To Test if the Powersupply is bad: 1) Remove PSU from the case all together.
2) Look at the ATX connector, there will be a Green wire. Short this wire to ground with a small wire or conductive material (paperclip, etc) 3) If you have a voltmeter handy, Voltages on the ATX supply should read as follows (around %5 tolerance) Orange +3.3v Yellow +12v Red +5v PIN SIGNAL PIN SIGNAL 1 3.3V 11 3.3V 2 3.3V 12 -12V 3 GND 13 GND 4 5V 14 PS_ON 5 GND 15 GND 6 5V 16 GND 7 GND 17 GND 8 PW_OK 18 -5V 9 5V_SB 19 5V 10 12V 20 5V However, the powersupply could very well show correct voltages on the bench, but in the case and under load it will fail. Checking power while the computer is on and running wouldn't be the best thing for your componants either. Also, saying you're having problems isnt any more helpful than saying "help X doesn't work". I had a drive that was clicking. Thought it was DOA so I returned it, the second one did the same. No its not Windows XP or Gentoo's fault. It was my faulty power supply. CPU overheating? If you have a decent heatsink (Even the OEM AMD heatsinks are good enough), did you use thermal grease? This makes a HUGE difference, much more than one would realize. Northbridge and RAM overheating is a heat issue in the case (needs more air flow). Ramdom Lockups in X (or Windows) not caused by overheating CPU are caused by overheating Video card or crappy video drivers. Check to see if the card is hot to the touch when it locks up. A faulty power supply can cause any/all of the above. A Note on choosing your power supply. Don't go blindly with the biggest 500w power supply you can find. Research a high quality supply and it will never fail you. Many power supply companies still use the old ATX power distribution standard of having like, 50amps on the +3.3 and 5v rails, and like, 10 amps on the +12v. The problem with this is although it worked fine for the 3.3 and 5v chips like the old Pentium II's and 3, for the new AMD XP and Pentium 4 chips, they rely on the +12v rail. An XP 2500 can draw up to 7 amps of current from your 12v rail!. Combine that with the current that other 12v devices such as fans and harddrives use up, you can quickly saturate and fry your 12v rail out of your powersupply. In general, find the ps that has the largest capacity +12v rail you can afford. Antec makes very nice powersupplys. The True430 is a definite winner. http://www.antec-inc.com/specs/true430_spe.html This is the one I have, http://www.directron.com/4fanpsu.html The blue one. Made by a company called TTGI , I've put this under serious stress. 6 harddrives (two 120 gig IDE, 4 80gig SATA :D ), CD-RW/ DVD 4 sticks of ram, geforce 4, Xp 3200. 8 .25amp fans, 3 case lights The last thing I swear !! http://firingsquad.gamers.com/guides/power_supply/ -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
