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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 5:20 pm Post subject: I may be putting too much on my power supply (solved) |
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I've got a 500w power supply. It was running:
- 4 SATA hard drives
- two memory sticks
- motherboard
- 1Gbit network card
- processor
with no issues.
I've upgraded to a new motherboard (which doesn't have on-board video). So the following is the new power consumption list:
- 5 SATA hard drives
- three memory sticks
- motherboard
- processor
- 8 Mb PCI Video Card (not PCIe)
- 1Gbit network card
Now the computer was booting fine the first few times, now only seems to stay on for about 5 seconds.... then dies and stays dead until I remove power and re-apply. I guess it's just too much for the supply. My questions are:
1) Am I right about too much for the supply?
2) If so, how high should I go? _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim
Last edited by Bigun on Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:44 am; edited 1 time in total |
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BillWho Veteran
Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 1600 Location: US
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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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That doesn't make any sense, it says I only need a 300 watt. _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim |
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albright Advocate
Joined: 16 Nov 2003 Posts: 2588 Location: Near Toronto
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | 1) Am I right about too much for the supply? |
what happens if you take out the memory sticks and 4
of the drives ... ? _________________ .... there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth
doing as simply messing about with Linux ...
(apologies to Kenneth Graeme) |
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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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albright wrote: | Quote: | 1) Am I right about too much for the supply? |
what happens if you take out the memory sticks and 4
of the drives ... ? |
Still won't boot... the computer power lights stay on for about 2 seconds.... flickers sporadically, then goes dead. _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim |
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NeddySeagoon Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 54208 Location: 56N 3W
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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Bigun,
Is this new system a home made PC?
Have you had some practice at getting the heatsink compound on the CPU just like baby bears porridge?
or did you use a heatsink with a thermal pad already fitted?
You won't be getting near 500w at startup but there are several thingsto consider.
1. The start up surge - SATA drives draw about 12w active and a lot more at spin up.
2. Your PSU can't really supply 500w unless its split across the outputs exactly right, and it never is.
There will be a limit for each 12v supply (you should have 2) and for the 3.3v and 5v combined. _________________ Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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NeddySeagoon wrote: | Bigun,
Is this new system a home made PC?
Have you had some practice at getting the heatsink compound on the CPU just like baby bears porridge?
or did you use a heatsink with a thermal pad already fitted?
You won't be getting near 500w at startup but there are several thingsto consider.
1. The start up surge - SATA drives draw about 12w active and a lot more at spin up.
2. Your PSU can't really supply 500w unless its split across the outputs exactly right, and it never is.
There will be a limit for each 12v supply (you should have 2) and for the 3.3v and 5v combined. |
This is a custom built rig. Then possibly a bad power supply? _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim |
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NeddySeagoon Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 54208 Location: 56N 3W
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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Bigun,
Or a bad motherboard.
Slacken all of the screws holding the motherboard into the case, to the point where the heads do not touch the board.
Does that help? _________________ Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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PaulBredbury Watchman
Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 7310
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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Are you able to check the CPU temperature in one of the BIOS' screens?
If the CPU's heatsink isn't properly mounted, with the paste doing its job, then the CPU will kill the power in literally seconds, to stop itself from melting. I've seen it myself, on a CPU heatsink where one of the 4 plastic corner connections broke, so it wasn't quite making contact. |
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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:44 am Post subject: |
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PaulBredbury wrote: | Are you able to check the CPU temperature in one of the BIOS' screens?
If the CPU's heatsink isn't properly mounted, with the paste doing its job, then the CPU will kill the power in literally seconds, to stop itself from melting. I've seen it myself, on a CPU heatsink where one of the 4 plastic corner connections broke, so it wasn't quite making contact. |
Before it stopped working, I checked that, the sink seemed to be doing it's job nicely. _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim |
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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:44 am Post subject: |
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NeddySeagoon wrote: | Bigun,
Or a bad motherboard.
Slacken all of the screws holding the motherboard into the case, to the point where the heads do not touch the board.
Does that help? |
I will try that tomorrow, right now I need to step back before I throw it out my window. _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim |
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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:39 am Post subject: |
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NeddySeagoon wrote: | Slacken all of the screws holding the motherboard into the case, to the point where the heads do not touch the board.
Does that help? |
Same result _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim |
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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:48 am Post subject: |
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Ok, now I'm about 99% sure it's the power supply.
I took out the PSU, opened it up, and I see at least 3 capacitors that are leaking electrolyte from their bulging tops. Tempted to just replace the caps.
*EDIT*
Crap, I can't. Looks like they used some kind of hardened glue to make sure no component replacements could happen without replacing a whole glob of components. Looks like a new PSU for me.
Also, I recounted: 4 Caps are leaking (3 from the top, 1 from the bottom), and another two were bulging. I'm thinking it would do fine at just running idle, which it did for quite a while, but can't handle cold starts. Probably has been this way for a while. _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim |
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NeddySeagoon Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 54208 Location: 56N 3W
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:10 pm Post subject: |
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Bigun,
PSUs need really good caps to handle the ripple current. You get what you pay for. Look at cheap PSUs - don't expect them to outlast the warranty by very much.
Look at expensive PSUs - you don't need all the extra bling and connectors. Buy a PSU in the middle rang. It will be made with good quality parts and have none of the eye candy.
Don't bother replacing the caps. The failing caps will overstress other parts. _________________ Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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Bigun Advocate
Joined: 21 Sep 2003 Posts: 2196
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:44 am Post subject: |
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Looks like that online calculator was right. I found a spare 300 watt, put it in, and it booted up just fine. _________________ "It's ok, they might have guns but we have flowers." - Perpetual Victim |
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eccerr0r Watchman
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 9675 Location: almost Mile High in the USA
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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My server has a 300W PSU (AthlonXP2200+, 2x512MB DIMMs, 5 PATA hard drives, ATI Radeon 9250SE, RTL8169 Gbit Ethernet) and seems to work OK for the past few years of 24/7/365 use (Antec Smartpower 300). Need to watch out for many cheap PSUs.
It's not easy to tell a cheap PSU from a good one but a layman's check: usually good PSUs are heavy for their wattage/size (for the larger heatsinks). Also 200W PSUs are lighter than 500W PSUs.
This of course is not the definitive way to tell a crappy PSU from a good one, have to do some qualitiative checks...
Also had to mention, the bad caps tend to be the output caps from what I've seen. I don't see too many input caps die. When the output caps blow the downstream stuff that gets stress is ... hard disks, CPU, motherboard, RAM...
Don't buy cheap PSUs... I'm quite impressed by the Smartpower 300, it was a replacement for a "cheap" psu I had, and has lasted much longer than I expected (and hope it keeps on working for years to come, knock on wood). That being said, I have an Antec Smartpower 400 that died. YMMV. _________________ Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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duderonomy Guru
Joined: 20 Mar 2004 Posts: 349 Location: SF Bay Area
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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what a great thread !!! |
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eccerr0r Watchman
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 9675 Location: almost Mile High in the USA
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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My Smartpower 300 just died on me :(
Apparently the fan failed and I didn't notice in time (should have made lm-sensors send mail! It has a tach on the fan!). The PSU roasted itself to death.
Though the failed fan may have sealed fate but there were bad caps everywhere on the PSU board... hmm... _________________ Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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DaggyStyle Watchman
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5909
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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eccerr0r wrote: | My Smartpower 300 just died on me
Apparently the fan failed and I didn't notice in time (should have made lm-sensors send mail! It has a tach on the fan!). The PSU roasted itself to death.
Though the failed fan may have sealed fate but there were bad caps everywhere on the PSU board... hmm... |
how do you do that? _________________ Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein |
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eccerr0r Watchman
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 9675 Location: almost Mile High in the USA
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:35 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I could have just polled the sensor data and if any fan stops, then send mail...shouldnt be too hard. I don't think there is any interrupt driven method unfortunately.
Code: | CPUFan: 3443 RPM (min = 0 RPM, div = 8)
PSUFan: 0 RPM (min = 666 RPM, div = 8) ALARM
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:( _________________ Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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DaggyStyle Watchman
Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5909
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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eccerr0r wrote: | Well, I could have just polled the sensor data and if any fan stops, then send mail...shouldnt be too hard. I don't think there is any interrupt driven method unfortunately.
Code: | CPUFan: 3443 RPM (min = 0 RPM, div = 8)
PSUFan: 0 RPM (min = 666 RPM, div = 8) ALARM
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I see, there is not builtin func, just a script that tests outputs periodically.
ok. _________________ Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein |
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eccerr0r Watchman
Joined: 01 Jul 2004 Posts: 9675 Location: almost Mile High in the USA
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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Well, looks like the SP300 suffered from the capacitor plague too...
Found at least five unserviceable capacitors already (the PWM IC power filter capacitor, both +3.3V output capacitors, and both +5V output capacitors). The +5VSB capacitors are also bad but not part of the protection circuitry so I'm ignoring for now.
FSCK YOU FUHJYYU (the brand of capacitors that failed)! _________________ Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
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