Should I upgrade my power supply?

flynnduism

Over the last 6 months my PC has started switching off suddenly. Just blacks out (usually when playing video, music, games etc), happening more and more frequently, to the point where it won't run for more than maybe 6 hours without happening.

When it powers off, it won't turn back on when you press power - I find if I remove the power cord from the back and leave it out for 10 - 20 mins it'll turn on again fine.

I've opened the case and checked around, all 3 fans are running fine and it doesn't seem like overheating to me. PC is a custom build I got from Ankermann a year and a half ago, at the time I bundled the cheapest default power option and thinking it may be time for an upgrade - here's my spec (some details in German!)

• Power Supply 600Watt ARX
• CPU So. AM2 4200 X2 Dual Core Athlon-64 'Windsor' - 2.20 Ghz
• 2 GB RAM - 2 x DDR2 1024MB Corsair 800
• Cooler AM2 Arctic Alpine 64 So. AM2
• MB So.AM2 MSI K9VGM-V -PCI-e & SATA2 RAID
  Chipsatz : VIA K8M890
  Southbridge : VIA 8237A
  Front Side Bus : 1000 MHz
  RAM Typ : DDR2-533 DDR2-667 DDR2-800
  RAM max. : 4096 MB
• PCI-e NVidea GeForce 7600GS 512MB TV out & DVI
• SATA2 500GB Western Digital KS 16MB
• 2nd internal Hard Drive (added later)
• DVD-Drive Samsung SH-D162C/BEBE 16*/48*/2* black
• DVD-RW drive (added later)
• Creative Audigy 2 EX soundcard with external connection box (via firewire, added later
• External HD (via usb)

I'm finding all sorts of conflicting advice about my power-down problem online, but I'm inclinded to suspect my 600 watt power supply is either struggling with the machine or is simply failing because I bought a cheap one that's fading with age, becoming unreliable...

witnessmenow

It could well be over heating? What are your temps like?

Download coretemp
Download Prime95

start up coretemp set it to log its temprature every 5 seconds or whatever

run prime

if your computer turns off, turn it back on and locate the text file that coretemp has created and see if they are getting high?

Your case could be completely cool but if your heat sink isnt sitting correctly your processor would still over heat.

Your graphics card could be the one over heating either

requiem1

flynnduism wrote: »

Over the last 6 months my PC has started switching off suddenly. Just blacks out (usually when playing video, music, games etc), happening more and more frequently, to the point where it won't run for more than maybe 6 hours without happening.

When it powers off, it won't turn back on when you press power - I find if I remove the power cord from the back and leave it out for 10 - 20 mins it'll turn on again fine.

I've opened the case and checked around, all 3 fans are running fine and it doesn't seem like overheating to me. PC is a custom build I got from Ankermann a year and a half ago, at the time I bundled the cheapest default power option and thinking it may be time for an upgrade - here's my spec (some details in German!)

• Power Supply 600Watt ARX
• CPU So. AM2 4200 X2 Dual Core Athlon-64 'Windsor' - 2.20 Ghz
• 2 GB RAM - 2 x DDR2 1024MB Corsair 800
• Cooler AM2 Arctic Alpine 64 So. AM2
• MB So.AM2 MSI K9VGM-V -PCI-e & SATA2 RAID
  Chipsatz : VIA K8M890
  Southbridge : VIA 8237A
  Front Side Bus : 1000 MHz
  RAM Typ : DDR2-533 DDR2-667 DDR2-800
  RAM max. : 4096 MB
• PCI-e NVidea GeForce 7600GS 512MB TV out & DVI
• SATA2 500GB Western Digital KS 16MB
• 2nd internal Hard Drive (added later)
• DVD-Drive Samsung SH-D162C/BEBE 16*/48*/2* black
• DVD-RW drive (added later)
• Creative Audigy 2 EX soundcard with external connection box (via firewire, added later
• External HD (via usb)

I'm finding all sorts of conflicting advice about my power-down problem online, but I'm inclinded to suspect my 600 watt power supply is either struggling with the machine or is simply failing because I bought a cheap one that's fading with age, becoming unreliable...

You're wattage seems fine to deal with that spec I doubt you even need that much power, you're probably right, it sounds like its on its way out. Best bet is to get a psu off a mate and try to run your system for a while with it and see what happens.

PSU's are notorious for failing especially the standard brand ones.

marco_polo

Perhaps the PSU is overheating? Then everyone is right.

Seriously though, the fact that thye System won't turn on for a period of up to 10 -20 minutes after failing would make me suspect some sort of overheating issue is more likely rather than a struggling PSU.

witnessmenow

It may be a case that its nothign to do with the CPU overheating, but your best off crossing all possible things off your list that cost nothing to test.

Solitaire

The fact that I've never heard of ARX, or that Google alleges a relationship between them and master-crapmasters Atrix, kinda says it all. 600W? That's the badge they use on their 150W models, isn't it? :P

Very dubious OEM known for utter crap, and very unreliable, overrated crap at that, means the PSU is very much in the frame. The joke of a 12V rail it has has probably aged and derated sufficiently to redline and cause the PC to cut out after its worked up a bit of heat in there.

But its certainly not the only thing that could go wrong, hell it could be the software for all we know. Try using a clean OS install on another drive (physical or virtual - partition the HDD and stick on Linux or even run a Linux OS-on-a-CD) and see if you can replicate the symptoms. Also use Speedfan or something to keep a close eye on system and CPU temps. But the PSU is very possibly the culprit.

flynnduism

Thanks for the feedback everyone - I'll setup coretemp/prime95 and keep an eye on the logs, will post my findings!

Whether it's overheating or a power failure, I get the feelings some upgrades are in order here

flynnduism

Woah, running Coretemp it's clocking around

#1 100° - 110° C
#2 around 90° C

And that's when I just have the likes of Firefox / Winamp running, nothing heavy. From googling about the general guideline temperature seems to be about 35 - 40 °

Seems some cooler apparatus might be a better investment than power supply, stumped why it's so high though

witnessmenow

Yeah thats not right

I'd say best course of action is to remove the heatsink, clean the old thermal paste off, and reapply thermal paste again.

You only need to put a tiny amount on, pea size amount is loads!