I Canna'y Do It Captain I Just Don't Have The Power!

Asok

Well as the title suggests i seem to be having some problems power wise, well as far as I can tell its the power. Started having problems on and off for a while where i would power up the machine and it wouldnt even post. Last night however things took a turn for the worst. Now it will only post now and then with just two hard drives in and no cd drives, the reason i suspect its the power is that i have checked everything else i.e. reseated cards and ram and tried every combination of drives. It even refuses to post even when i have no drives connected. Seeing as I have sweet F all cash atm i cant really afford to buy a psu and find its not the problem. So oh wise tech priests does my problem sound like its the psu?

Dr. Dre

Questions !

1 Can you get into the BIOS screen ?
2 What wattage is your PSU ?
3 How old of a machine is it ?
4 If you can do 1, is there a page on your bios that shows the volatages around your system ?
5 Also if you can do 1, is there an option to load default values ?

Asok

1 Can you get into the BIOS screen ?

Occasionally when it does deside to post which seems to be quite randomly.

2 What wattage is your PSU ?

300watt psu supplied with the case,I'll take a gander and see what one was bundled with it afaik its a codegen.

3 How old of a machine is it ?
The psu has been in the machine going on a year and 3/4's, for the last six months it has been on quite alot without being turned off.
There also appears to be a slight death rattle coming from it,could be the fan in the psu.

4 If you can do 1, is there a page on your bios that shows the volatages around your system ?

Have'nt done that yet as i'm now in college it will be this evening before i check.

5 Also if you can do 1, is there an option to load default values ?

I restored the defaults last night and got no joy.

Thanks for the help

Dr. Dre

K, Will check back this evening.

Asok

im back home now and i threw in an old 200watt psu and the pc is back to normal granted i have attached the psu in a "non conformist way" it still works so it must have been the psu cheers for the help dre

Stephen

Codegen = bad!

Make sure you don't get one of them (or a Q-Tec either) when you eventually do replace the PSU.

Col_Loki

Running on a 200w PSU prob isint a good idea if your system requires alot of power........ ie at times of stress or heavy load your system may crash suddenly. Worst times could be when your ripping a dvd (thats so painfull loosing 3hrs work), playing games, encoding etc.

If you want to make sure you dont have any more power issues then mabye try this.... http://www.pc-look.com/boutik/product_info.php?products_id=608 , will come to a little over €50 but you shouldnt have to worry about anything power wise again. Im running my system in sig on a 300w version (the company is out of stock thats why im recomending the 350w).

If your lucky then the 200w might work, try playing a game or running Prime95 and see how stable your system is.

Fidelis

Originally posted by Stephen
Codegen = bad!

Wow, wow, slow down... I've been running off a 300w Codgen case & PSU for over two years now, great machine

Col_Loki

Wow, wow, slow down... I've been running off a 300w Codgen case & PSU for over two years now, great machine

Not all codgens cause problems, your machine is prob fine with the power it produces.

In general id definetly agree with Stephen, Codgens & q-tec generally spell trouble and arent any comparison to the likes of Antec, Fortron, Zalman, Be-quiet, Thermaltake, Enermax, etc. In q-tec's case you get wildly exagerated power output claims and generally bad voltage rails. TBH what do you expect from a cheap PSU. Some people dont have problems and get away with it, others dont. Majourity are probably fine but you get alot more problems with the q-tec / Codgens than any of the others i listed above.

Unless your on a very tight budget i would keep away from cheap PSU's, it can really cause you problems.

Dempsey

What are you running off the 300W PSU?

Fidelis

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
Not all codgens cause problems, your machine is prob fine with the power it produces

Yeah, I guess, it runs my machine without fault: elite k7s5a, xp1700 (1.46ghz), 40gb, gf2 64mb ddr, 512mb ddr, cd-rw, dvd, floppy, 17" crt, 56k modem, sound card, network card, mouse & keyboard.

I've never experienced any out of the blue power outages, nothing unusual, it's been great. Why pay for an Enermax/Antec 300w PSU when the supplied Codgen PSU does the job. I mean, either it works or it doesn't

Dempsey

Under load the power requirements go up and the voltage level can drop if the PSU cant supply it then the system can become unstable and crash.

Col_Loki

Yea exactly. And also higher voltages can cause problems, voltage spikes can mess up hardware, cause memory errors, low voltages cause restarts....etc theres alot more to it . Mabye you havent stressed your system , mabye the PSU is fine...... its just why take a chance when your dealing with €100's worth of equipment.

Ive seen a few motherboards being fried (majourity cheap PSU's), but also one by an antec PSU. The one that was fried by the antec PSU was covered by antec and the guy got sorted out with a new PSU & Motherboard....... it was in the US , but still its nice to know.

If the PSU is workin well for you then stick with it, your dead rite!! I cant really recomend cheaper PSU's as i hate seeing people getting hassle especially when i recomended something.

Fidelis

Well now I'm not recommending this PSU as such, just defending it's quality. I wouldn't necessarily advise anyone to go out and specifically buy a Codegen PSU, but I'd refer to the fact that mine has worked perfectly for me.

Under load the power requirements go up and the voltage level can drop if the PSU cant supply it then the system can become unstable and crash

I understand what you're saying about the voltage spikes et al, I meant to say something about that before. The voltages are all really good, whenever I check the BIOS data, the voltages always appear to be operating within normal parameters. It's under load all the time too, playing games, music, video editing, web use etc.

why take a chance when your dealing with €100's worth of equipment

True, if you've spent a fortune on your system, why skimp on the PSU. If I had the cash, I'd probably go buy a nice quiet 450w Antec/Enermax Actually, does anyone know if those Hiper PSUs on Komplett are any good?

Did a bit of googling, found this Russian Codegen site. Wasn't even sure if they were still producing units.

Asok

Thanks for all the replies lads,tbh in defence of my old psu it had a serious amount of hours on it i.e its been on pretty much constantly for the last six months.
atm im being offered a cheap psu on the wanted board (note to self pm user) and ill find out what the specs are of it,im not that pushed on what i eventually get although i know it wont be from maplins. I wandered down there yesterday and just walked out laughing at their prices.