PSU causing PC failure?

[Uzuda]

Hi all,

I have been having issues with my PC for quite a while now... the clock battery on the mobo keeps dying, and so I have a large pack of the correct batteries to replace it when it goes again... also, very recently, I have noticed an annoying clicking sound coming from my PSU, and the sound gets worse when the GPU has to render anything... I have also recently had to take out two of my RAM sticks, as for some reason, it wouldn't start with more than two in, but a few days ago I tried it with three in, and it suddenly boots up normally...

My question is, could all these problems I have been having with my mobo be completely down to a PSU failure?
I figured that, if the PSU isn't supplying enough power to the mobo, then the RAM controllers, may not be able to handle all slots... (just a theory)
and the battery death could be due to an earth (negative) drain acting on it or an overcharge (possibly power from PSU?)
and the clicking from the PSU could be due to the GPU drawing too much power for it to cope with...

Any help or advice would be great! thanks!

PC specs are as follows...
AsRock Penryn1600SLI-110db (mobo).

Intel Pentium Q6700 core 2 Quad (CPU).

Komputer Bay, 2GB, PC2-6300/6400, DDR2, 800MHz, non ECC un-buffered (RAM) (was 8GB, now 6GB).

Asus NVIDIA Geforce GTX 260 (GPU).

Seagate 1TB HDD (for files and programs)
Crucial MX200 250GB SSD (windows 7 installation and some other programs)
with a disk drive as well..

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

It is your psu, definitely just buy a new one before it takes out everything else in your system. as for a psu to recommend see if you can get a corsair cx 430

 

[Uzuda]

It is your psu, definitely just buy a new one before it takes out everything else in your system. as for a psu to recommend see if you can get a corsair cx 430

Thank you, I suddenly had that thought this morning.. it struck me that the PSU could be a possible cause... but now I have it confirmed that it almost certainly is, then I'll go ahead and replace it.. thanks again!

would 430W be enough.. on the NVIDIA website they recommend 500W for the GTX260? it would be cheaper if I could get away with a lower wattage PSU

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

Thank you, I suddenly had that thought this morning.. it struck me that the PSU could be a possible cause... but now I have it confirmed that it almost certainly is, then I'll go ahead and replace it.. thanks again!

would 430W be enough.. on the NVIDIA website they recommend 500W for the GTX260? it would be cheaper if I could get away with a lower wattage PSU

You will be fine with 430watts as long it's a "quality" unit

 

[Uzuda]

You will be fine with 430watts as long it's a "quality" unit

well my current PSU is a coolermaster 500W... I always heard that cooler master was a good make of PSU haha

 

[Feronix]

well my current PSU is a coolermaster 500W... I always heard that cooler master was a good make of PSU haha

That very much depends. The old GX series were notoriously bad. Either way, they don't make their own power supplies but let other parties do it, same for Corsair. That CX430 for instance is made by Channel Well Technologies.

 

[tinytomlogan]

It is your psu, definitely just buy a new one before it takes out everything else in your system. as for a psu to recommend see if you can get a corsair cx 430

Not sure how you are 100% certain its the PSU.

The ram issue is likely to tbe the fact its a crappy mobo and just needs setting up correctly.

The batteries shouldnt go if you have a decent brand but the PSU wont cause that.

The click in the PSU isnt great but its not a sign its killing components

 

[shambles1980]

personally i would check the little mosfets arround the cpu.
i have had one of those die on an old lga 775 board and it would still boot and work. but eventually another mosfet failed spectacularly. which was the end of the board.

 

[Uzuda]

personally i would check the little mosfets arround the cpu.
i have had one of those die on an old lga 775 board and it would still boot and work. but eventually another mosfet failed spectacularly. which was the end of the board.

okay, so what signs am I looking for?

 

[Uzuda]

Not sure how you are 100% certain its the PSU.

The ram issue is likely to tbe the fact its a crappy mobo and just needs setting up correctly.

The batteries shouldnt go if you have a decent brand but the PSU wont cause that.

The click in the PSU isnt great but its not a sign its killing components

Thanks,
I put duracell batteries in... not sure what the best brand of batteries is, but I figured they'd be decent... and yet they still die too quickly...

Is there anyway of narrowing down to find a potential cause of the mentioned issues?
The fact that it will not POST with more than three RAM sticks in confuses me, and throughout all my research on the internet, I couldn't find anyone with the same issue...

 

[tinytomlogan]

Thanks,
I put duracell batteries in... not sure what the best brand of batteries is, but I figured they'd be decent... and yet they still die too quickly...

Is there anyway of narrowing down to find a potential cause of the mentioned issues?
The fact that it will not POST with more than three RAM sticks in confuses me, and throughout all my research on the internet, I couldn't find anyone with the same issue...

You could cure that with setting volts in the BIOS

 

[Uzuda]

just monitored my voltages from the PSU using speedfan... it is telling me that the voltage for the +12V is currently at 7.71V... could this explain anything? or is this okay? o.o

 

[tinytomlogan]

just monitored my voltages from the PSU using speedfan... it is telling me that the voltage for the +12V is currently at 7.71V... could this explain anything? or is this okay? o.o

It wouldnt even work at 7v matey. Speedfan isnt the most reliable tbh and neither is your board for monitoring it

 

[Uzuda]

It wouldnt even work at 7v matey. Speedfan isnt the most reliable tbh and neither is your board for monitoring it

okay... so that is most likely a false reading then?

You could cure that with setting volts in the BIOS

The voltage supplied to the RAM is set to AUTO in the BIOS settings... so should I set it manually? if so, I'm not too sure on the voltage I should set it to

UPDATE....

I put the original PSU (300W) and GPU (AMD HD5450) in, and the mobo will now accept all 8GB of RAM... I'm thinking that the mobo problem is down to a faulty PSU... I can't imagine a GPU causing the types of system problems that I experienced, and I had also tried the original GPU with the new PSU, and the problems were still present...

Therefore, my judgement is that the PSU will need replacing... Any thoughts or advice?