Power down k7s5a - case study

[heda_p]

Hi All,
My comp was running fine for last four months suddenly last week when burning a cd it went off. When clicked on power button CPU fan take one burst and then went off. No power indicaters. I did everything to power on plugging and unplugging components but nothing works. Finally with consulting with my company hardware consultant he told me if nothing is on no lights then it might be smps culprit. So I went to a mechanic and he checked and he replied smps is tripped so he repaired it. Now machine got started but after two days again went down same prob no power indicators. Checked with mechanic and found that again smps tripped and he replaced some cap. Now again machine went down in two hours. I talk to mechanic that why is this happening, he said i have tested the smps for continious four hours and is working fine in his workshop. Then he asked me the configuration and after knowing that I am having athlon xp 1700 amd 256 ddr ram he suggested to go for 300 Wtt smps.

CONFIGURATION:
K7S5A MOTHERBOARD
250 WATT ATX SMPS
ATHLON XP 1700 PROCESSOR
256 MB DDR RAM
NO UPDATES ON BIOS, CMOS ON DEFAULT SETTINGS EXCEPT 133/133 BUS IS CHANGED
TNT RIVA 32 MB GRAPHICS AND TV TUNER CARD(PIXEL VIEW 128 ALL IN ONE)
INTERNAL MODEM
SOUND BLASTER LIVE CARD
FOUR POINT SURROUND SOUND CREATIVE FPS 1000 SPEAKER SYSTEM(IT TAKES ITS OWN POWER CONNECTION)
CD WRITER HP 4X
CD ROM DRIVE
HARD DISK 17 GB SEAGATE
HARD DISK 60 GB WESTERN DIGITAL
USB WEB CAM
WINME OS
SOME BIG SOFTWARE LIKE PHOTOSHOP WITH 20 PLUGINS, OFFICE XP FULL, EASY CD CREATOR 5.2, NERO,
SOME 20 SMALL SOFTWARE AND NEED FOR SPEED GAME BUT I DONT PLAY GAME
NO UPS OR SURGE PROTECTOR



Issues:
1. Installation and configuration was not at all the problem machine was running perfectly earlier with win2k and win98 dual os. This problem comes after winme is installed.
2. Now it's hot so sometime other electric applainces like ac,tv, fridg are working simultaneously. But third time smps down then tv and ac was not on.
3. In some forumns people have same problem but their smps is get on after some 2 or five minutes, why that is not happening with my smps.
4. All the guys having this problem some of them solved by unplugging and plugging components one by one, Some of them by waiting for five minutes and then it's get started. Some have machine shut down and resarted autometically, some says chipset heatsink glue is sometime problem. The difference is I never got such problems and none of them get smps down problem. Even if after replacing smps same things happen then I cant returned it, so is there any way to check if the culprit is motherboard.
5. In India(Mumbai) is there any good smps available?




Now the things are to consider:
First suggestion is to replace smps with a 300 watts one. I have seen lots of forumns where this problem happens with lot of guys who are having 300+ watts smps, and this machine was running fine for the last four months.
second is could be motherboard is shorting the smps but how thats possible after four months.
third is could be power outlet which I will change this time
fourth i think it's winme os because this problem come after two days of installation
fifth it could be easy cd creator 5,2 because every time it went down when i was working with it.

[DanU]

Welcome to techimo!

These boards have a history of requiring quality power supplies in order to work properly. AMD maintains a list of recommended power supplies. You can find it here:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/...5E4358,00.html

[edit]
I just noticed that you're using a 250W power supply. I would recommend using an AMD approved 300W or greater PS

[Peter M]

An XP-1700, four mass storage drives, a pile of cards, all on a 250 watt PSU? Get real, do the math.

You want at least 30 amps on the +5V rail, 2 amps on +5V standby, and at least 200 watts combined +5V/+3.3V allowance. Total wattage doesn't matter as long as these are met.

This is true for _any_ Athlon board, it's only that low cost mainboards like K7S5A tend to attract cheap resellers who put them into cheap cases ...

regards, Peter

[heda_p]

My question is why PSU wasn't giving any problem yet..........and now only it becomes cuprit can't it be motherboard????

[heda_p]

Why now only PSU started giving problem??? can't it be motherboard culprit??????

[heda_p]

Is anybody got exactly the same problem (tripping of SMPS) and sorted out by changing 300 Wtt PSU. I am planning to add DVD rom drive also will 300 wtt be enough????

[Peter M]

It's because overstressed PSUs age very very quickly.

I told you what to look for already. Don't go after total wattage, shop for the specs I gave you. DVD drive power consumption isn't very relevant to all this, about one ampere extra on +5V and +12V lines.
regards, Peter

[Ritalin Kid]

Wow a 250W Power Supply powered all that?????

You really need a 300Watt PSU minimum... I have a 320 Watt and with all my stuff I'm barely making by...

Plus the K7S5A Motherboards are very picky about cheap PSU.. even the cheap 300 Watt ones.

[heda_p]

Thanks a lot all of you.........After looking at your suggestions I did resarch here in mumbai, I found a seller who is selling a 350 Watts SMPS. Here are the details...

Total combined power is 180 watts.
+3.3v 14 A
+5v 30 A
+12v 15 A
-5v stand by 2A

Will that work ?????

With this I am planning to buy a new Cabinet(Tower) for this smps (any perticular things to look I am looking for 6 bays 5.25" tower)

I am sorry but I relly don't understand the power output terminology.

Thanks,
Prakash

[heda_p]

Finally I bought new SMPS 350 Watt with New Full size tower
+3.3v 20A
+5v 30A
+12v 15A

I installed winme & win2k and is working fine

Thanks a lot all of you.........
Prakash