Computer's completely dead

[adamsad1]

Hey all,

My desktop just decided to commit suicide (it hates me, I know it does.) It doesn’t turn on (no fans will run or anything), so I’m thinking power supply. I don’t remember how to test a PS though, and couldn’t find anything on Google that didn’t require an understanding of electrical diagrams (I’d really rather not go to a computer store and get charged up the *#$ for them to look at it either.) I wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas on what could be the problem, and if anyone knows how to test the PS.


Here’s what’s been going on:

A couple months ago when I started the computer up it would sometimes make two long beeps and then either shut down or just stay running, but never go to the boot screen. Restarting always made it work.

About a week or so ago my graphics cards stopped working properly in dual-SLI mode. It worked fine with one graphics card running however.

A few days ago the computer would just suddenly reboot while gaming.

A couple days ago a Windows error popped up while gaming that said the graphics drivers were either bad or that the graphics settings needed to be reduced. The drivers had been reinstalled a week prior when the problem with dual-SLI started up (reinstalling didn’t fix the SLI problem.)

And today the computer won’t turn on.


So, I’m thinking either power supply has been slowly dying causing other hardware issues, or a crap-load of stuff just went wrong all at once (I wouldn’t doubt that either. This has been the most finicky computer I’ve ever owned... Never buy an off brand gaming computer.) Like I said, I’m by no means a hardware expert, so I was hoping to see if anyone else had any other ideas and could explain how to test the power supply.

Thanks.

-------------
FX-55
Asus Motherboard
Enermax 600W Power Supply
Two GeForce 6800s
2GB Ram (two 1GBs)

[patio]

My bet is the PSU.
They do sell PSU testers for about 30 bucks but i don't put much faith in them...

[GX1_Man]

You can get a good power supply for just a few dollars more than a tester. It sounds like the source of the problem. Think Antec.

[adamsad1]

Okay, I'll try out a new power supply. Now... What size supply should I be getting for my computer? It's got a 600W, but is that what it needs, or is that just overkill?

FX-55
Asus Motherboard
Two GeForce 6800s (will be upgrading when DirectX 10 cards come out)
2GB Ram (two 1GBs)
Four 250GB hard drives

Thanks

[GX1_Man]

Here's a way to get a rough estimate.

http://www.journeysystems.com/power_supply_calculator.php

Again, a cheap power supply is no bargain. A 600w "el cheapo" can be dangerous to your other components, which you seem to have a lot invested in.

[adamsad1]

Thanks! Looks like around 460W or so. Might as well just go with another 600W so I have some room for more upgrades.

Yeah, I'm definitely not going with a cheep supply. Strongly considering Antec, especially with two Enermax supplies dying in the last year... Is is possible for a supply to go bad if it's installed wrong? After the first supply died (about 6 months after the computer was purchased) I received a second one, which I installed by just unplugging each connector one by one and plugging them into the new supply at the same time, so unless I screwed up it's hooked up exactly as it was when I first got the computer. It's just odd having two top PSUs going bad in less than 12 months, and like I said, the computer has never acted quite right (crashes way more often than any other computer I've had, sometimes will just stall and reset itself, and would sometimes not boot up and just make two loud beeps at me... Always done it to some degree, but it got MUCH worse in the last few weeks/months). Or am I just being paranoid here?

[GX1_Man]

Thanks! Looks like around 460W or so. Might as well just go with another 600W so I have some room for more upgrades.

Yeah, I'm definitely not going with a cheep supply. Strongly considering Antec, especially with two Enermax supplies dying in the last year... Is [highlight]is possible for a supply to go bad if it's installed wrong[/highlight]? After the first supply died (about 6 months after the computer was purchased) I received a second one, which I installed by just unplugging each connector one by one and plugging them into the new supply at the same time, so unless I screwed up it's hooked up exactly as it was when I first got the computer. It's just odd having two top PSUs going bad in less than 12 months, and like I said, the computer has never acted quite right (crashes way more often than any other computer I've had, sometimes will just stall and reset itself, and would sometimes not boot up and just make two loud beeps at me... Always done it to some degree, but it got MUCH worse in the last few weeks/months). Or am I just being paranoid here?

You bet. It also depends on the motherboard, any shorts in there, etc. You can get two duds in a row, and I have, but it could be something not exactly right.