Question How reliable is Dr. Power

Jun 28, 2022
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Hi,

My PC recently turned itself off and will no longer boot. There is however a light on the motherboard power LED, reset LED and the orange ethernet LED flashes like normal (pressing the power button on the case or on the motherboard does nothing, except make a very brief slight click noise coming from the PSU. This noise will not happen again until I unplug the PSU from the wall and then replug it and try to power it on again).

My motherboard is ASUS X99-E WS, which has a feature on it called 'Dr. Power'. By default this is off (and I've always had it off previously). In the manual it says Dr. Power will cause an LED to light if there is an issue with the PSU, so I turned Dr. Power on by flipping the relevant switch on the motherboard, and now when I try to boot after a couple seconds the LED lights indicating there is a problem with the PSU.

I am wondering how reliable this Dr. Power feature is, if the LED lights indicating there is a problem with the PSU, is this definitely a problem with the PSU rather than the motherboard?

Thanks for any help
 
The Dr. Power LED doesn't always mean that the PSU is faulty, in most of the cases the light indicates that your PSU might not be powerful enough for the current config.

Try another PSU with higher output rating to see if the light goes away.
 
Jun 28, 2022
4
0
10
The Dr. Power LED doesn't always mean that the PSU is faulty, in most of the cases the light indicates that your PSU might not be powerful enough for the current config.

Try another PSU with higher output rating to see if the light goes away.
Hi Ivt,

Thanks for your help, I have used this PSU for 7 years with no issue until now and have not changed any components in this time so it's not a problem with the PSU not having enough power (in fact the wattage rating of it is a bit overkill for my system).
 
So if the Dr. Power LED indicates there's a problem with the PSU, it could instead still be a problem with the motherboard rather than the PSU?

Unfortunately you can't tell if the PSU or the motherboard is faulty by simply flipping a contact on the motherboard.

You should use an ATX Power Tester to test the PSU whenever you want, it's the most reliable method.


PC-Computer-ATX-Power-Supply-dc-digital-voltmeter-electric-voltimetro-12v-volt-meter-usb-voltage-tester.jpg
 
The Dr. Power LED doesn't always mean that the PSU is faulty, in most of the cases the light indicates that your PSU might not be powerful enough for the current config.

Try another PSU with higher output rating to see if the light goes away.
To me this doesn't make sense how to test other than knowing how to hammer every component in the system to get it to its highest power state, which motherboard firmware is too simple to do. Or short circuiting the PSU which is a dumb idea to do on every boot.

If anything, it's more likely measuring the voltages and making sure they're within spec. If they're out of spec without putting much of a load on the PSU, it's a quick and dirty way to test if the PSU is not functioning properly