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Thread: Monitoring supply voltages?

  1. #1
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    Monitoring supply voltages?

    My Dell Desktop (2nd Gen i7, running Win 8.1 Pro) has started doing dodgy things with the power supply:

    Switching itself off.
    Sometimes pushing the power button makes the lights go on and the fans spin for about 0.25 seconds before it all goes off again.
    Sometimes pushing the power button does nothing.
    Sometimes it starts up fine (seems to be better if I've unplugged it for a while?) and runs for hours with no issue.

    I've seen tools that show motherboard voltages. Is this based on any kind of "standard"? That is, can anyone recommend a tool (and source for that tool) that should work?

    Thanks,
    Measure once, cut twice. Practice makes perfect.

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    Clean the dust out of your CPU heatsink/fan unit.
    If a man is alone in the woods and there isn't a woke Hollywood around to call him racist, is he still white?



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    git r new PSU before something gets on fire.

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    Speedfan is a good one, id be a bit surprised if it was noticeable while running thoug. Gives temps too so you can check them
    "A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer" - Tad Ghostal

  5. #5
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    Cool, thanks. I was hoping anything that monitors might keep logs. That might give clues as to what's going on just before each shut down.

    Will look for it ...
    Measure once, cut twice. Practice makes perfect.

  6. #6
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    Hmm, the only voltage it's reporting is for the GPU, which appears to be "normal". Still, nice to get confirmation that the temps are basically fine.

    Cheers,

    (The GPU fan is running, so I figure that 0 in the pic is an instrumentation error).
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    Measure once, cut twice. Practice makes perfect.

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    PSU Tester cost me $5 on trademe. Blinding usefulness. Plug it in compare LEDs. I'd guess your PSU is full of dust or otherwise without airflow. If so after about 20 mins run time the led will flicker for one of the fan outlets and or the main pin set.
    I a blast from some compressed air and general dust off inside your box don't help get a new PSU.


    Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

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    I use a http://www.trademe.co.nz/798656628 but if you want better detail than it works or is fucked go the extra and get a http://www.trademe.co.nz/797477505


    Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

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    Quote Originally Posted by James Deuce View Post
    Clean the dust out of your CPU heatsink/fan unit.
    I had this done yesterday and the computer is like brand new again!
    "Statistics are used as a drunk uses lampposts - for support, not illumination."

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    One of the symptoms is the thing turning itself off, but another is it sometimes not turning back on - even after a night unplugged. I don't think its a cleanliness/dust/heat issue.
    Measure once, cut twice. Practice makes perfect.

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    My dell desktop sometimes would not turn on, and would flash an amber led on the on PC on switch. Turned out to be swelled caps on the PSU, easily fixed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by pzkpfw View Post
    One of the symptoms is the thing turning itself off, but another is it sometimes not turning back on - even after a night unplugged. I don't think its a cleanliness/dust/heat issue.
    It might just be fucked, it is a dell after all.

    Stating the obvious, but you've backed up all important stuff of it already, yeh?
    "A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer" - Tad Ghostal

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    Quote Originally Posted by bogan View Post
    It might just be fucked, it is a dell after all.

    Stating the obvious, but you've backed up all important stuff of it already, yeh?
    Yeah, when I first started getting these issues I did a "review" and made extra backups on top of my backups. But it still scares me how much hassle it'd be to restore everything.
    Measure once, cut twice. Practice makes perfect.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by pzkpfw View Post
    Yeah, when I first started getting these issues I did a "review" and made extra backups on top of my backups. But it still scares me how much hassle it'd be to restore everything.
    Yeh I've had to backup and restore all my stuff just this weekend. Little things like browser settings/cookies/passwords can take a while if you don't think of them beforehand. I just copy everything nowadays, then can just overwrite personalisation settings/files in a fresh instal with those from my old one.
    "A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer" - Tad Ghostal

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