in, sometimes it will begin to start - the case fan, the processor fan, and the GPU fan will start up - but then it shuts off within about 10 seconds.

It seems like the power supply is dead but I'm not sure about that.

What does this sound like to you? Could it be the motherboard? Something else?

The PC is 5 years old.

Thanks for your ideas.


BGA




In case it helps:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Chaintech VNF3-250 mobo
Antec True Power 380S power supply
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb

Hi BGA -

Customer support mentioned it sounds like the power supply is the issue. The best way to test it would be to use another power supply in your system.

Try contacting customer support and they'll be able to work with you to resolve the issue.

[BGA]

Well I took off the heatsink last night, cleaned it, reapplied thermal paste and put it back. I got the same results. The processor is dead.

So I have to get some new components. I'm thinking:

AMD 7750 Kuma: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103300
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128379
2x 2GB Mushkin DDR2 1066 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146784
BFG GS-550W PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817702010


Unfortunately I cannot reuse my old Antec PSU; it only has a 20-pin main connector and I need a 24 pin one. The mobo has a ATI HD 3200 on board and that will have to do for now - according to this article by Tom's, my current ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb is approximately the same performance-wise as the HD 3200, so I should still be able to play the games that I have.

Any comments on this build? Any glaring errors? I would like to add a high end GPU later on such as the ATI 4870.


Thanks yall. Hexus is a fantastic computer forum.

BGA

[BGA]

Hi BGA -

Customer support mentioned it sounds like the power supply is the issue. The best way to test it would be to use another power supply in your system.

Try contacting customer support and they'll be able to work with you to resolve the issue.

Thanks for the reply, VF, but as I said in my second post I already tried another PSU and got the same results, so it would seem that my 5 year old Antec PSU is not the issue.