Question Testing a PC with "possibly" faulty PSUs

[Juuna]

Hi, a lot of people suggested me to try my PC with other PSU, CPU or board, since right now the only thing I can provide is a few PSUs that I have laying in the garage I thought of testing the computer with them so my main question is, if any of those PSU has a problem (which I don't know at all) could they damage the rest of the components just by testing once? I'll leave some more details and history down if anyone has a hint.

I've had a problem with my PC not booting but if I reset CMOS it would work but not like it should, with a little bit of load it would shut down and go back to it's previous no boot state.

I suspected at first it was a faulty RAM maybe (2x4GB) since the first time it happened I just took one stick and it booted again, later I put back that stick and worked but not for long, while I was running memtest86 at some point after 30 mins the PC went dead again.

There also was an overheating issue to which I basically put a band-aid on using some crappy thermal paste I had and the PC dropped 5-7° with load, before it would shut down because the max temp was around 75° and after this no boot issue appeared I would see the PC shutting down at 50°, while memtest was running it marked 60-70° the first 15-20 minutes and after a while it got more stable and dropped to 50-55° and kept running for a few more mins.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Can a bad PSU damage other hardware? CAN it? Yes. It can. WILL it? That depends on WHAT is wrong with it.

The best thing would be to test any PSU you want to use, first.

How old is this system? What are the specifications including model numbers for CPU, motherboard, memory, CPU cooler, case, case fans, EXACT power supply model number and age, etc?

 

[Juuna]

The build was a gift from my parents to my brother and iirc it's at least 6 years old, CPU is an AMD A10-5800K using the stock cooler I believe, the board a GIGABYTE F2A88XN-WIFI, RAM is 2x4GB Kingston HyperX Blu 1600Mhz, PSU is a SHURE model SH-400 and it has the same age as the build and the case is also from SHURE, no idea of the model, has no fans and the cover had to be removed because the fan would make too much noise and CPU would overheat (this was years ago). The build never got any changes in all those years with the exception of the transition from HDD to a 120GB SSD 4 months ago.

I don't have a multimeter but I may be able to get one, if I do I'll update the thread.

 

[Vic 40]

Which are the other psu's you have laying around? asking for maker+model+wattage.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Which are the other psu's you have laying around? asking for maker+model+wattage.

Yes, agreed, what are the EXACT models of these other power supplies? Because the primary one is a no go. Even brand new, I'd advise you to throw it in the trash. Seriously.

What "cover and fan" had to be removed. Please clarify a little further on this because it is unclear and could be VERY problematic.

 

[Juuna]

About the cover issue, my parents thought that the main feature and attraction of the build would be it's size so this is a "mini" build where everything is kinda cramped inside the case to the point you can't even fit a GPU so we're using the one that comes with the CPU, about the fan the thing was with the case cover in its place the fan would run at higher speeds even when it wasn't under a lot of load, so with more programs opened and more CPU usage it would sound like a plane.

About the PSU's that I have laying around, I have 4, the best one there is that I think it rip'd because of a storm (not sure) it's an Eurocase DX-650, the other ones are HVA ATX-450, Zehion LC-B450E and the last one doesn't even have a brand name and it's 250W. None of these would fit inside the case.

Here's a pic of the build, everything is kinda cramped and dust has it really easy to get in there:

 

[Darkbreeze]

If this system has been overheated previously, and has had overheating issues, then there is no telling what the issue might be. Off the top of my head, it's pretty clear that none of the power supplies you have are worth a damn in terms of quality, reliability or trustworthiness so I can't say I would recommend that you try them.

Unless you have the finances to obtain a quality power supply, something that we can know is worthy using, I'm not sure there's a whole lot we can even do at this point to try and resolve the issue. Even if the problem is something else, we are unlikely to be able to narrow it down without knowing for a fact that the problem is not the power supply, and in this case, we don't know that, no even if you tried every one of those units you have. If any of them is really bad, you might even make things worse.

 

[Juuna]

The build isn't mine and no one really took care of it for a while, I can't do much either other than just giving my brother advice of maybe buying an actually good PSU and even if I did we may never acquire it because of the financial situation of the country and because every tech product specially quality hardware products got quite expensive with a recent restriction to importations. Even so it's common practice here to use generic and not so generic PSU's or cases in every build with the exception being gaming rigs obviously. If we going to try buying a PSU made by a trustworthy manufacturer and probably also changing the case (if there's any case that has more space for a build like this) then we better take the PC to a technician first to check.

I appreciate the time and interest in this thread.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, well good luck and if there is anything further I can actually do to help, let me know. Take care.

 

[Vic 40]

About the PSU's that I have laying around, the other ones are HVA ATX-450, Zehion LC-B450E None of these would fit inside the case.

Since not having problems posting pictures could you post pics of the stickers on these two? maybe they can say a little more to see if worthy of at least just some testing. Can't really find anything about them using the info you gave.

They don't need to be in the case for testing.

Not having high hopes,but it's a little extra effort. Of course if there's a pc shop/technician in town could he look too.

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's the problem I have with them. When I can't find ANYTHING about a PSU by searching for the brand or model, I have to assume that it is a very region specific, pile of super generic trash. Perhaps that's not accurate in every case, but I tend to prefer to err to the side of assume it is, and if it's not, well, those instances are going to be a LOT less common than those where it is.

 

[Vic 40]

I do agree,but looking at a picture can't hurt.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, I agree.