I am frustrated. New Power Supply?

O

outrun

New Member
Ok where I live we get frequent power surges or the power goes out all together. I have to computers hooked to an apc. If I get the slightest power surge the computer shuts down. But the other computer is still running. This is with or without the APC. This is the standard power supply that came with the case also. The computer that stays running has like an 800 watt power supply in it and only 2 hard drives.

The one that shuts down all the time has 4 hard drives. 2 that are terabytes. So, do I need to upgrade the power supply to keep this computer from shutting down during the slightest surge? Even when it is plugged into the battery side of the apc it still cuts off.

Thanks,

Jason
 
outrun said:
Ok where I live we get frequent power surges or the power goes out all together. I have to computers hooked to an apc. If I get the slightest power surge the computer shuts down. But the other computer is still running. This is with or without the APC. This is the standard power supply that came with the case also. The computer that stays running has like an 800 watt power supply in it and only 2 hard drives.

The one that shuts down all the time has 4 hard drives. 2 that are terabytes. So, do I need to upgrade the power supply to keep this computer from shutting down during the slightest surge? Even when it is plugged into the battery side of the apc it still cuts off.

Thanks,

Jason
Click to expand...
Sounds like that power supply has almost no hold up time, which since it is a cheap case power supply sounds pretty much right. What kind of specs does that computer have?
 
Ok so when I go buy I a new one I need to get one with some hold up time?

I built the computer about 2 years ago. Basic power supply that came with it.

computerr.jpg


Geforce 8800 GTS

4 hard drives. One failed though so I guess you can take that one off. 3 are sata and one is IDE. I also get errors a lot on reboot. NTLDR, no boot disk found stuff like that. Makes me wonder if the power supply is not even turning on some of the drives.
 
Well what is a good brand? In my other computer I have a raidmax volcano. It seems to do really well. I don't want to spend over 100 bucks.
 
The one I was looking at for like $60 bucks is 600 watts and is Dual +12V rails provide 38A for PC system.
 
Ok, well theres your issue. The 8800gts on a case power supply...your just asking for trouble there. Are you located in the us, or would you need to order from a canadian or uk based website?
 
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If in the us:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341019
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009

All of those are good units. The pc power and cooling would be a great unit if you intend to upgrade to sli in the future.

Microcenter and frys you will pay quite a premium over newegg, unless its on sale fyi..
 
outrun said:
I am looking at power supplies now but where does it list the hold up time?
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The fact that you don't have numeric specifications that also list hold up time implies it is a power supply that is missing essential functions. The first indication that the problem was created by one who bought the supply.

One factor essential to power supply selection - to forget essential functions, they also forget to provide written specs - a full sheet.

No specs is how to dump inferior supplies at lower price and larger profits on the naive. You may not know what those specs mean. But those who do know cannot warn you of the scam.

Minimum price for a power supply is $60 retail. That does not mean a $60 supply is sufficient. But a supply selling at lower price is probably missing essential functions.

You were not getting power surges. Hold up time is one possible reason for failure. Power supply may or may not solve the problem. Normal is for a defective power supply to boot a computer. Normal is for a perfectly good supply to work in an otherwise good system. Normal is for a marginal power supply controller to make power supplies intermittent or to fail months later.

Each and every one above is why we measure power supply voltages with a multimeter when system is under maximum load (multitasking to all peripherals simultaneously). Numbers for the suspect supply. And numbers for the new supply. Those numbers will mean nothing to you. But can report massive information to me. How to solve the problem the first time, know if the original supply is defective (could be other components in the supply system), and know if the new supply is actually good and sufficient.
 
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