Question Old 425w Dell Alienware power supply 4 pin not enough anymore?

[Slimpickins11]

Rebuilding a PC for a CO worker of my girlfriend. The Power supply is from an alienware computer

CPU: upgraded to an I7-9700k from a i5 8th gen something
Motherboard: upgraded to ASRock B365 Phantom Gaming 4 from the Dell board in the old case
Ram: upgraded to Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8GB from a 8gb Samsung stick
Power Supply: Alienware default 425w it's old but posted and worked in the prebuilt before I took it out
Video Card: AMD 560 from Alienware pc(Error either way in or out of case)
Storage: New and Blank 2TB Hard drive waiting to be loaded with OS

Thing won't post black screen the whole no show, and the DRam Bug light is on and I've cleaned the slots, tried one stick,tired all sticks etc could it be the fact that the POS Alienware power supply with its 4 pin is not giving the CPU enough to boot up fully? The Answers on forums are all mixed on using a 4 pin on a 8pin some say oh it will be fine and others say the board won't boot but I'm not getting a CPU light just a DRAM light but I know the CPU can cause it aswell The power supply worked in the Alienware case with its older CPU and ram so I know it works for that set up. The other issue I'm having is it may be the bios but the board doesn't have a Bios flash button and I can't do it from the bios screen cause the thing won't post

 

[Aeacus]

How come you've sank loads of money into the hardware upgrade, especially getting Core i7 but you fail to replace the most important component inside the PC, which is PSU? 🤔

Also, 4-pin +12VEPS is good enough up to 65W TDP CPU, while the fancy Core i7 you went for, is 95W TDP CPU. With that one, 8-pin +12VEPS would be needed.

Moreover, you did breadboard the new build, right? If not, then why?

As of what to do, besides obvious PSU replacement; take out the GPU fully and plug monitor to MoBo. Look if you can get an image.
Good quality PSUs to go for are Seasonic Focus/PRIME or Corsair RMx/RMi/HX/HXi/AX/AXi, in 650W range.
(All 3 PCs of mine are also powered by Seasonic, full specs with pics in my sig.)

 

[Slimpickins11]

How come you've sank loads of money into the hardware upgrade, especially getting Core i7 but you fail to replace the most important component inside the PC, which is PSU? 🤔

Also, 4-pin +12VEPS is good enough up to 65W TDP CPU, while the fancy Core i7 you went for, is 95W TDP CPU. With that one, 8-pin +12VEPS would be needed.

Moreover, you did breadboard the new build, right? If not, then why?

As of what to do, besides obvious PSU replacement; take out the GPU fully and plug monitor to MoBo. Look if you can get an image.
Good quality PSUs to go for are Seasonic Focus/PRIME or Corsair RMx/RMi/HX/HXi/AX/AXi, in 650W range.
(All 3 PCs of mine are also powered by Seasonic, full specs with pics in my sig.)

This is not a build I paid for this is a coworker kid handed me an old alien ware and asked what I could do to make it better, I told him I have old parts like the case and the I7 and motherboard and would see what I can do. If the power supply is the issue I'm replacing it I just want to know 100% if that's the issue before I tell him it's gonna cost more money

 

[Aeacus]

I told him I have old parts like the case and the I7 and motherboard

Have you breadboarded the CPU-MoBo-RAM combo to validate they all work together nicely?

If the power supply is the issue

You surely have more PSUs than that old/crap Alienware unit. What stops you validating it with 2nd PSU?

 

[Slimpickins11]

Have you breadboarded the CPU-MoBo-RAM combo to validate they all work together nicely?


You surely have more PSUs than that old/crap Alienware unit. What stops you validating it with 2nd PSU?

They work together the ram,CPU, and motherboard are from an old build before I went AMD, I will breadboard it together when I get home from work I did build it in the case and was gonna validate with my current PSU when I got home from work. I'm trying to get as much info about what it might be before I dig in to it once I get home.

 

[Aeacus]

Just because build did work some time ago and was placed in a storage, doesn't mean the components are working now. Hence why to test them all again with breadboarding, prior building them into PC case (less hassle this way). Same with PSU. You have another unit to test with. This can rule out if the issue is with PSU or not. If it is, then you can buy new PSU as well.

 

[Slimpickins11]

Just because build did work some time ago and was placed in a storage, doesn't mean the components are working now. Hence why to test them all again with breadboarding, prior building them into PC case (less hassle this way). Same with PSU. You have another unit to test with. This can rule out if the issue is with PSU or not. If it is, then you can buy new PSU as well.

Aright I'll do that and see how it goes

 

[Ralston18]

And I will, in addition to @Aeacus 's breadboarding suggestion, add the suggestion that a multimeter be used to test the PSU(s).

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-manually-test-a-power-supply-with-a-multimeter-2626158

 

[Aeacus]

add the suggestion that a multimeter be used to test the PSU(s).

While better than paperclip test, it still isn't good enough. Sure, you can test PSU's voltages with it and see if they are at acceptable range, but that with 0 load on PSU.

None of the PSUs operate at 0 load, instead, putting PSU under the load and then checking the voltages is the correct way to do it. Though, that kind of equipment costs a lot. Easy 3-5K for proper testing setup.

Here is the hardware TH/Aris Mpitziopoulos uses to test PSU's properly,
link: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/how-we-test-psu,4042-2.html

 

[Ralston18]

Agree.

However, even without load any voltages out of tolerance make the PSU suspect.

Need to start somewhere....

 

[Aeacus]

Need to start somewhere....

PSU's make and model (or part number) would be far more helpful than testing it with multimeter. Though, multimeter would be slightly beneficial for old PSU, to see if the voltages have fallen out of spec due to PSU's age. But the 0 load issue still remains.