Just How To Recognize And Repair Power Supply Problems

The Power Supply convert's your standard family existing into low DC voltage utilized by the computer. First.Inspect the Power Supply for just about any damage.Double-Check all connections when this component fails,there is merely no activity going on with your computer.Remember to perform the troubleshooting.

Understanding how to test your power supply and how to displace it when needed can be a life saver if you are a computer buff or in operation with the respected PC.Do not ignore the easy joy of turning on your PC and anything works just fine.

We turned on one of our computers recently and in about one hour,it just re-booted itself.And it continued this about 10 times per day until we found out the power supply was the culprit.Things to find whenever your power supply is certainly going negative or just dies on you're these.

NO POWER TO THE PC

Here-you should first examine the wall outlet for power by connecting another device such as a radio or lamp to make sure power is present.If the computer is linked through a surge protector,check it too.

If the wall out has power,check if AC voltage is making its approach to the method unit.Do the power cable going to the PC to see this with the use of a multimeter.

If there is power,you must open the PC and look for power from the power supply to the motherboard.

When utilizing a multimeter to check on voltage,be sure you have a great soil for the black lead of the multimeter.

RE-BOOTING PROBLEMS

One main problem you may face with an poor Power Supply is that it may re-boot the computer without any warning.All data is lost and it seems as if this happens at the worst possible time.

Starting problems if the computer first start's up is another indicator of this element going on the blink.

POWER CIRCULATION PROBLEMS

When the power supply starts to fail,you may receive power at one product and perhaps not another.For example,the Hard Drive may receive power but the Cd-rom Drive has nothing at all.

Another headache with would trigger re-booting is the intermittent power going to the devices or the motherboard itself.Follow the steps below to check your power supply should you experience a few of the above problems.

EXAMINING THE POWER SUPPLY

In the event the wall outlet,and the power wire are good,make sure the text at the motherboard is secure.Then you may have to handle the fact the power supply itself is bad.If you have a Multimeter you may check the power supply output before buying a new one.Simply follow these steps.

Turn-off the PC,but do not unplug it,open the machine model. Set the multi-meter to read DC volts in the next range more than 12 volts.Locate a power connector similair to the difficult drive,or cdrom drive connector that's untouched and activate the PC.

You may also unplug a drive connector and use it as well.Turn on the PC and put the BLACK probe in to the power connector on among the BLACK wires.Touch the RED probe to the YELLOW cord on the power connector.

The multimeter reading should be +12 volts Now touch the RED probe to the RED wire and the reading should be +5 volts.If no readings or different readings occured,you'll must substitute the power supply.If the readings were correct,you should examine the P8 or P9 connectors at the motherboard. These connections may also be named P4 and P5.To examine the following.. to these connectors,perform.

Place the BLACK probe into P8 at one of the BLACK cables. Put the RED probe in to the P8 connector at the RED cable. The reading on the multimeter should be +5 volts

Check the power going to the Motherboard connections by putting the RED probe into P8 at the YELLOW wire and you should get +12 volts.Leave the BLACK wire holding the black wire at the P8 connector.Check the wire and the reading should be described as a -12 volts.

Now shift the BLACK probe to the BLACK wire on the P9 connector.Test the WHITE wire by inserting the RED probe and the reading should be -5 volts.Check the RED wires on the P9 connector and you should get +5 volts on each red wire.You won't get precisely 5 or 12 volts nevertheless the readings will be very close, such as for instance 5.02 volts.

If the Power Supply is a handful of volts off,in sometimes direction,such as when the RED wire should be reading -5 volts but it reads -8 volts,or if you can find no readings,replace the power supply.

DO NOT remove the power supply from the system model case when doing these tests.DO NOT perform these tests should you not feel comfortable.Be certain to remove any and all electric static build-up from your clothes and body BEFORE touching any parts inside the system unit.And NEVER open the power supply case for any reason,since high voltage may be present.