Solved Tech input needed please

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok I am no expert I will admit - but I have to say that there have been quite a considerable number of replies, comments, and good advice given by member who I consider and know to be experts.

These replies have touched on all manner of issues none which have yet to yield a solution. From my own personal viewpoint it seems quite clear to me that each and every part and aspect of edilee's machine should be (and has been to a greater extent) - examined whatever that is a hardware or software based problem and to date again I personally consider it to be a hardware issue. But I do stand as always to be corrected!

Westom you have stated that each and every part and aspect of edilee's machine should examined and I think you have missed what has gone on before (as I have just stated) in that we have been trying to track down the problem and the machine has been virtually dissected in it's entirety - including the software applications, and except for totally dismantling the machine and rebuilding it I personally cannot think of what else to do?
If you think you can fix this problem for edilee then please be my guest


Now I think we have been over the better part of the machine and edilee has been very compliant and in my mind very tolerant of what has been asked of him, so much so that I feel he probably deserves more than what has come to be an "I know better than you" sparring match.

I for one am personally apologising to edilee for any comments or suggestions that I may have made that has incited in any way such a state of affairs as now exists in your thread.

 

[westom]

I am worrying less about the low 5v reading when 24 pin is unhooked and the fact it reads spot on when hooked up is leading me to focus on the mb at this time. .

A power supply can behave unstable without a load. A behavior that varies with each unique design.

Many speculations posted. Too many suspects defined by too few hard facts.

Any analysis of the rest of a system can even create confusion if its foundation is unknown or unconfirmed. Power system (which is more than just a PSU) is the foundation of every computer. A completely defective power system (which means the computer still boots) can cause anything else (even software) to act strange or defective. Can result in numerous unrelated system log entries. Or can mask defects. The power system must be defined rock hard and stable before any other testing is useful. Only numbers answer that, without doubts.

This is not a sparing match. This is an engineer who even designed computer boards even before the IBM PC existed. Analysis of an intermittent always starts with numbers from the power system. Without numbers, the power system remains undefined and a primary reason for confusion.

 

[Dave76]

Everybody, please, let's focus on edilee's issue and make it a team effort.

Post#23

Yes shorted green and a black so PSU would come on. When I ran this test I had 3 hard drives and a few case fans still plugged in got the 3.74V reading on all 5V except the standby power one. Hooked entire system back up and tested while running from back side of 24 pin connector and the 5V readings were 5.12V. I know this PSU has alot of protections on it so might be the cause for lower voltage reading when unplugged but I have no idea.

I tested another ATX PSU I have that is too low wattage to run my entire system and doesn't have the 8 pin connector for CPU power so I just tested the 20 pin connector unhooked for reference since I know that PSU works. It did read 5v where it should have and it wasn't hooked to UPS.

It is plugged into a UPS so I will test unhooked tomorrow bypassing it. The PSU is a Thermaltake Toughpower 850 in case I hadn't mentioned that.

The auction on Ebay ended today and I passed on it and good thing because it way too high that motherboard being as old as it is. I have decided to just save the cash and upgrade my motherboard, CPU, and ram to a more current system which I want to do anyways. Thank goodness it is tax time! Will run those tests tomorrow and repost...might even have another PSU in another PC that has the aux CPU power connector...just remembered it.

Does anyone think there are more voltage reading needed here?
Maybe 12v and 3.3v?

Post #40

Some good points in those last posts. I did a get a response from Thermaltake and they stated that the 5v is for standby and most all components run off the 12V. The reason I can't drop in a spare 300 watt PSU I have laying around is they are all 20 pin and have no CPU aux 8 pin connector at all...my board need 24 pin plus the 8 pin. Also if I have no direct power to the vid card my southbridge screams or at least I think it is the sb, might be on the card itself...something squeals like crazy.

I am worrying less about the low 5v reading when 24 pin is unhooked and the fact it reads spot on when hooked up is leading me to focus on the mb at this time. If PSU acts up when I upgrade then it will be replaced as well. PSU's fail after time and this one has served 5 years.

When I made the choice for the 750watt PSU it was based off what EVGA/Nvidia stated the required amps were needed for that card and I believe it was a max of 37amps. Mine was 60 something and I figured that would serve well enough for a SLI system. I saw a newer PSU yesterday rated at 750 watts but had a max of 40 amps...don't think that would cut it for my system. I did go high on wattage for future needs but also bought according to the max amp rating on the 12v rail.

A squealing noise can be motherboard capacitors, have you visually checked for swollen or discolored capacitors?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Dave I think we have covered most stuff like that already as I think I asked edilee to check for scorch marks on the board, blowing caps, dry joints, and trying reseating all components.

As for software Greg has covered a fair bit and I personally think the problem is that PSU for the want of trying another in it we are going round the houses.

But I agree with you and that in my view the whole thread has become bogged down with sometimes irrelevant stuff, and as per my previous post I think that edilee deserves better.

 

[TVeblen]

Does anyone think there are more voltage reading needed here?
Maybe 12v and 3.3v?

Yes. The symptoms described in Post #1 would lead me to suspect the 12v line first. Particularly the current (amperage) under load.

But if you are going to test a power supply you should test everything you can IMHO.

The bottom line is that eventually you are going to need to make a decision and replace a component. Power supply or motherboard. The power supply is the cheaper and easier of the two.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Does anyone think there are more voltage reading needed here?
Maybe 12v and 3.3v?

Yes. The symptoms described in Post #1 would lead me to suspect the 12v line first. Particularly the current (amperage) under load.

But if you are going to test a power supply you should test everything you can IMHO.

The bottom line is that eventually you are going to need to make a decision and replace a component. Power supply or motherboard. The power supply is the cheaper and easier of the two.

Thanks TV which is what I have been trying to say all along and well the in between debate on the PSU by a member really was very unnecessary in my view.

 

[edilee012]

Going to mark this as solved. I want to thank everyone for their input, especially ICit2lol, and as I do work and troubleshoot computers as a hobby on the side I was lacking the knowledge of how to test the PSU since I have never ran into an issue in which it was a power issue. Everyone's input helped me in my troubleshooting so there should be no debates since each and every post assisted me with my problem. Thanks all.

 

[TVeblen]

So...... how was it solved? New power supply?

 

[edilee012]

So...... how was it solved? New power supply?

Well after Thermaltake's response, the input here, as well as my own testing with the 24 pin connector hooked and unhooked and jumpered that my PSU is functioning properly. I might be wrong but I will indeed update this thead when I either do a core upgrade (mb,cpu, and ram) or replace the PSU.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Sorry for late reply edi glad some things have been solved even if it is that we have both (and all) have learnt something.

Please let me know when you come up with the reason behind the problem am really very interested like you I do fixes and stuff for a hobby and for friends and every little bit helps eh?

 

[Dave76]

Glad that this thread helped you, let us know if you come to any conclusions with your issue.

 

[edilee012]

I will update my motherboard issue when I can buy new stuffs. As for the hard drive issue I mentioned in my original post...it was the drive bad as the spare one has remained present since it was installed and no more NVstor64 errors! I did re-install it and it vanished right away and the errors started again so I removed it for good now and the spare drive will serve as storage for now. I will add that drive never made any clicking sounds and I was able to reboot and it would be there so all data was transferred off of it so no loss.