Power Supply Partially Dead?

[Nubfish]

So I can turn on my computer and most of the lights come on and the Hard Drives light up and the fans run, but my computer does not send a signal to the monitor. If I hook up another PSU to my comp everything runs fine. Is there a possibility that only a piece of my PSU is dead, and is there any way to fix that? I'm pretty sure that some of the mother board is not getting power, it's not the GPU or the hard drives that aren't.

 

[jnkweaver]

It is possible and likely that your psu is the culprit if you put in a different psu and it works fine. No there is not a way to repair the psu you must buy another one. Stick to Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or XFX for a quality psu.

 

[Nubfish]

It is possible and likely that your psu is the culprit if you put in a different psu and it works fine. No there is not a way to repair the psu you must buy another one. Stick to Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or XFX for a quality psu.

I am certain now that it is the PSU but not all of it it's broken, because it still sends power to some parts of my computer. Would an excess of dust or two wires touching or something like that that is simple that I could fix myself be causing the problem?

 

[jnkweaver]

I doubt it is that simple. Your psu should have protection to keep it from working in a short condition. Remember a bad psu can fry all the electrical components in the computer. Do you really wan't to take the chance?

 

[Nubfish]

Thanks, I'll try one of the brands you suggested. Just curious if you know though, what kinds of things do go wrong with PSU?

 

[jnkweaver]

Capacitors can go, voltage can be over or under voltage on the 3.3V 5V or 12V, ripples in the power can cause early component failure. Sometimes companies will just flat out lie on what the psu can produce, othere times they creatively add the numbers to get a higher wattage.

 

[Nubfish]

Can you give me a couple of suggestions off of the Newegg website? My computer needs a 630w+ power supply or so, my last one was 550 and that might have been one of the causes of wear

 

[jnkweaver]

What was the last brand and what are your specs?


This is one of the best ones Seasonic 620W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096

 

[Nubfish]

MOBO:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157262R
GPU
Radeon 6970
HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181
Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811517007
CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674
RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211409
2Gx2

Old PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022

I'm a college student so I don't have a lot of money, but I also don't want something that will die on me, so I'm looking for something in the happy middle ground

 

[jnkweaver]

Well at least the psu was named right... fatality!

550W would be a good supply for that. I am not a fan of OCZ since they have so many manufacturers that you really don't know if you are getting a good one unless you check out the maker http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-oem-manufacturer,2913-8.html

As far as budget supplies go this would be your best bet Corsair CX600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

for $5 more you can get the modular version http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048

Remember both of those are after the MIR. The Seasonic is still the best