Power problem

[mcoomer146]

I am having a power problem with 32 bit windows 7 pc. It shuts off randomly and when I check the event log it says error 41 I was looking on the back of my pc and saw a little slide button that says 115v-220v. I know 115v is standard house voltage. would it hurt my pc if I changed it to 220v? and would it increase my wattage output?

 

[PooMan UK]

Hiya and welcome to the forums

DO NOT CHANGE THE VOLTAGE !!!! It could blow up

 

[mcoomer146]

Hiya and welcome to the forums

DO NOT CHANGE THE VOLTAGE !!!! It could blow up

all i needed to hear. thank you

 

[essenbe]

Bottom left corner is system specs. Click it and fill them out in as much detail as you can. We need to know what hardware you are dealing with. You can also do it from the very top of the page. Click user CP and in the left column click system specs.

 

[bobkn]

Hiya and welcome to the forums

DO NOT CHANGE THE VOLTAGE !!!! It could blow up

all i needed to hear. thank you

I'm not 100% certain of that, but my instinctive reaction is: bullsh!t.

The power switch is to choose between the power standard used in the US (110V) and that used in a lot of the rest of the world (220V).

If you changed that switch to 220 (in the US), it would reduce the internal voltage in the PSU by half. Whether or not it damaged anything, it wouldn't help.

If you could contrive to find a cable to connect it to 220V while leaving the switch at 110, I wouldn't be surprised if something disastrous happened.

Some of the more elegant PSUs don't have that switch; they automatically set themselves to accept any wall voltage over a broad range (90-250 V).

 

[PooMan UK]

Believe me pal I've seen a couple blow first hand ... not like an explosion or nothing but a serious loud bang and a techie that needed to change his underwear, we had one customer who changed the voltage (he wanted to see what the little red slider did ) not only did he fry his PSU but also his motherboard

 

[mcoomer146]

I had this problem once before during the summer. I thought the PSU was bad so I bought another one but it kept doing it. I moved to another house and it stopped. Now its back again. Do you think the heat outside is affecting the power lines therefore affecting my PC?

 

[bobkn]

Believe me pal I've seen a couple blow first hand ... not like an explosion or nothing but a serious loud bang and a techie that needed to change his underwear, we had one customer who changed the voltage (he wanted to see what the little red slider did ) not only did he fry his PSU but also his motherboard

I believe you. But you're in the UK (220V). Moving the slider to 110 sounds like a bad idea.

In the US, with 110V mains, I doubt that moving the slider to 220 would be spectacular. I admit that I don't really know what's in your average switching PSU.

 

[bobkn]

I had this problem once before during the summer. I thought the PSU was bad so I bought another one but it kept doing it. I moved to another house and it stopped. Now its back again. Do you think the heat outside is affecting the power lines therefore affecting my PC?

Most PSUs are supposed to operate within spec over some range of input voltage. Maybe 100-240V, 50-60Hz. Is your AC power dropping below 100V?

 

[GeneO]

Are you up-to-date on Windows 7 patches? SP1 and follow-up patches? If not I would do that first. It is possible it is your power supply - DELL uses low-end supplies and typically under-power the system, but in my experience with them they have never dropped power.

 

[mcoomer146]

everything is up to date. I changed the power supply but didn't help. I took out my graphics card and used the integrated but don't help. about 2 years ago this happen but i seem to remember that it just went away. I have an orange light on the motherboard that suppose to mean its getting power and there is green light on my power supply which also suppose to means its getting power. I upgraded my processor from Intel® Celeron® Processor 420 (512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) to Pentium dual-core e5200 2.5GH. I have taken everything apart and put it back together again and cannot find anything that would be causing this problem

 

[mcoomer146]

anyone have any suggestions?

 

[bobkn]

anyone have any suggestions?

No resolution yet?

Windows Kernel event ID 41 error in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2: “The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first”

According to this, a defective (or too weak) power supply is one of several causes that could give Error 41. Other problems include overheating or failing RAM.

For starters, I'd suggest testing the RAM. Use either the Windows Memory Diagnostic (under Administrative Tools) or Memtest86+ (Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool).

Best of luck.

 

[mcoomer146]

I have seen that and read it over and over but can't narrow it down to anything. I ran the memory test but everything was ok. I unplugged unused hardware(extra dvd drive, phone modem) to use less power, but still nothing. any other ideas?