PSU failure or not?

[Omen109]

Recently my PC has decided upon itself not to start in a successful attempt to piss me right off....and it has succeeded big time.

First of all i thought my motherboard was damaged so I started a thread in the motherboards forum... but to increase my chances of finding a cause and therefore solution I decided to post in here too...( am i clever or what?)

Anyway the the problem was mainly that the fans span for about 1 second then they would just stop and the computer would not start or even come close.

I don't think the mobo is shorting because it isnt coming into contact with the case at all.

I've tried disconnecting peripherals that are connected to the PSU
and nothing happens..... infact the fans dont even spin around at all anymore .. not even attempting to start up....the only thing that happens is the warning led flashes (meaning soft off mode)

my PSU is old and is only 230w ( i know thats lame and I should get a new one) but the thing is my computer has worked for over a year with the same load of things. Is it likely that the PSU has finally given up and died? or is it more likely that its the motherboard or cpu?


again thanks in advance for any help

[zeradul]

Please tell us the specs of your computer for us to have any chance of helping you.

[Omen109]

OH yeah sorry forgot :P

Asus A7A266-E Mobon (Original Bios- the mother board only a few months old)
Asus Geforce 3 pure V8200(latest official)
512 pc-133 ram
AMD 1ghz CPU win98
Western Digital 40GB 7200Rpm

Still it being more likely a hardware problem than a software problem - what do you believe to be the source of the problem?

[SegiY]

Power supplys degrade overtime, you are probably lucky that you were able to run an athlon on a 230 in the first place.
If i was you i would go around to a friends place and pester them enough until they let you test there's in yours.
Then if that is the problem buy a decent one (i got a 450w dual fan) because it'll be better in the long run.

[Omen109]

well it wasn't my power supply ...... and not the switch.... all I know is that my pc is working fine now..... jsut as good as b4.

Hmmmmmmm a mystery.........looks like my crappy 230w power supply has still got some life in it yet.

Thanks for the help tho' i appreciate it.


Another question..... does an Asus A7A266-E (which supports XP chips) support all Athlon XP chips?

or does it have like a limit of about 1.5ghz or something.... i can't seem to find the answer to this question anywhere?

thanks again

[FLaCo]

Segiy has a point there...but it seems you fixed your problem there huh omen? I got myself a 500W for the same reasons as Segiy and well i have alot of fans too...: peace2:

[chisholm]

i doubt it..the asus a7V266a should supoort ALL xp's and also t-bred's..lol i;d get a new PSU anyway...cos u'll have to very soon...and i hate having a crap PSU cos when u get problems it could actually be the PSU when u muck around for ages trying everything else...:cheers:

[Wiggo]

Yes poor PSU's can be a royal pain in the ass.