What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

[grss1982]

Greetings everyone.

Recently, I've come into possesion of the following:

Celeron 1.7
128MB DDR266
Asrock M266A (Via Chipset)
20gb Seagate 5.4k rpm hard drive
P.O.S. "lightweight" 300W PSU

The thing is the first thing I did when I received this unit, I turned it on. It refused to boot and in fact id does'nt even spit out any beeps.

According to the following:

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm
No beep = No Power, Loose Card, or Short.

AND

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1223
No Beeps = Short, No power, Bad CPU/MB, Loose Peripherals

I've reseated any loose peripherals. I've also checked ever connection in fact only the thing connected to the mobo/proc combo is a keyboard and the PSU, but still no beep codes.

Later on I opened up the PSU and it turn out one of the caps has poped. I thought that was the culprit, but when i replaced the PSU with a know good one (300W HEC), it still does'nt give me any beeps.

Now I'm wondering could the earlier PSU have taken out the whole setup (especially Mobo and CPU)?

That seems really impossible to me since I'm under the impression that when caps on a PSU go bad, the end result is that caps on the mobo it is connected to suffer the same fate. (NOTE: I only know rudimentary things about PSUs like when it goes bad replace it ASAP.)

Comments, anyone?

[Sparky]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

I've seen a PSU go bad and take the mobo with it (and more) but not necessarily blow mobo caps. For example, if the PSU starts spiking 16V through the 12V rail that will kill the mobo but all those caps on the 12V lines will be rated at 16V anyway so they won't pop.

[gonzo0815]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

I have seen several HEC units and similar POS (e.g. Codegen) which rendered a whole setup useless by frying it.

[Galvanized]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

5V spikes at BOOT are known to kill HDDs.

[grss1982]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

@gonzo0815: HEC? O_o I though they were a know "good brand." As good as Enermax even.

@Galvanized: That is REALLY scary.

Thanks for the replies every one. Looks like the above setup is indeed fried, since the 128MB RAM does'nt work in another setup I have. :-( Hope the processor did'nt bite the dust. XD

[grss1982]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

I've seen a PSU go bad and take the mobo with it (and more) but not necessarily blow mobo caps. For example, if the PSU starts spiking 16V through the 12V rail that will kill the mobo but all those caps on the 12V lines will be rated at 16V anyway so they won't pop.

Hmmmm..... So I guess the previous dead boards I encountered were taken out this way.

Thanks for that tidbit, Sparky.

P.S. I always thought a dead mobo was something that had a burnt PCB or something visible that indicates it was burned or destroyed by over voltage.

[Newbie2]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

Some things can die with no outer signs of damage.

Do you have a good motherboard to test the Celeron 1.7GHz CPU?

[grss1982]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

DAMNIT!!!!

How could I have been so stupid.

Alright guys, I think I just solved the mystery it was the RAM that went bad. The mobo and the processor ran fine when using a working RAM module and PSU.

Damn, looks like I got on this one.

The good news though is at least I don't have to let my friend who owns this setup spend so much $$$ to get this thing running as a Linux machine.


I guess this thread gets closed, then?

[Sparky]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

Still could have been the PSUs fault. PSU could have had bad power on the 3.3V rail which feeds the ram.

At least the mobo isn't bad, that's a good thing.

[hardwareguy]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

I have had power supplies made by questionable outfits fail CATASTROPHICALLY.

By absolutely catastrophic failure I mean the following occurred:
Flames shot out the back of the PSU
Room is hazy with nasty smelling smoke, smoke alarm beeping
Lights in the room OUT due to OCP tripping

Upon restoration of power, the following was observed inside the PC:
Burnt parts near the power connectors on about every piece of equipment in the machine, a total loss....behold the power of POWMAX!

[kc8adu]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

I have had power supplies made by questionable outfits fail CATASTROPHICALLY.

By absolutely catastrophic failure I mean the following occurred:
Flames shot out the back of the PSU
Room is hazy with nasty smelling smoke, smoke alarm beeping
Lights in the room OUT due to OCP tripping

Upon restoration of power, the following was observed inside the PC:
Burnt parts near the power connectors on about every piece of equipment in the machine, a total loss....behold the power of POWMAX!

like i have said before powmax is a good brand........on a pack of firecrackers!

[grss1982]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

Still could have been the PSUs fault. PSU could have had bad power on the 3.3V rail which feeds the ram.

At least the mobo isn't bad, that's a good thing.

You might be right. Since I thoroughly tested it today and it seems like the built-in LAN is quite dead. A number of Linux distros can detect it but when its time to use Auto DHCP, the built-in LAN flat out refuses to connect.

[Sparky]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

$5 PCI NIC to the rescue

[999999999]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

I think a good summary to this thread is that bad ram can cause a system to not start and not beep, BUT if you remove all the memory and the system is otherwise functional, it should then beep.
Bad memory <> no memory

[Harvey]

Re: What is a PSU w/ Badcaps kiling ability?

I think a good summary to this thread is that bad ram can cause a system to not start and not beep, BUT if you remove all the memory and the system is otherwise functional, it should then beep.
Bad memory <> no memory

If only

It's a bit of a crap shoot as to if any particular motherboard model will beep or not without RAM.

Some do, some don't.