PC components dying. Power problem?

mikelata

hi all,

I have a new problem in my self built media center, which I think might connect several problems I had independently.

First, I had a problem in which the PC was not booting in the first installation. After checking everything, the problem ended up being in the RAM. I had 2 modules and the PC only booted when only 1 of the 2 RAM modules where inserted. I thought it was a RAM problem...

Then, a riser card I was using for the tv card suddenly burnt and smoke came from the riser card. I did not get any conclusion of why that happened.

Last week another problem arose. The same problem of the RAM reoccured and the PC is not booting again. I took the RAM and I tried it in another PC and the RAM is dead.

Conclusion: 2 RAM modules and 1 riser card have died since I started building the media center in the space of 2 months. Is there any link in here? Can this be a problem with the power supply? Or just a faulty motherboard?

Any ideas?

Thanks

Mac daddy

what type of psu have you got brand and output?
and a few more details on the rest of the system IE disk size and type, processor, gfx card.

Whats the system like on the inside heat / cooling wise?
Are the componets looking slightly charred?
Dusty area fans blocked?
How many fans have you got installed?

If components are burning out your problem is either the PSU is a crappy one with flaky rails or else the systemboard regulators are shot.

If i was you i would RMA the systemboard and buy a new psu decent quality one.

mikelata

mac daddy,

thanks for your reply.

I am not at home right now so I wont have a full description of the system till tomorrow. However, I have already some answers to your questions, which I think give you enough info

The idea of this media center was to make it fanless. So it uses some specific components
Power supply: Mcubed EF28 external fanless 280W (http://www.mcubed-store.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=44_50&products_id=179)
It is an external fanless powersupply, which has a DC DC convertor inside the PC case

Heat/Cooling side: this was the key thing of the media center. The idea was to make it as silent as possible. So, it is fanless and uses instead the following cooling components:
BorgFX® CPU - Heatpipe Processor Cooler (http://www.mcubed-store.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=44_49&products_id=289)
BorgFX® Extension - Heatpipe Extension Set (http://www.mcubed-store.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=44_49&products_id=189), which disipates the heat the case heatsinks (http://www.mcubed-store.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=44_48&products_id=197)
I monitored the CPU temperatures and they were within the accepted range

RAM: DDR2 2x2gb . I think it was called Superfast

CPU: Intel Multi Core 2.33gHZ

Motherboard: fatality f-190hd


The risercard did look charred but not the RAM modules
Thanks a lot for your help. I really appreciaTE it

cheers

mikelata

hi all,

I probably sent too much information in a single reply...

I have a couple of more specific questions. It would be great if you could help me. As far as I can understand the situation, and according to Mac Daddy´s post, there are two main possible scenarions in here:

• Faulty power supply: does anyone know how I could monitor whether the PSU is working properly?

• Too much heat: as described in the previous post, my system is fanless. I monitored the CPU temperatures and the levels seemed OK to me. However, who knows? My question is, can excessive heat be a potential cause of RAM failure? if that was the problem, should the RAM module look charred?

Thanks!!!!