Power Supply Failure? Help Please.

[Legendary]

So I was just playing GTA IV PC on my desktop which I built a couple of months ago. Every single part of the PC is new except the power supply, a CoolEXTRA 550w I think it is.
As I was playing I could smell something, I assumed that it was my sisters straightener but no, turns out is was the PC. Shortly after it started smelling it turned off. Now it wont turn on. Unplugging the power plug, plugging it back in and hitting the power button results in a flash of the power LED on the case. Plugging the power back into the computer results in the keyboard lights flashing as if the computer were turning on.

I have not really done much as I am off to work soon.
Computer specs are as follows:
i5 2500k with no overclocking
ATI Radeon HD 6870 HD
8gig ram (2 4 gig sticks)
CoolEXTRA 550w PSU

I do have another power supply here but its only 400watts, as well as a third one rated at 430watts. I cant use those as the video card requires a minimum 550W PSU.
It seems to be a PSU problem and I have no problem buying a new one, just wondering if anyone here knows whats going on.

 

[nick09]

Yeah, PSU is dead if you smelled something and your computer turned off imminently.

 

[Legendary]

Any idea of what causes it? I know its never worked that hard since I built it. I've played games on Max on it before but rarely touch gta. I was spamming cars with the trainer before it broke. That crashed the game and when I tried to run the game again it died XD.

Ahh well, that'll teach me to buy new parts. Any suggestions for a cheap 600-750 Watt psu?

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

It was probably drawing too much power out of the poor thing.

 

[Legendary]

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Its okay, I probably needed a bigger one anyway .

 

[nick09]

I never heard of the brand and I can't even get the manufacturer's website for it. According to AMD you need a 500Watt PSU for an entire system with that graphics card. It's most likely it could not provide enough power through the 12V rail, burned out from the heat, and likely limited by the cheap components in the PSU. I personally use a Silverstone ST60F-ES 600W PSU right now and it's been pretty stable so far. Antec is another brand to consider. You should also make sure your power supply is 80Plus certified. The more efficient the power supply the less heat the power supply will make and you save a bit in electricity bills too.

 

[Legendary]

Yeah I wouldn't have bought it that's for sure. Is thermaltake any good? (Hope I recall that name correctly).

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Thermaltake is great. So are Antec, Seasonic and Corsair.

 

[Seismica]

Make sure the extension cable you are using (if you are using one) is working correctly. Around 5 years ago a faulty extension cable burnt out the PSU on two computers before we realised what the problem was (I never connected it up to the second one, my brother did whilst I was at college ). It's also advisable to get an extension with surge protection.

Whilst I know very little about power supplies themselves, making sure they're plugged into something safe/in good working order is a must.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I do have another power supply here but its only 400watts, as well as a third one rated at 430watts. I cant use those as the video card requires a minimum 550W PSU.

If they are quality units they could probably serve temporarily, but you wouldn't have much overhead.

 

[Legendary]

There is no extension cable.

I won't use the smaller supplies either because I'll have a new one soon and it takes a little bit of time. My laptop and ps3 will suffice until then.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Like others said: total power is not that important, it's the amount of power it can deliver on a single 12V rail that is, as well as efficiency. That's where the 80Plus stamp comes in: it means the power supply can deliver at least 80% efficiency at any load. A good quality 400W or 500W PSU can easily be better (and deliver more power under load!) than a cheap 650W. Cheap PSUs usually inflate their power numbers, so the actual power you get under a certain load is a lot lower!

Go for one of the brands mentioned above.

 

[Bigbazz]

I just fixed some computer woes (that have plagued me for months) with a new upgrade, I got the OCZ ZX series (850w) 80 plus Gold power supply. Previously i had an Artic Power 700w, that I had donated from my previous system. I'l just list some of the problems I had ^^. These werent present in the previous system I used the power supply for.

Everytime I turned off/shutdown the computer, the power supply would make a high pitched whining noise, the only way to get rid of it was to turn off the power supply at the back, every time I turned off the computer.

Everytime the computer would start, for months it would turn on for a few seconds, then turn itself off, then turn itself back on and then boot up. If I didnt let the power supply stay on for atleast a minute or so (with its whining), the whining would continue for a while after I turned on the computer.


Then I upgraded my graphics card, the power supply wasnt effecting my usage, it was just annoying up until this point. The new graphics card caused a lot of problems, where it for the first 2 weeks just didnt work sometimes, then it sometimes would work. Then at some point one day the computer wouldnt start and it asked for the Win 7 disk to recover from corrupted files, this problem took litterally 2 mins to fix, but came out of nowhere. After this, the graphics card worked every time.

Later, I would experience a random black screen freeze/crash, not seen it happen since. Also, the computer then started loading up without turning itself off and on, but then it would freeze at some point during starting up, or within 5mins of starting up. This sometimes required me to spend 10mins + simply turning the computer on and off. Once it had been running for 5mins without a freeze it would then run fine until it was turned off.

Amongst all this the power supply also started making a rattling noise, kinda like a loud hard drive access noise, which I guessed was a wobbly power supply fan (damaged bearings?). My friends and fellow bandmates (who record music at mine... on this system) noticed that my computer sounded like a cricket, and asked me to name it.


Finally, yesterday morning I had a real issue getting the computer running and when I did I ordered the new power supply. Ironically, my computer started fine this morning, with no turning itself off, no freezes and no cricket noises (though still plenty of high pitch whining when on standby), for around an hour before my new power supply arrived.

Anyhow, I will say I don't like this modular system, they made the cables so sturdy and well built that they are a nightmare to route properly, and while it came with far more cables than I would ever need, the ones I did need were not long enough to properly route it through my case, so for looks and airflow, this one is definitely worse than the last.

But, my computer is running flawlessly now (as of the 45mins i've had it running) and it is very quiet.


Its amazing what difference a power supply can make though.