my computer is dead ?

[tautvydas]

so just now i came back and awakened my pc from sleep mode witch its been for ~40min-1h . its all like usual and then suddently it powered down, like power was cut or smth, well now it just does not switch on, i tried to see if its the cables foult and it apperas its not, whenver i switch power supply off and on, whenver i press power button i get a light for about half a second and then its back to beeing a nice decoartion to the room without any real purpose, please help

[RuLeZ]

Sounds like PSU to me.

[tautvydas]

Sounds like PSU to me.

probably should have mentioned that card reader light still lights up when supply is on

[nanowatt]

Did you try turning off and on again?

On a more serious note it sounds like a dead psu or mb.Try to clear the cmos also unplug the power cord and hold down the power button.if any of these won't help is either the psu or the mb(most likely the mb)

[tautvydas]

Did you try turning off and on again?

On a more serious note it sounds like a dead psu or mb.Try to clear the cmos also unplug the power cord and hold down the power button.if any of these won't help is either the psu or the mb(most likely the mb)

uhm... this may sound stupid but how do i clear cmos ?

[Naeaes]

It's a desktop PC, right? Sounds like a dead power supply (PSU). It's easy-ish to fix and among the cheapest spare parts too. In case it's a laptop, it's still most likely the power brick but could be battery too or even the power delivery on the motherboard.

[tautvydas]

It's a desktop PC, right? Sounds like a dead power supply (PSU). It's easy-ish to fix and among the cheapest spare parts too. In case it's a laptop, it's still most likely the power brick but could be battery too or even the power delivery on the motherboard.

yeah its a desktop PC , could be a power supply because it came with a box and i'm sure its not top quality, and i run pc for 14 hrs a day or more so it could have burnd out or smth, its ~30C outside anyway . by fixing it you mean i should probably start saving up money for replacment ?

[nanowatt]

uhm... this may sound stupid but how do i clear cmos ?

Pull out the bios battery after you unplug the power cord or find the pins and touch them with a screwdriver for 5-10 secs.After you do that put it back and without power hold down the power button for 5 secs to discharge the pc.If this doesn't help the mb is dead or maybe the psu

[Naeaes]

 

uhm... this may sound stupid but how do i clear cmos ?

 

Remove all external cabling, remove the battery on the motherboard, hold the power button for like a minute (at least as long as it takes for all the leds to power down and even longer still), battery back, cables back, power on, high five! Do note that this will RESET all the settings in the BIOS, you then have to re-enter the correct settings or basically pray that the automatic settings are the correct settings.

[tautvydas]

 

 

 

Remove all external cabling, remove the battery on the motherboard, hold the power button for like a minute (at least as long as it takes for all the leds to power down and even longer still), battery back, cables back, power on, high five! Do note that this will RESET all the settings in the BIOS, you then have to re-enter the correct settings or basically pray that the automatic settings are the correct settings.

 

urgh... sounds troublesome, since i have never build a pc or done anything like this i really feel i should not fiddle with these kind of things , probably will take computer to te shop then, its proably still under quarrany, since it was bought last year around this time

[tautvydas]

oddly enouh all parts have 24 month warranty, yet power supply has 12... and its been ~14 months

[Naeaes]

 

urgh... sounds troublesome, since i have never build a pc or done anything like this i really feel i should not fiddle with these kind of things , probably will take computer to te shop then, its proably still under quarrany, since it was bought last year around this time

Yeah, if it's under warranty, definitely take it to be serviced. The trouble with a CMOS (or BIOS or UEFI or whatever else it's called) reset is that it doesn't tell you in any way that it happened or if it helped. Other than you get picture again if that's what the problem was to begin with. But if it wasn't, you'll still have to figure out the cause AND your settings are off.

 

This is a huge oversimplification but in case you were wondering, CMOS handles among other things the voltages the components get. Let's say your CPU is running smoothly, it's cool and barely utilized. So it automatically tells the CMOS that it could do with less voltage. So CMOS sends less. Everything's still fine until something unexpected happens, like a power outage or crash. Everything suddenly shuts down and the last thing the CMOS remembers is that it's supposed to give the CPU less voltage. And it will remember so long as it has it's dedicated tiny battery to keep it alive, dammit! Now restarting the CPU would need more voltage again, but CMOS won't feed the CPU enough and CPU doesn't have enough to get alert enough to request more. A nasty catch 22 caused by the lack of ability to communicate even thou nothing is broken per se. So nothing happens when you try to reboot. Other than that very basic and dumb electric devices like LED lights and fan motors work. Resetting CMOS would fix a problem like this by reverting everything back to factory defaults. What happens during the normal shut down process while windows is saying "Shutting down..." the CMOS gets the notice to forget about the whole thing about the less voltage for CPU and to revert back to what ever voltage was enough to start the CPU last time. The CMOS will then be like "I got the message and did everything to prepare for the next boot up, I'm cool!" and only after that it'll turn off the power supply.

[Naeaes]

oddly enouh all parts have 24 month warranty, yet power supply has 12... and its been ~14 months

 Aw man, that sucks. In EU you could still claim it's the retailers responsibility since all electronics must last a minimum of 2 years and most home appliances, like some claim computers are, even five or ten years. The retailer won't get jack from the manufacturer after warranty so it's a struggle every time. But you can always try to get a deal.

 

One thing you can do to test the power supply is remove it and look for a green wire in the 24-pin connector. If you short that green wire to any black wire, it'll start the PSU. The fan on it will start rotating. I'm thinking, if the same happens that it only runs for a few seconds, it's definitely the cause and worth replacing. But before you start, take a lot of pictures of what wire goes where and which way. There are unconnected connectors too. Most don't fit in wrong places but some do. For example t's possible to put the mini molex in a PWM fan connector. Don't do that.

[tautvydas]

 Aw man, that sucks. In EU you could still claim it's the retailers responsibility since all electronics must last a minimum of 2 years and most home appliances, like some claim computers are, even five or ten years. The retailer won't get jack from the manufacturer after warranty so it's a struggle every time. But you can always try to get a deal.

 

One thing you can do to test the power supply is remove it and look for a green wire in the 24-pin connector. If you short that green wire to any black wire, it'll start the PSU. The fan on it will start rotating. I'm thinking, if the same happens that it only runs for a few seconds, it's definitely the cause and worth replacing. But before you start, take a lot of pictures of what wire goes where and which way. There are unconnected connectors too. Most don't fit in wrong places but some do. For example t's possible to put the mini molex in a PWM fan connector. Don't do that.

well i decided that i will take it to the shop, and if it is power supply then they will probably try to change it, since it came with a case.

How strong PSU do i need to power :

1)Processor: Intel® Core™ CORE I5-4690 3.4-3.9 GHZ, 6 MB cache, 4 cores. (that what it says where i buy the pc)

2)MotherBoard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D2V

3)Memory ? : 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHZ in dual channel mode

4)HDD : 1 TB 7200 RPM 64 Mb cache SATA3

5)ODD: DVD-RW 22X Dual Layer

6)GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB DDR5

7)Flash Card Reader: CF (Compact Flash) I and II; MD (Micro Drive); SM (Smart Media); SD (Secure Disk); MMC (Multimedia Card); MS (Memory Stick); IBM micro drive.

9)power block: 600W(it does not say any more) <--- i think i need 600W but i'm sort of poor... i got this pc by pure luck and replacing 600W is tough but saving other components might be as much important so if needed i will not save money.

[Naeaes]

well i decided that i will take it to the shop, and if it is power supply then they will probably try to change it, since it came with a case.

How strong PSU do i need to power :

1)Processor: Intel® Core™ CORE I5-4690 3.4-3.9 GHZ, 6 MB cache, 4 cores. (that what it says where i buy the pc)

2)MotherBoard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D2V

3)Memory ? : 8 GB DDR3 1600 MHZ in dual channel mode

4)HDD : 1 TB 7200 RPM 64 Mb cache SATA3

5)ODD: DVD-RW 22X Dual Layer

6)GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 760 2GB DDR5

7)Flash Card Reader: CF (Compact Flash) I and II; MD (Micro Drive); SM (Smart Media); SD (Secure Disk); MMC (Multimedia Card); MS (Memory Stick); IBM micro drive.

9)power block: 600W(it does not say any more) <--- i think i need 600W but i'm sort of poor... i got this pc by pure luck and replacing 600W is tough but saving other components might be as much important so if needed i will not save money.

 

Sorry for the wall of text. I like this too much apparently. Tl;Dr, a Corsair 500W should do.

 

600W is really out there. If it's really 600W. That wattage is most only used to tell two models of the same manufacturer apart. And to fool some customers. It has very little to do with how powerful the PSU is. I call it marketing wattage.

 

Computers use three main voltages internally; +3.3V +5V and +12V The CPU and the GPU are the most power hungry components and they only use +12V. So what really matters is the sustained maximum power from the +12V line. You'll see a +5VSB too. That's the wattage delivered to USB devices while the computer is in stand by. Basically just enough to use to wake up by hitting a key. Also there's a -12V line and maybe -5V line. Those aren't used anymore at all but they exist because ATX standard require them. THey were for the serial and parallel port. So unless you're running a CNC mill over a long serial cable, those can also be ignored.

 

Just to quickly get us to the ballpark, your CPU takes two 75W power connectors (those 4-pin ones at the top of the motherboard) That's 150W it could ever take.

The GPU you're using takes also two 75W connectors. Those are the 6-pin connectors on it. It also takes 75W from the PCI-e connector. So that's 225W for GPU.

The two of these add up to 375W total at 12V from a single line. That's what we're looking for.

 

Here's an example of a lower quality, marketing first, blinky led lights, "500W power supply" that cannot deliver that magical 375W of 12V we want:

http://www.rosewill.com/products/372/productDetail.htm#/Mgnt/Uploads/ImagesForProduct/rp500_label.jpg

Not even close. This company is a bit of a BS spreader. Well, 473W total is kinda like 500W, I'll give them that. But I'll bet my hairy balls, this PSU would blow the second it gets even close to that.

 

Now, here's a 430W psu from Corsair. Not Corsair's finest, but take a look at the wattages at the "tech specs" tab.

http://www.corsair.com/se-fi/cx-series-cx430m-modular-atx-power-supply-430-watt-80-plus-bronze-certified-modular-psu

It could handle your CPU and GPU even thou it's "only 430W" I won't praise it any more. I'll let you judge.

 

In your case that 430W is cutting it too close so I'd look for that kind of quality at around 500W mark. Some other devices use +12V too. Like the motor on a hard drive. You want me to tell you a good PSU or do you want to take a look yourself?

 

- A good power supply has only one +12V line. It's a cheap trick to get the total wattage up by putting in a bunch of weak rails. Look for something around 42A at the 12V line for a bit of future proofness.

- A good power supply has the +12V line at least twice as powerful as the +3.3V and +5V are combined. Unless your machine has like a thousand LAN chips and integrated sound cards and no CPU or GPU.

 

To be fair, I used the wattages that those connectors are standardized to deliver, instead of what the manufacturers claim the components take. That's because for security's sake I want the worst case scenario instead of the marketed most case scenario.

[tautvydas]

 

Sorry for the wall of text. I like this too much apparently. Tl;Dr, a Corsair 500W should do.

 

600W is really out there. If it's really 600W. That wattage is most only used to tell two models of the same manufacturer apart. And to fool some customers. It has very little to do with how powerful the PSU is. I call it marketing wattage.

 

Computers use three main voltages internally; +3.3V +5V and +12V The CPU and the GPU are the most power hungry components and they only use +12V. So what really matters is the sustained maximum power from the +12V line. You'll see a +5VSB too. That's the wattage delivered to USB devices while the computer is in stand by. Basically just enough to use to wake up by hitting a key. Also there's a -12V line and maybe -5V line. Those aren't used anymore at all but they exist because ATX standard require them. THey were for the serial and parallel port. So unless you're running a CNC mill over a long serial cable, those can also be ignored.

 

Just to quickly get us to the ballpark, your CPU takes two 75W power connectors (those 4-pin ones at the top of the motherboard) That's 150W it could ever take.

The GPU you're using takes also two 75W connectors. Those are the 6-pin connectors on it. It also takes 75W from the PCI-e connector. So that's 225W for GPU.

The two of these add up to 375W total at 12V from a single line. That's what we're looking for.

 

Here's an example of a lower quality, marketing first, blinky led lights, "500W power supply" that cannot deliver that magical 375W of 12V we want:

http://www.rosewill.com/products/372/productDetail.htm#/Mgnt/Uploads/ImagesForProduct/rp500_label.jpg

Not even close. This company is a bit of a BS spreader. Well, 473W total is kinda like 500W, I'll give them that. But I'll bet my hairy balls, this PSU would blow the second it gets even close to that.

 

Now, here's a 430W psu from Corsair. Not Corsair's finest, but take a look at the wattages at the "tech specs" tab.

http://www.corsair.com/se-fi/cx-series-cx430m-modular-atx-power-supply-430-watt-80-plus-bronze-certified-modular-psu

It could handle your CPU and GPU even thou it's "only 430W" I won't praise it any more. I'll let you judge.

 

In your case that 430W is cutting it too close so I'd look for that kind of quality at around 500W mark. Some other devices use +12V too. Like the motor on a hard drive. You want me to tell you a good PSU or do you want to take a look yourself?

 

- A good power supply has only one +12V line. It's a cheap trick to get the total wattage up by putting in a bunch of weak rails. Look for something around 42A at the 12V line for a bit of future proofness.

- A good power supply has the +12V line at least twice as powerful as the +3.3V and +5V are combined. Unless your machine has like a thousand LAN chips and integrated sound cards and no CPU or GPU.

 

To be fair, I used the wattages that those connectors are standardized to deliver, instead of what the manufacturers claim the components take. That's because for security's sake I want the worst case scenario instead of the marketed most case scenario.

 

man, i really appreceate you took time to write this, i'm actually interested in this kind of stuff, hearing your suggestions would be nice, and if u can see if there any of your suggestions on

http://www.skytech.lt.

i'm taking my computer to the shop tomorrow. and they will say the verdict , is it power supply or something else.

 

sorry for late response, i had to get out of town for a fiew days.

it actually tok me 3 times to read this to understand what you ment

some people have suggested these for me :

http://www.skytech.lt/n600sbeu-lepa-mxf1-series-600w-120mm-fan-high-efficiency-active-pfc-psu-retail-p-p-249108.html

http://www.skytech.lt/aerokcas600-psu-aerocool-kcas-600w-plus-bronze-p-200743.html

http://www.skytech.lt/enp500agt-psu-enermax-enp500agt-500w-p-127446.html

from what  managed to gather, they all seem to "fit" into specification, unless there is something else i should know about, like cables and stuff

http://www.part.lt/img/9a6b75565ba7a86e1109647ba41878d9290.jpg <--- here is the power unit that is sitting in my pc now

Edited August 10, 2015 by tautvydas

[Naeaes]

man, i really appreceate you took time to write this, i'm actually interested in this kind of stuff, hearing your suggestions would be nice, and if u can see if there any of your suggestions on

http://www.skytech.lt.

i'm taking my computer to the shop tomorrow. and they will say the verdict , is it power supply or something else.

 

sorry for late response, i had to get out of town for a fiew days.

it actually tok me 3 times to read this to understand what you ment

some people have suggested these for me :

http://www.skytech.lt/n600sbeu-lepa-mxf1-series-600w-120mm-fan-high-efficiency-active-pfc-psu-retail-p-p-249108.html

http://www.skytech.lt/aerokcas600-psu-aerocool-kcas-600w-plus-bronze-p-200743.html

http://www.skytech.lt/enp500agt-psu-enermax-enp500agt-500w-p-127446.html

from what  managed to gather, they all seem to "fit" into specification, unless there is something else i should know about, like cables and stuff

http://www.part.lt/img/9a6b75565ba7a86e1109647ba41878d9290.jpg <--- here is the power unit that is sitting in my pc now

 

I was AFK too. The one you had has some great qualities like the 3.3V and 5V lines. 7 Amps out of each is just fine for a basic computer. And some bad like the double 12V rails. The trouble with them is that you're gonna be hard pressed to even be able to even find a CPU that draws anywhere close 22 amps and on the other hand for most high end GPUs, it's not enough. If it was a combined to a single 44 Amp rail, it'd my ideal power supply on that respect. It could use the leftover power from the CPU to fuel the GPU.

 

Those power supplies you were suggested brought to mind the warranty. I worked in ICT retail for a long time and one thing I realized is, for a retailer, there are a lot of reasons to cut the warranty to 24 months. Like not being tied to a single importer or getting the cost down or to actually just simplify things. But for a manufacturer there's only one reason: They don't even trust their products themselves. With that in mind, forget about the ones with a mere 2-year warranty. They're probably only doing that much because anything less would be borderline illegal. I actually didn't even find a mention of a warranty on the Aerocool website. Whether it's gonna matter or not, time will tell, but at least you're not taking unnecessary risks. The double 12V rail is my only problem with the Enermax ENP500AGT.

 

If I were you and tied to your budget, I'd go with this one:

http://www.skytech.lt/cp9020097eu-psu-corsair-550w-atx-120mm-ventiliatorius-plus-p-201705.html

It's got a single 12V rail, three-year warranty and it's still on the cheap side.

 

I also need to mention this one:

http://www.skytech.lt/s12ii520-psu-seasonic-s12ii520-520w-plus-bronze-retail-p-71698.html

It's a bit more expensive but Seasonic S12II quality is kind of legendary. It also shows. It can actually be almost silent at any load and it has a 5-year warranty. It does seem to be out of stock though.

[tautvydas]

well it was psu, something burned out, they suggested to me : http://www.skytech.lt/atx600w-black-codegen-power-supply-atx-psu-600w-pfc-psu-silent-12cm-fan-black-pa-p-131019.html#tabsnav-5 <--- look at specs and i'm calling them to cancel this because from specs it seems like it will ruin my computer,
he suggested then this : http://www.skytech.lt/xn044-case-psu-atx23-600wxn044-xilence-p-223357.html <-- i'm thinking of taking that one
because 55 eur for 550W and +5 for installation is kinda high, what do you think ?

[tautvydas]

 

I was AFK too. The one you had has some great qualities like the 3.3V and 5V lines. 7 Amps out of each is just fine for a basic computer. And some bad like the double 12V rails. The trouble with them is that you're gonna be hard pressed to even be able to even find a CPU that draws anywhere close 22 amps and on the other hand for most high end GPUs, it's not enough. If it was a combined to a single 44 Amp rail, it'd my ideal power supply on that respect. It could use the leftover power from the CPU to fuel the GPU.

 

Those power supplies you were suggested brought to mind the warranty. I worked in ICT retail for a long time and one thing I realized is, for a retailer, there are a lot of reasons to cut the warranty to 24 months. Like not being tied to a single importer or getting the cost down or to actually just simplify things. But for a manufacturer there's only one reason: They don't even trust their products themselves. With that in mind, forget about the ones with a mere 2-year warranty. They're probably only doing that much because anything less would be borderline illegal. I actually didn't even find a mention of a warranty on the Aerocool website. Whether it's gonna matter or not, time will tell, but at least you're not taking unnecessary risks. The double 12V rail is my only problem with the Enermax ENP500AGT.

 

If I were you and tied to your budget, I'd go with this one:

http://www.skytech.lt/cp9020097eu-psu-corsair-550w-atx-120mm-ventiliatorius-plus-p-201705.html

It's got a single 12V rail, three-year warranty and it's still on the cheap side.

 

I also need to mention this one:

http://www.skytech.lt/s12ii520-psu-seasonic-s12ii520-520w-plus-bronze-retail-p-71698.html

It's a bit more expensive but Seasonic S12II quality is kind of legendary. It also shows. It can actually be almost silent at any load and it has a 5-year warranty. It does seem to be out of stock though.

 

well it was psu, something burned out, they suggested to me : http://www.skytech.lt/atx600w-black-codegen-power-supply-atx-psu-600w-pfc-psu-silent-12cm-fan-black-pa-p-131019.html#tabsnav-5 <--- look at specs and i'm calling them to cancel this because from specs it seems like it will ruin my computer,

he suggested then this : http://www.skytech.lt/xn044-case-psu-atx23-600wxn044-xilence-p-223357.html <-- i'm thinking of taking that one

or i should not be cheap and get http://www.skytech.lt/aerokcas600-psu-aerocool-kcas-600w-plus-bronze-p-200743.html

or that 55 Eur one, to be on the safe side, because like they say, cheap person pays 2 times

edit: i'v been surfing web and saw that PSU Seasonic S12II-520 520W 80 Plus Bronze  is quite good, and i'm even considering to buy this one if it could handle my load.

[Naeaes]

well it was psu, something burned out, they suggested to me : http://www.skytech.lt/atx600w-black-codegen-power-supply-atx-psu-600w-pfc-psu-silent-12cm-fan-black-pa-p-131019.html#tabsnav-5 <--- look at specs and i'm calling them to cancel this because from specs it seems like it will ruin my computer,

he suggested then this : http://www.skytech.lt/xn044-case-psu-atx23-600wxn044-xilence-p-223357.html <-- i'm thinking of taking that one

because 55 eur for 550W and +5 for installation is kinda high, what do you think ?

Umm. Codegen and Xilence are both pure crap. Very cheap-o quality. Neither are any better than what you had. I think 55€ is just right for a quality power supply. These days, something like 70€ would be pushing it unless it has like an unlimited warranty or has some rare functions like passive cooling.

 

You're now buying the second cheap power supply in less than two years. It's already costing you more than a high quality one would have cost to begin with, right? In two years you're gonna be at it again. Just how much are you planning on paying in like five years? My mom always says that "a poor person can't afford to buy cheap stuff."

[tautvydas]

Umm. Codegen and Xilence are both pure crap. Very cheap-o quality. Neither are any better than what you had. I think 55€ is just right for a quality power supply. These days, something like 70€ would be pushing it unless it has like an unlimited warranty or has some rare functions like passive cooling.

 

You're now buying the second cheap power supply in less than two years. It's already costing you more than a high quality one would have cost to begin with, right? In two years you're gonna be at it again. Just how much are you planning on paying in like five years? My mom always says that "a poor person can't afford to buy cheap stuff."

ehh well i bought prebuilt pc, and it did not showed what kind of psu it was, i was expecting them not to be dumb and not put in that kind of bad quality PSU in there.

though i think i will spend extra this time and buy Seasonic S12II-520 520W 80 Plus Bronze, you mentioned it earlier and it kind of stuck to me. been asking around and it seems its sufficient to power my system as long as i dont plan to upgrade. and that 5 year warranty

[Naeaes]

ehh well i bought prebuilt pc, and it did not showed what kind of psu it was, i was expecting them not to be dumb and not put in that kind of bad quality PSU in there.

though i think i will spend extra this time and buy Seasonic S12II-520 520W 80 Plus Bronze, you mentioned it earlier and it kind of stuck to me. been asking around and it seems its sufficient to power my system as long as i dont plan to upgrade. and that 5 year warranty

 

It's a great choice. Hard to find a bad review of it. And upgrading isn't out of the question either. The newer generation of Geforce graphics cards draw way less power than the 700 series. ´GTX960 and 970 would be easy choices. Even the GTX980 draws less than the GTX760 you have. Only the very top of the tree, the GTX980Ti and Titan X would be too much.

[tautvydas]

It's a great choice. Hard to find a bad review of it. And upgrading isn't out of the question either. The newer generation of Geforce graphics cards draw way less power than the 700 series. ´GTX960 and 970 would be easy choices. Even the GTX980 draws less than the GTX760 you have. Only the very top of the tree, the GTX980Ti and Titan X would be too much.

well after some diging its chaging a bit proably not Seasonic S12II-520 , but PSU Seasonic M12II-EVO520  its 20more eur but i think its a worthy investment.