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Solve : Power Supply Issues, or I think?

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:-? Ok I am rather perplexed by this whole situation. First a little about my system.
I have 2 hard drives, one is 80 gb and the other is 20gb, the 20 is my main one with WINDOWS XP on it. 2 hard drives, both DVD/CD readers and writers. 512 of memory (2 256 cards) The motherboard is a Pent. 4, not sure of all the other details since I am at work and don't have any information here, the motherboard is about 2-3 years old. I did have a 600 watt power supply in the system before all these issues came about and it was running fine and dandy before all this happened. Ok here is the scoop:
Last Saturday I was working on my sisters computer at my house and I have spare parts that I use for "testing" purposes I guess you could say, always keep em just in case you need to verify when your having issues. Anyways, she was having CD rom issues, I had a backup one, well I troubleshooted her computer, and forgot that there was a cd still in my extra cd rom and since hers was already all put back together and my case was off I just decided to plug it into mine, I shut off the computer and just plugged in a power cord from the power supply, booted the system up and ejected the disk, so far so good right, yeah well I decided to just unplug the power cord while the system was up, yes I know don't start the lectures i know I should of shut it down, so this all is my fault, I have already beat myself up enough! So as I was unplugging the power cord my wire that connects to my fan hit my hard drive (main drive) and the system shut off. Ok I didn't panic at first cuz I have had this happen before where i have had things touch and it shuts off and just waited a few minutes, but not in this case the few minutes turned into an hour and it still didnt work, so I have a backup power supply that is only 70 watts, from my OLD system, I kept it just as a tester to have just in case these situations ever come up, so i plugged it in and sure enough the system booted up. So i knew it was the power supply, not a big deal, we went and got a 600 watt power supply from CompUSA for 100 bucks, well i knew i could get a better deal online so we were just going to use this one for the weekend and verify it was the issue. Got it home booted up fine, ran good, and I found a 600 watt power supply at geeks.com here is the link:http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ESTAR-600-N
I have ordered from geeks for the last few years and always been very satisfied with their products and prices are incredible. Never had power supply issues, anyways I got it on Saturday, hooked it up and the computer was on 30 mintues and just shut off, now right before it shut off i was trying to shrink 2 DVD movies on my system, before this whole incident I could do that without anything overheating or going wrong. Once it shut off I let it sit awhile and tried again, nothing would turn on, my cpu would turn a tiny bit and thats it, so I knew it was the power supply, hooked my lil 70 watt tester power supply up and sure enough it booted up, so we went to Computer Renassiance and we found a 500 watt power supply for 50 bucks, just because returning the one from geeks was gonna take 3 weeks min we need the computer up, got it home, hooked it up and it ran fine, was up and running for almost 24 hours or more, then my boyfriend was shrinking DVD movies again and he did 2 at the same time and I have a program on my system I can watch my CPU TEMP and Case Temp, he said he noticed the temp got to 79 and it must of shut off shortly after that, and I know when it gets that high thats not a good thing its overheating. Tried the 70 watt and it worked fine, so again another power supply is done but why is the question. The other thing I noticed when I hooked both of these new power supplies up when I booted up it said my CMOS settings weren't updated or werent correct, sorry cant remember the exact message, and I believe you could hit f1 or f2 and I believe I tried F1. Not that familar with CMOS, but I did notice it was my date and time weren't set correctly, went into my BIOS and set it correctly. I have replaced my power supply before and never had that message come up before. After all this we brought my case over to my sisters and I blew it out, getting all the dust out, there wasn't a whole bunch but I did notice a lil build up, and honestly I have seen my system have more dust than this. So its fully cleaned out so the next time we try a power supply to see if that might help. Ok so here I sit confused, could I have gotten 2 faulty power supplies from 2 differnent places, possible but *censored* lol Or when that wire hit my hard drive did it screw something else up? I need to figure out why its doing this and what I need to do to fix it, we are going to exchange the one power supply tomm and try again and no more doing 2 movies at once but its weird cuz we use to be able to, If anyone has any advice I would so appreciate it, or if anyone knows anyone in MN that can help out? If you need more info I can try and get it for you, im not computer stupid I do know some stuff and have always been able to fix my computer but this one has me stumped. Thanks!
QueenB2oo6...... After having read your lenghty disertation , I am concerned about the comment re the power wire hitting the hard drive. Was there a electrical connection ...ie a spark ? or did it simply contact the hd ? I should also ask you why , you were working inside the case with the machine running...... that's courting disaster .

report re the contact and we can progress .

dl65 Ok when the wire hit my hard drive there was no spark, didnt even make a sound, the system just shut off. You would think that hard drive would be screwed up if anything but its not, it works fine. Yes I know I shouldn't of left the system on while I was unplugging the power cord to the CD rom, don't need to lecture me again, I have kicked myself over it. Trust me I have learned a very powerful lesson from it. Anyways, the part the does concern me know that I have thought more about it is that CMOS setting message I got when I installed both power supplies, I have installed power supplies before on my system and never got that message, could my battery be dying? Or could that be causing some of the issue? Plus I think the system is overheating but why, I had a 600 watt power supply before and it never over heated, like I said i just blew the case out, there wasn't that much dust so I don't think its that. Right now im stuck till I get a replacement power supply to troubleshoot more.QueenB2oo6...... Quote

Ok when the wire hit my hard drive there was no spark, didnt even make a sound, the system just shut off.
...... was the part of the wire bare that contacted the hard drive ? or was it insulated ? If it was bare , you had a direct short to ground and could well have done in the new power supply .

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have thought more about it is that CMOS setting message I got when I installed both power supplies
What CMOS message ?

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could my battery be dying?
Are you refering to the CMOS battery ? If you are , how old is it ?


dl65 Ok first quesiton: the wire, I am not sure what you call this wire, it comes from the power supply and its a power cord that plugs into my fan on my case, has two little metal spikes coming out of it that plugs into my fan the metal spikes is what hit my hard drive.
2nd quesiton, when I booted up after putting the 1st replacement power supply it gave me a message saying the CMOS wasn't updated or something like that, than you had the options to hit F1 to enter setup or F2 to use the default values, I entered the setup and then it brought me into my BIOS and I set my date and time from there, now I didn't get a chance to reboot my system to see if that error went away or not since the system didn't stay up running that long.
3rd question: My motherboard is 3 years old, I was curious if me zappin that hard drive messed up that CMOS battery since I have never gotten that CMOS messaging when I booted up my computer with new power supplies before till now.
Oh yeah if you have yahoo messenger you can message me at:
vanillasnowbunny
if that makes it easier to figure this out if not we can do this. Thanks alot for your help its much appreciatedQueenB2oo6 ..... ok ...then you had a dead short through the hard drive case to ground and probably finished off the power supply .

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I set my date and time from there
why was it necessary to reset the time and date ?

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I didn't get a chance to reboot my system to see if that error went away or not since the system didn't stay up running that long.
I dont know how your bios is set up but is sounds like its setup to halt on any error .

As far as the battery goes ,they are so cheap, I would pick one up and put it in . Was the clock and calendar keeping the correct time and date prior to this ?

oops , I forgot , I dont use Yahoo messenger , I use msn messenger or Skype .


dl65 QueenB2oo6 ..... ok ...then you had a dead short through the hard drive case to ground and probably finished off the power supply .
Bit confused by this, so there is something wrong with the hard drive I hit to keep making my power supply's go stupid? If there was something wrong wouldn't u think it wouldnt run properly or wouldn't even recognize my windows files?

I had to set my date and time because it was off, it wasn't reading the right time nor date.

My BIOS being setup to halt at any error, how do I change this? The motherboard I currently have I honestly hate, its been a piece of crap since I got it but Ive put up with it for now till I rebuild it. Where is a good place to find these batteries?QueenB2oo6......
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then you had a dead short through the hard drive case to ground and probably finished off the power supply .
I dont recall saying that your HD was damaged by the short ....what I said was there was a short created thruogh the HD case to ground. The HD is probably fine .

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I had to set my date and time because it was off, it wasn't reading the right time nor date.
This confirms the battery requiring replacement .

I dont know where you live , but if in the USA or Canada , a radio shack , large drug store , local computer shop may carry them . Any shops that carry watch batteries , medical batteries . It is probably a 3 volt lithium ..... Sony #CR2032 or maxell CR2032 (nothing SPECIAL )........ but just remove yours and take it with you .
A note of caution ....... make certain that all power is disconnected before you go into the case .....and remember to drain off any static buildup in your body ..........

dl65 Are you sick of me yet? LOL ok don't answer that lol
Anyways, could the battery if it is bad be causing the system not to stay up and running? Or cause the system to overheat? I guess I don't know that much about those batteries or CMOS, never ran into this issue but now I am learning.QueenB2oo6...... LOL .....Quote
Anyways, could the battery if it is bad be causing the system not to stay up and running?
The bad battery could be causing the system not to fully post , it would go so far and then stop .

You mention overheating , is it ,or were you concerned that it might be ? Are all the fans running and in particular the one on the HEAT sink on the CPU ?

I suspect that a new PSU and a new CMOS battery will fix things up .

dl65

Ok wanna make sure I am understanding correctly. The battery could be causing the system to not fully post, does that mean it could boot up and run and you could check your email or surf the web or shrink a movie and it could work for 30 min and shut off and almost git a glich (battery)or running outta juice and just shut off and wreck the power supply? Cuz its something causing these powersupplys to crap out, whether its overheating and wrecking them or does this battery have something it can do to it?
The overheating...as I said I have a program on my computer, its called MBM or something along those lines, anyways its down by my clock and runs and I can check the temp of my CPU and Case and keep an eye on it, it normally runs 30-40, now when I shrink movies whether its one or two at a time, the temp goes to about 50ish sometimes 60 and thats where it stays but what I noticed with the two new power supplies I tried is that when I did try to shrink movies the temperture rose all the way up to 79 my boyfriend seen and it shut off shortly after, now I have had my system overheat before but it wouldnt shut off, all I did was blow out the case and it was better, dust build up, well my case isn't that DUSTY now but I blew it out now just to make sure. Thats the only concern I have for overheating, does the battery h ave something to do with overheating the CPU?
So just getting a new power supply and battery should do the job? Im going to get a return on the two power supplies anyways and I'll go pick up a battery since they are inexpensive and possibly could try that. Thanks again.If someone could offer some advice on the last message I posted, I am trying to figure out what that battery all can affect, can that be possible if that is dying or has issues that it could shut my system down and screw with my power supply? I am debating which way to go about this, pay someone to look at it and possibly fix it or just say forget it and order a new motherboard. ThanksBattery hold the system time and the BIOS settings between boots, nothing more. It is a cheap replacement, but they uisually last 5+ years.


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