Ask Leo!: Power Supplies

My computer is crashing and having troubles, is it time to replace the power supply?

leo@pugetsoundsoftware (Leo A. Notenboom) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:09:06 -08:00

We have a 400w power supply in our 80G computer and lately it crashes and tries to continually restart when I have appliances connected, ie printer, video machine for copying dvd's, speakers etc. I can only run the screen and hard drive at present and the noises coming from the hard drive sound to me like it is really struggling. We have a lot of software loaded and our problems really started when I loaded the last software for my new samsung phone and a new digital camera. I've been to a computer shop and other than costing a small fortune, told me there was nothing wrong with my computer. I've had an electrician in and he's checked everything is okay but asked about the power for the computer. What I would like to know is what would be the best size wattage to upgrade to, ie would 500 or 550 watts be sufficient or try to go bigger. And finally, is this a job easy enough to do ourselves or do we need a computer tech to do it for us. Finding a decent computer tech is not easy! Another problem seems to be turbo lister (ebay software) - when I go into turbo lister that's when I also encounter problems, ie my computer seems to freeze - could this also be related to insufficient power?

]]> You've got a lot going on, and unfortunately that means that the answers aren't going to be clear. Yes, it all might be power supply related, but in all honesty that's not where I'd start.

I'd start with a concept called "software rot".

If shutting down Windows cleanly is important, what happens when the power just goes out?

leo@pugetsoundsoftware (Leo A. Notenboom) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:19:49 -08:00

I am aware that not going through the proper Windows shutdown can possibly have negative effects on a computer. But my question is if a computer loses power (due to a household power outage, not anything wrong with the power supply), are these negative effects strictly software related (meaning a format and reinstall would fix them), or might it cause hardware problems as well?

]]> Shutting down Windows properly before turning off the power to your computer is important. Not doing so can result in data loss and corruption as files are left only partially written to disk. But just turning off the switch is unlikely to actually harm your hardware.

Surprisingly, a household or other area-wide power outage turns out to be a completely different issue.

Could my power supply be causing memory errors?

leo@pugetsoundsoftware (Leo A. Notenboom) — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:16:00 -08:00

My machine locked up sometime overnight, and when I rebooted the memory test took forever. I thought it had frozen at that point, since it wouldn't even let me into the BIOS, but eventually did boot into Windows. Prior to this I had run a memory test program, and it had, in fact, shown errors, but those went away after I re-seated the memory cards on my motherboard. Someone mentioned that the power supply might be the cause, is that possible?

]]> Certainly.

Most folks think a power supply failure will be catastrophic ... bright lights, flashes and smoke followed by no power; or just the sudden "no power" part without all the excitement.

The reality is often more mundane, and, for lack of a better word, at times even sneaky.