PC Tech's, I could use some advice, power supply.

[Donny1]

I have an older PC that was fine on Saturday but now only turns on for about 2 seconds. I found some guides to help troubleshoot it and found:

20 pin power supply.
The fans run for a couple seconds and shut off.
Purple (stand by) has 5v all the time.
Jumped green power on wire to ground (unplugged from board) and have all correct voltages, orange wires 3v, red 5v, yellow 12v.
Plug it back in and it only runs a few seconds and all power goes away.

So is the PS being shut down by the MB? Or PS problem?

I checked for bad connections, blew it out, wiggled and giggled, still the same. I don't want to throw a power supply at it without being sure. Mechanic for 30 years and I hate parts changers, lol.

[paul0660]

I dunno. Sounds like a MB short. I hate part changers too but I do have a PS on hand for testing, and they are cheap anyway. Good luck.

[nmerced]

Most likely a MB failure.

[LoneWolf1]

Try unplugging the 20 pin connector from the MB, leave everything else plugged in and then jump the Green wire and one of the Black wires on the connector, and see if the PSU starts up and stays running. Also make sure all your fan's are running. If the fan on the CPU heatsink isn't working, that could cause the Motherboard to shut down.

[Coded-Dude]

is it beeping or just shutting off? are all the fans turning on?

[Donny1]

Just a bad PS. Found an old one hanging around and it fired it right up.

[Coded-Dude]

are they similar in power? a decent PS is cheap; if the output is substantially lower than the previous supply I would recommend and upgrade

[Donny1]

are they similar in power? a decent PS is cheap; if the output is substantially lower than the previous supply I would recommend and upgrade

Now that know for sure what the problem is I'll shop for a new one.

[paul0660]

Newegg if you can wait.

[dhyayi]

that's probably motherboard....but you can try with the RAM. unplug the RAM, clean the connector and plug again

[bg]

In case anyone might be interested in testing PSU's..

http://www.ochardware.com/articles/psuvolt/psuvolt.html

I only use Corsair PSU's due to their reliability [most of the big daddies are
made by Sea Sonic using Corsair's badge] and Corsair's customer service.
Just some of the best CS going. I found out and have been loyal since.

[orchard]

Fry's has a good selection.

[DiscoBayJoe]

Computers are now disposable. As soon as there is any glitch, ditch it. Even a $399 i3 will out perform even the hottest of computer from 3 years ago!