No sign of power, PSU dead?

[Deleted member 157129]

My computer shut down randomly this morning and now it won't come back on - there's no sign of power whatsoever. No fans sounding nor lights showing when I hit the Power On button. Obviously, everything is connected properly as I haven't touched a thing, I just attempted to switch it back on when it died. I then proceeded to test the power output on the wall, which is working correctly. Basically, the situation is that the Power On button, and any other button, on my computer appear to be dummies, they have no action. This has lead me to believe my PSU dropped dead without saying goodbye.

A little story that needs to be mentioned:
I was browsing YouTube, streaming various music videos when suddenly it started loading some obscure URL and the CSS was killed, leaving a one column, no style YouTube that couldn't load videos. I closed it down and went on to other business thinking some idiot over at YouTube had accidentally removed the CSS or that they were getting hacked.. either way, it didn't take long after that before my computer died. Thus I'm wondering whether a virus can, theoretically, achieve enough access to somehow ruin the PSU?

Next step is that I went to get something to drink and when I got back I switched on the light, it seemed to 'cause some electric bug as that was the exact time of which the computer turned itself off - basically, it looked like the power ran out in the building, but I failed to notice if the monitor switched off and back on or if it was just the computer. At least the power is working, but my computer is not.

So yeah, either one of those stories explain why my PSU (or some other hardware causing similar symptoms) died - or it was all utterly random.

What I need to know is if there's some easy way to test whether it is the PSU or not, 'cause it would seem rather vacuous to replace the PSU if it is in fact working and the motherboard is to blame.

Any advice?

 

[The_wand_mirror]

Yeah a dead PSU or a dead Motherboard/Motherboard component (the pins connected with your on/off button)

And that YouTube things occurs to me once in a while and also sometimes on other sites it's nothing to worry about... i guess that was just a coincidence.

Btw does your on/off button make a click noise and feel when you press it? Because i had this once (in my old chassis) that the cable from the button was pressed out because i slammed it down to hard so i put some tape on back there to keep the cable in place. So you'll notice when the cable is out because you don't hear a click or feel it doing something.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

I'll open the case and try booting directly on the motherboard, but I honestly doubt turning on the light displaced the Power On button's cable or anything like that. I'll test the PSU tomorrow with some tools, hopefully that's all there is to it, must say I'm fairly disappointed in Corsair when it comes to PSUs by now, had one defect 750W before and now this 750W has probably crashed as well.

Feel free to suggest PSUs that you are satisfied with, I need at least 700W, but 1000W is overkill.

Oh, and about the YouTube thing, well.. I'm used to CSS dying as well, but not for half an hour, it usually fixes itself after a few refreshes.

 

[Gilles]

Sure sounds like PSU. Do you have a multimeter? If not, they're pretty cheap. You could also get a power supply tester. Not sure how much they cost though.

Corsair should be a great brand. Never had one myself, but they're always ranked as a top PSU. I have a PC Power and Cooling right now, and have been very happy with it.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

I got a friend that does have the necessary tools, yeah.
Anyway, I am assuming it is dead and I've just ordered an XFX Black Edition PSU to replace it. If the Corsair turns out to be OK I'll just cancel the order and keep troubleshooting. I guess the next step would be the motherboard (well, or power cord).

 

[The_wand_mirror]

I'll open the case and try booting directly on the motherboard, but I honestly doubt turning on the light displaced the Power On button's cable or anything like that. I'll test the PSU tomorrow with some tools, hopefully that's all there is to it, must say I'm fairly disappointed in Corsair when it comes to PSUs by now, had one defect 750W before and now this 750W has probably crashed as well.

Feel free to suggest PSUs that you are satisfied with, I need at least 700W, but 1000W is overkill.

Oh, and about the YouTube thing, well.. I'm used to CSS dying as well, but not for half an hour, it usually fixes itself after a few refreshes.

I have a 600 watt Raptoxx.

Btw i never mentioned turning on a light i mean there is always a cable attached to the back of your power button that can pop-out with some cases.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

Yeah, I'm just saying nothing touched it when it shut down, it was on in one instance and in the next, when I switched the light on, it got shut down as if the stream of power abruptly ended. Thus I doubted what you described, and I have now confirmed that is not the case.

 

[BlargHonk]

XFX's are decent, I dislike their style though.

 

[Gilles]

Never really heard much about XFX supplies, but they make good video cards.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

The Corsair PSU was very much dead indeed, and delivered some horrid last screams as we tried all the power connectors. The XFX PSU arrived as we were testing, so now my rig is back up and running, nothing else was damaged. I guess I'll be calling the janitor over to look at my light, and electricity network.. 'cause I can't afford any more PSUs dying from switching on the light!

One last question though, I've never really thought about it, but with all the modular cables coming with the XFX PSU, I thought I'd bring it up; does each and every SATA drive (ie DVD-burner, HDDs) need a separate power connector? I mean, there are several connectors on each cable, which implies to me I could use one, long SATA power connector for two HDDs and my DVD-Burner - or would that make each of them less efficient and/or wear out the cable or PSUs socket faster?

I've connected one SATA cable for each device right now, but if one for all will be just as good, I'll do that to reduce all the clutter and increase airflow.

 

[BlargHonk]

1 is fine, each of those cables can take 100+ watts of power if I remember correct, and SATA drives usually only use 12 watts, CD drives even less.