Power Supplies

[Susan]

Can a motherboard kill a power supply?

How why/or why not?

Long story..so I'll try to make it short. During the summer I noticed all lights and computer dimming from lack of power. Had my local Electric Co. as well as Electrician test the lines coming into my house. Turns out I had spikes as well as high/low voltage coming into my house. I went through two power supplies on different machines (one of my own) within one week and then invested in a UPS (Blackout Buster 500).

My situation improved and almost all traces of instability disappeared, but within 2 months, my power supply needed to replaced once again. I figured...okay it was because the supply was initially overworked before I got the UPS.

Since the last PS replacement, the system has been running perfectly, but tonight I return home from being out and all I see are the same symptoms that I have seen too many times during the last months...Win error messages from User.exe to Kernel.exe, etc. An unusable modem (ISA) is also one of the signs.

It's ATX, and all of a sudden tonight it shuts off instantaniously when I touch the power button, as if it's an AT.

I am sure that my PS is going once again, but how and why?




[This message has been edited by Susan (edited 11-26-1999).]

[Nathan]

Having clean power is so very important to these high tech devices. Your motherboard, memory, and/or CPU, etc. might have been given a shock also. Sounds like you need to chase down the gremlin(s) that's causing this problem.

[Bleeding Edge]

Susan,
Sorry to hear about this. On occasion, I experience severe dips here (Bergen County, NJ).... Been meaning to get the entire house rewired.

The use of a PcPower&Cooling power supply (http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/index_pwrsppls.htm) in combination with a TrippLite line-conditioner (http://www.tripplite.com/catalog/conditioners/index.html#lc) has been a successful solution.

Like Nathan, I believe in supplying the cleanest possible current to the system (within reason and budget). I also believe there are products that are made with higher quality standards, and, that not all power products are the same.

One thing easy to check, if you haven't already, is for proper wiring (ground/polarity ) at the wall receptacle, with one of those inexpensive plugs-with-little-lights-thingy devices.<--- /forum/smile.gif

Check the FAQs section at the TrippLite site too. Below, is a snip from there.

"Brownouts place undue strain on power supplies and other internal components, forcing them to work harder in order to function. Extended brownouts can destroy electrical components and cause data glitches and hardware failure."

"Overvoltages burn out power supplies and other components and can cause massive damage to your electronic hardware. Extended overvoltages can even cause fires as electronics "fry" in the extra electricity."

~edit
I'm only familiaar with the 1800&2400 LC/LCR series of line-conditioners. Recently, a $12,000 printer (at the office)was unplugged from the LCR 2400 and moved to another location in the room and plugged into a regular surge protector. Consequently, the motherboard in it was damaged couple weeks later, due to a power related phenomenon. A VCR was also damaged. The components plugged into the line conditoners, are all fine.

Note:
The prices you'll see at the site aren't the going street price, it's considerably cheaper.
UPS devices incorporate line conditoning, however, as mentioned, not all products/models are built the same. APC also makes decent products, but I'm not familiar with them...

[This message has been edited by Bleeding Edge (edited 11-27-1999).]

[Dave_H]

Susan,
Was your power company able to do anything?
The way you describe the problem sounds like the transformer feeding your house needs to be replaced. Don't forget that bad power will kill more than your computer. T.V's
VCR's, stereos, and refrigerators, also can be damaged. You may want them to check your service lines again. They will replace anything that they need to up to someones house, but of course, they have to know a problem exists before they can do something about it.

[Susan]

Thanks for your replies /forum/smile.gif

Boy, bad PS's can really cause some wierd things to happen with one's system /forum/wink.gif and I have some little Gremlin that I'm out to catch.

The UPS I have is the Blackout Buster which does include line conditioning: 40db of noise filtering and surge protection. I chose the unit specifically for that as well as it's protection against variations in voltage.

When my problems started during the summer, I had both the electrician and the electric company come and it was decided by both that the transformer down the road needed to be replaced. To this date, I'm not sure if that has been done (they were too busy during the summer months to get it done) and I have been relying on the UPS to protect my system.

The outlet I have the UPS plugged into is new some 9 years ago and the wiring in the entire house is the same.

I am using the same MB that I had back when all the problems started so I am wondering whether the MB could have been damaged at the time and might have anything to do with my PS problems at this point.

I ordered a new MB today and will be getting new memory as well.

Oh, and a phone call to the electric company on Monday...

[Susan]

Just posting to tell that a change of the MB helped my problems disappear, so far (knock on wood).

It also helped resolve a minor video clitch I was having also.

Oh, and I kept the same power supply. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[socalgal]

Good news Susan, and glad to hear it! I'll knock on some wood too (just for extra..)

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[pickel]

Susan: Did the electrcian or power co. man check the terminations at your service entrance connections. If you have an overhead
drop, it's quite possible to have a partial open in either of the power conductor or worse the neutral wire. Can cause mucho peoblemo. Good luck with your new Mbb and have a fine holiday season http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

the pickel

[Susan]

pickel, not sure what an overhead drop is, but I had both an electrician and the power company come and test my service entrance back in July and both confirmed that I voltage spikes coming into the house.

Hehe..(not funny at all really) seems like the power company has done nothing up until this time to replace the transformer down the street because they show no record of it. Blah, blah, blah...'they have many to replace'. They also don't return my phone calls at this point and am going to try to talk to a neighbor up that way because he works for them.