Question I think my PSU is dead but not 100% sure

[Josiah_2854]

So i came home today from work, and like always, I pressed the power button on my PC… but nothing happened.

I spent the past few minutes troubleshooting. There is power to my monitors and speakers, and there is some power to the PC. But not even the built-in case lights (decorative) turn on, and those are separate from the computer system, you can normally turn them on even when the PC is turned off.

What I discovered, is if I flip the power switch at the back of my PC to off then back on, and I press the power button, the case lights turn on immediately, but then also fully fade within 1 second. This can’t be repeated unless I flip the power switch at the back off and on, again.

So I am 99% sure it’s something with the power supply, or maybe the power cable. Based on what I described, could anyone more knowledgable suggest which it is more likely to be? I have checked everything else I could think of. It’s in an extension so I tried plugging it directly to the wall. I tried unplugging and waiting 30 seconds, everything seems to be pointing to the PSU or cable.

 

[Aeacus]

Full system specs, especially PSU make and model (or part number) are? Also, how old the PSU is and was it bought new or used/refurbished?

 

[Josiah_2854]

Full system specs, especially PSU make and model (or part number) are? Also, how old the PSU is and was it bought new or used/refurbished?

Unfortunately I don’t really know any of the specs, and no longer have the boxes for the components. They’re all really outdated and cheap with really long hard to remember names. All I know is it has 16GB RAM (no clue what kind of RAM though).

The PSU is an Evga 600W 80+ White, it’s easily 5+ years old, as is the rest of the PC aside from the motherboard which died and was replaced around 2 years ago. The PSU was bought new.

 

[Aeacus]

Unfortunately I don’t really know any of the specs, and no longer have the boxes for the components. They’re all really outdated and cheap with really long hard to remember names. All I know is it has 16GB RAM (no clue what kind of RAM though).

HWinfo64, in Summary mode, will tell you what kind of hardware you have,
link: https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

Or you can open up the PC and take pics of it and upload them here. I'm sure we can figure out the MoBo. And once that is known, we can guess CPU and even perhaps even identify the RAM.

Evga 600W 80+ White

Which series? Since there are several, like W1, W2, W3. But in any event, regardless the series, that is cheap PSU and well past it's due time. At most, those came with 3 years of warranty and it now giving up on you, is actually pretty good, considering you got almost double the lifespan out of it, compared what EVGA would've thought it to last.

Though, do note that when PSU goes sky high, it has the magical ability to fry everything it is connected to. So, brace yourself and consider your entire PC being dead, and not just PSU. And that's the trade-off of cheap PSUs - you pay little to get them, but a lot more once they die and take your whole PC with them.

PSU is the most important component inside the PC since it powers everything. And due to that reason, you'll never want to cheap out on a PSU. It's far cheaper to pay extra 50 bucks for good quality PSU, than paying 500-1000 bucks for new PC.

 

[Josiah_2854]

Sincerest apologies for the cable nightmare.
Let me know if i should take anything out for a clearer view.

https://imgur.com/a/s2zfk60

Honestly since all of the components are cheap and old, i might just get a new, way better PC, and just hope the hard drive is still good, cause that’s the only thing I’m worried about.

 

[Aeacus]

You have Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 (rev. 3.0) MoBo, with AM3+ socket,
specs: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-970A-DS3-rev-30#ov

CPU is the one that is compatible with MoBo. Either AM3 Athlon, AM3 Phenom, or AM3+ FX-series. Latter was quite popular, e.g FX-6300, which could've been upgraded to FX-8350.

RAM is DDR3. 4x 4GB, for 16GB total. Frequency and CAS Latency can't be told from the image you provided. Nor the make and model.

GPU is Sapphire Radeon something. Since GPU has backplate, it looks to be decent. Or it was at the time of the purchase. Now, it is possible to identify the GPU with the backplate as well, but i don't have that much time to go and search for it.

Overall, an old system that is best to be retired, since MoBo offers 0 upgrade paths. Heck, the best CPU it can take, FX-8350, has equal performance to Intel 6th gen Core i3-6100. So... yeah. While what we currently have, are Intel 12th gen and 13th gen is about to be released.

HDD, most likely, survived. But you don't know it for sure, until you hook it up to 2nd PC, as data drive and see if you can access your personal data from it.

 

[Josiah_2854]

You have Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 (rev. 3.0) MoBo, with AM3+ socket,
specs: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-970A-DS3-rev-30#ov

CPU is the one that is compatible with MoBo. Either AM3 Athlon, AM3 Phenom, or AM3+ FX-series. Latter was quite popular, e.g FX-6300, which could've been upgraded to FX-8350.

RAM is DDR3. 4x 4GB, for 16GB total. Frequency and CAS Latency can't be told from the image you provided. Nor the make and model.

GPU is Sapphire Radeon something. Since GPU has backplate, it looks to be decent. Or it was at the time of the purchase. Now, it is possible to identify the GPU with the backplate as well, but i don't have that much time to go and search for it.

Overall, an old system that is best to be retired, since MoBo offers 0 upgrade paths. Heck, the best CPU it can take, FX-8350, has equal performance to Intel 6th gen Core i3-6100. So... yeah. While what we currently have, are Intel 12th gen and 13th gen is about to be released.

HDD, most likely, survived. But you don't know it for sure, until you hook it up to 2nd PC, as data drive and see if you can access your personal data from it.

Thank you, i will definitely be building a new PC. And it’s so nice to finally hear someone say what I’ve been thinking for so long. If i tried upgrading anything in this, I’d have to replace everything else, because the motherboard just isn’t compatible with anything better, nor are any other components compatible with better motherboards (i think). And when i say better, i mean waaaay better.

And yeah now that you listed the CPUs, i think the FX-8350 is what I have, or the 6300.

I will try hooking the HDD upto my brother’s PC and see if it still lives. That one i actually also replaced a few years ago (previous one died) but i will also be looking into a second/backup one (I do already have a backup one, but it’s an external one and a bit outdated on the files 😬).