Power Supply Problem?

**BOB IROC** · October 3rd, 2006, 06:31 PM

I am just looking to get some feedback on my personal computer. The other day I shut my computer off before I went to work like normal and when I came home and went to turn it on it hung at the BIOS screen. After about 10 minutes of being really pissed off I just decided to let it be for the evening and use my laptop.

It Has been a couple days and I thought I should tinker around and see what the problem is. So I opened the side of the case and disconnected all unneccessary devices and the problem was still there. The next step I unplugged all of my USB devices from the back and turned it on. There was about a 5 - 10 second delay after hitting the power button before the computer kicked in, but it got passed the BIOS screen and stopped because it saw no hard drives (they were unplugged). I powered down once again and reconnected my internal componants and hit the power button again. There was still a 5 - 10 second delay but the computer booted normally after that and I am writing you on this forum right now using that computer. I am afraid to plug in my usb devices (Printer, Scanner, USB Hub, Zip Drive etc...) as I do not want to risk the thing crashing on me, but the 5 - 10 second delay concerns me a bit and I think their may be a power supply problem. We have had a lot of storms in the area lately and I protect my computers using an APC battery back up, but I may have gotten a hit. I don't know. I am just wondering if anyone feels something else could be the problem like a motherboard or something.

Detailed Computer Specs
ABIT KN8 Ultra
Antec NEO480 Power Supply
Athlon X2 4400+
2GB OCZ PC3200 DDR Ram
2x 120GB Western Digital SATA2 HardDrives
1x 120GB Western Digital IDE hard Drive
1x 60GB External USB2 Hard Drive (Still connected and appears to be working)
XFX GeForce 6600 256MB PCI-e
DVD-ROM and DVD-RW

Any advice or insight is appreciated before I tear this thing apart and start messing around.

**street1** · October 3rd, 2006, 07:44 PM

The first place power surges usually head for is the modem or ethernet card.

Have you removed your modem or ethernet card and then booted?

If you have onboard ethernet can you disable it in the BIOS?

**BOB IROC** · October 3rd, 2006, 07:49 PM

There is no modem and the ethernet card is onboard. Once the computer is up it seems to run fine. I am just afraid to plug my USB devices back in and the power on delay has me a bit worried.

**Platypus** · October 3rd, 2006, 09:17 PM

If perhaps some data corruption in your CMOS memory caused the initial non-booting, have you tried clearing the CMOS in case something is still set wrong? eg if Network had got set in your boot sequence, the BIOS would likely be awaiting a timeout on the LAN before proceeding with the boot.

**slgrieb** · October 3rd, 2006, 10:07 PM

Bob, clearing the CMOS is certainly a good idea, but I'd check the power supply too. Your BIOS has something like a PC Health category that can report PSU voltages, but I prefer to take the mainboard out of the loop as much as possible. I use an Antec power supply tester. http://www.antec.com/us/productDetai...?ProdID=77003# It doesn't have LEDS to report the voltages of the various circuits, because these aren't very accurate and can't report fluctuations in the output.

You connect the tester and use a digital multimeter to check the 12V, 3.3V, and 5.5V circuits. Voltages should be within +/- 3 to 5 % of rated output and steady. Make a note of them, and if the PC Health report in your BIOS doesn't agree with the multimeter, you have a bad mainboard.