Power Supply Failures

If this system is in the same environment as your previous computer systems, I have to believe you have just had a run of back luck with these power supplies. I have seen some that run for years and years, others die out after a short time.

Otherthan the power supply being full of dust and dirt, or possibly some strange power spikes on the line, I don't know of any other factors that would be causing the power supplies to fail.

Hope this helps.

Three power supplies in a row is not bad luck.10 months on the original is still a short MTBF (failure time). Did you get the same exact brand, type, etc. P/S? You may be blowing fuses in the power supply, which means something is loading it down. It is not likely to be your UPS. Input can but rarely destroys a load. It is usually the other way around when we are talking of power supplies. You may want to check that you are in fact not drawing too much power for the supply to handle. Some things that will cause this is excessive overheating on the PC side. Check fans. You may have a feature in your bios that will give you the present CPU and chassis temperature, CPU and chassis fan speed. Another possibility is this batch of manufacturer P/S has under rated fuses installed in error. This would be a suspicion if you purchased the same identical power supplies (P/S). You are running an AMD processor, they are known current guzzlers and heat generators though I am not sure about the XP 1800+. Are you overclocking the CPU? Oh also you may be able to see 117 volts comming from your UPS but how clean is it? If you are not returning the P/S you may want to open it up and check the fuse (if there is one in this P/S) Be careful and touchnothing inside since there may still be a painful charge on the capacitors. I recommend you check the temps. Replace the P/S with a different brand having the same or higher specs, plug the PC into the wall outlet for a few weeks and if no problem return it to the UPS see what happens then. Your best first approach however is to replace the system under warranty if you still have one. Oh also check the CPU multiplier setting in bios. It maybe called CPU clock ratio. You may be able to set it inbios or by jumpers on the M/B. This ratio matches the cpu speed with your fsb (front side buss) for best performance. The formular is FSB/cpu mhz=ratio setting.

10 months ago puts you at about july last year. july --> december is about 5 months. Now (5 months later) it's failed again?

Another contributing factor may be that the power supply is slowly cooking itself to death.

Make sure that your system has good airflow. You might want to get a 400 watt PS with three fans... two ins one out or the reverse. Though they are a bit more expensive, because you have had trouble with these, then I'd recommend this.

Also make sure you are not blocking any of the fans... if your computer is "inside" a desk with a closed door, you might want to consider relocating it to an open space.

I agree that 2 dead supplies in under a year is off the charts.

First, many supplies are over-rated.
If you remember the peak music power days of stereo systems in the early 1970's, you will understand what is happening with some power supplies.
They are expressing the power rating for PEAK total power, NOT maximum continuous output.

I have seen a few 400 watt rated supplies that in reality had maximum outputs of under 300 watts!!
(To check the TRUE power rating of a power supply, multiply all the voltages by the maximum current. Reduce the 5 volt and 3.3 volt currents equally if there is a maximum combined current rating.)

While not an absolute, I find that most of the better supplies rated above 300 watts have a secondary cooling fan mounted on the supply.

Another semi-scientific measure of the robustness of a power supply is it's weight.
All things being equal, I will choose the heavier of 2 power supplies.

I agree that cooling may be part of the problem.
I add inlet fans to make sure that I have a positive air flow into the case.

Chas

Hi what do you expect when complete cases are lower priced than a decent PSU also no they have to meet the critera for harmonics introduced onto the mains supply which usually requires a pre regulator which in itself is another psu prior to the mainone. So you see you have 3 PSU's in one small case,

1 5VSB to enable start up from front panel switch, wake up on lan etc.

2 Pre reg for low harmonics.

3 main psu

all in a case as well for ?20.

rICH

I own two ultra platinum dragons. They are very sensitive to the type power supply that you use.
One of mine has a crap 350w that has never given me any problem. THe other would not even post with a 400w Antec. I put a true power 430w Antec in-still no post. The problem with my second one was related to the mb feature that monitors the speed of the cpu fan.
Lots of good info on soyo motherboards at
http://amdmb.com/ forum section.
Good luck