How To Recognize And Repair Power Supply Problems

The Power Supply convert’s your regular household current into low DC voltage used by the personal computer. If this component fails,there’s simply no activity going on wih your own computer.Remember to do the simple troubleshooting first.Inspect the Electricity Supply for virtually any damage.Double-Check all relations.

Learning how to check your power source and how to replace it if needed can be a life saver if you are a computer buff or in business with the reliable PC.Don’t take for granted the simple pleasure of turning to your PC and everything works just fine.

We switched to one of our computers recently and in about one hour,it merely re-booted itself.And it continued doing this about 10 times each day before we found out that the power source was that the culprit.Things to search for if a power supply is going bad or just dies on you’re the following.

NO POWER TO THE COMPUTER

Here you must first check the wall outlet for power by connecting another device such as a radio or lamp to be certain power is present.If the pc is connected through a surge protector,check it as well.

If the wall out has power,check the power cable going to the PC to see if AC voltage is making its way to the system unit.Do this by means of a multimeter.

You’ll need to start the PC and check for power from the electricity source to the motherboard, When there’s power.

When using a multimeter to check voltage,be sure you’ve got a good ground for the black lead of the multimeter.

RE-BOOTING Issues

One main problem you will face with an ill Power Supply is the fact that it may re-boot the pc with no warning.All data is missing and it seems like this happens at the worst possible moment.

Booting errors when the computer first start’s up is another indicator of this component going on the blink.

POWER DISTRIBUTION Issues

When the power supply begins to fail,you may receive power at one device and not another.For example,the hard disk may receive electricity but the CDROM Drive has nothing whatsoever in any respect.

Another headache with could lead to re-booting is the intermittent power going to the drives or the motherboard itself.Follow the measures below to check your power supply if you encounter a number of the above mentioned problems.

CHECKING THE POWER SUPPLY

If the wall outlet,and the power cord are good,make sure that the connection at the motherboard is still secure.Then that you may need to face the fact that the power source itself is bad.If you’ve got a Multimeter you can test the power supply output before purchasing a new one.Simply follow the following measures.

Switch the PC off,but don’t unplug it,open the program unit. Set the multimeter to read DC volts in the next range higher than 12 volts.Locate a power connector similair to the hard drive,or cdrom drive connector that’s unused and turn on the PC.

You can also unplug a drive connector and use it well.Turn around the PC and insert the BLACK probe into the power connector on one of those BLACK wires.Touch that the RED probe to the YELLOW wire 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 are going to need to replace the electricity supply.If the readings were right,you should check the P8 or P9 connectors at the motherboard. These connectors may also be named P4 and P5.To check these connectors,perform the following…

Insert the BLACK probe into P8 at one of the BLACK wires. Insert the RED probe into the P8 connector at the RED wire. The reading on the multimeter should be +5 volts

Check the power going to the Motherboard connections by inserting the RED probe into P8 at the YELLOW wire and you should have +12 volts.Leave that the BLACK wire touching the black wire at the P8 connector.Check that the BLUE wire and the reading must be a -12 volts.

Now move the BLACK probe to the BLACK wire on the P9 connector.Test that the WHITE wire by inserting the RED probe and the reading should be -5 volts.Check that the RED wires on the P9 connector and you should get +5 volts on each red wire.You won’t get exactly 5 or 12 volts but the readings will likely be really close, such as 5.02 volts.

If the Power Supply is a couple of volts off,in either way,like when the RED wire should be reading -5 volts but it reads -8 volts,or if there are no readings,replace the power source.

DO NOT remove the power source from the system unit case when performing those tests.DO NOT perform these tests if you don’t feel comfortable.Be certain to eliminate any and all electrical static build-up out of your clothes and body BEFORE touching any parts inside the system unit.And NEVER open the power supply situation for any reason,since high voltage may be present.