PowerSupply issue... I Think

[lotusvball]

My system hasn't been extremely stable for awhile now. I thought it was over heating, but I installed a motherboard monitor and the CPU temp never got above 60 degrees c. The motherboard temp never above 55 degrees c. Then I tried to install a SATA drive and my system would stay up for about ten minutes and then just shut off. My system currently has:

2 250 tv cards
3 ide drives
1 sata drive
1 ATI 9600x video out
on board audio
on board lan
1 multi media drive
1 gb ddr 3200 ram
AMD 2700+ cpu
windows xp sp2
3 fans (very quiet)
antec 380 ps

I was thinking that I needed to upgrade to a large PS. Any thoughts?

[Outvit]

I can't tell you what's wrong immediately but I can tell you what I DO NOT think it is.

First of all you're have heating issues pal. My system never gets above 45C (113F) and that’s after a marathon gaming session in Half-Life 2 or similar games. If you're consistently reaching nearly 60C (140F) at idle system load it's not good. Unless your room has a lot of humidity or is generally a hot room I’d get your cooling checked out. Make sure your fans are not all clogged up with lint or dust. And that they can still provide a clean flow of air in and get the exhaust out.

I think a 380 watt power supply is enough for what you have, but if you add anymore hard drives or optical drives I'd start thinking about at least a 480 watt power supply. It is possible that your power supply I dieing, but that would mean your computer would either just not boot up or would be crashing consistently and constantly during boot process, etc… So its probably not a failing power supply -- but anything is possible.

[stanger89]

That's really hot, my HTPC (nearly passive) runs at about 100F for the CPU and PS, and about 114F for the passive Geforce 6800.

[Outvit]

lotusvball, it appears the general consensus so far is you need to go buy a couple cans of those computer/electronic air duster cans and unscrew the side of your case, take it outside and blow the crap out of that case. If that does not fix it, you may have dead fans in which case the best idea is to run the PC with the side of the case open and ensure that all of the fans are spinning and providing a good flow of air. Make sure any large cables are not obstructing the fans flow as well.

Oh and when blowing the dust out of the PC fan blade. A good precaution is to hold down the blade from spinning. The air duster cans can spin the blade the wrong direction and that can damage the little motor those things have.

[lotusvball]

Ok, it looks like the consensus is my system is hot. I am putting everything in a new case (more room for airflow) And I will be adding an additional fan. The problem didn't really get crazy untill I added the SATA drive. Then all *&^# broke loose. I am using a Zalman CPU heatsink and fan which brought my system down from 85 C. I was able to fry eggs before. Now I can only bake them. I know the power supply I currently have is not dying. I have tested it. I already order a 550w and will see if this helps also. The fans I do have and the case have been cleaned out.

[mdmint]

What a PS can actually handle varies as much or more on the quality of the PS than the stated power rating. I'm running 8 SATA and 1 PATA HD, total 13 fans including the 6 HD encloser fans & cpu blower, 3xPVR250 & 1xPVR500 in my Sage Server with an I-Star 400w no problems at all. And I agree sounded like your system running rather hot. With all that in my Server cpu temp runs around 48-55°C depending on load, mobo temp 25-30°c. That's with a fairly hot running AMD XP2100+.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mdmint

What a PS can actually handle varies as much or more on the quality of the PS than the stated power rating.

I'll second that, I've 10 HDDs running on a 300W Fortron that a 400 PC Power And Cooling Silencer won't even post.

[lotusvball]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'll second that, I've 10 HDDs running on a 300W Fortron that a 400 PC Power And Cooling Silencer won't even post.

What is your oppinion of Antec's PS?

[stanger89]

I'm running an Antec Phantom in my HTPC and love it.

[lotusvball]

I think I figured it out. It was one of my harddrives. My second slave drive seems to be the culprit. I ended up doing a component by component test and when I plugged in the harddrive, everything went ballistic. The computer, if it would start up, would just shut down after 10 minutes. After I unplugged the HD and put in the remaining components everything seems to be fine. My system has remained up overnight.

Has anyone ever had this happen. I am thinking either it is a bad harddrive or a virus is on the drive.

[RedR]

Heya,

60c is pretty much meltdown temp for any hard drive. I use HDTune (hdtune.com) as a quick method to get the HD temp. You can also use it to compare against motherboard monitor (it is flaky on my board). It also does a good health check of your drive(s).
You should always keep temp as your number one focus for any PC. Silence comes second. You can have both with little effort though you should never put keeping things quiet over temperature. I know the Intel Prescott runs REALLY hot. All the more effort you must put into keep em cool, not only for the CPU but the rest of the components in the PC too.

Enjoy,
RedR

[lotusvball]

With the bad HD out my system is running at 40C max. For some reason the HD was causing the system's temp to spike.