It happened again

[Aku]

I started hearing beeping sounds while playing a game last night. I though it was sounds from the game. Then I quit to Windows, and the beeping was still there. Then the pattern changed, and the beeps became longer. So I shut down, and when I went to turn it back on a few moments later, the box had no power. I've blown my second power supply in this computer in just a couple months. I'm not going back to the seller again, as they would just send me another 350w supply. I'm just going to buy a bigger power supply on my own tonight, as 350w obviously doesn't cut it.

[E.T.]

There is a possible danger in increasing the wattage of PSU.
Similar to installing a larger capacity fuse in problematic circuit, you may provide the opportunity for component burn out & or wiring to overheat.
Strangely, a PC wont draw more than 120 watts while running a monitor, speakers, & CD. Wattage ratings in the 450 area take into the consideration of multitasking, running CD, printer, & other energy consuming devices all at one time. While it may be coencidental that you are just gettin bad PSU's, I can help wonder if some other component is drawing excessive current causing PSU to burn out [like a fuse/breaker of a AC circuit would react to being overloaded].

[Aku]

Things connected to my computer include: mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner, monitor, joystick/wheel (one at a time). Of these, the printer and scanner are turned off while I'm playing. The joystick/wheel has its own power source (plugged in separately). I would hope that simply upping from 350w to 400w wouldn't put my computer at any risk. Of course, there's jno guarantee that would solve the problem. Maybe the manufacturer of the power supplies Gentech uses builds crappy PSUs. The two that have been in my machine are identical.

[Aku]

You know, when I blew the outlet out last month, I had the outlet put on its own dedicated line. Is it possible that even on its own line, the one outlet is not enough to power a computer, joystick, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers (I forgot to mention speakers above)? Could a power supply blow because of strain on the outlet, making the power coming in irregular? I don't just want to blame it on the power supply, when I really might need to bring a second line into the room. Other things I've noticed are that the PSU blew when I was playing a graphic intensive game both times, and that both PSUs blew after having been used for about a month.

[Aku]

I put in a new Antec 400w psu today. I also disconnected my Belkin battery backup. That backup used 10 amps, plus 10 amps for my old psu, plus another 3.23 amps for all the other things connected to the 20 amp line. Yes, at 23.23 amps I was overloading the line, even when the printer and the game controllers were off. Now I'm only using 13.23 amps max, and have a 400w power source instead of 350w. This should fix the problem. I want to use my battery backup, but I can wait until I put a second line in on the adjoining wall. But that's not a priority right now.

[DBS]

Wow,
I am surprised the backup pulls those kinds of amps !

[Renzatic Gear]

That is some craziness, Aku. I've never heard of a PSU crapping out due to a bad power suppily before..yet it's happened to you twice in a row.

I would go on and brag about how my PSU has worked flawlessly for the past year and a half...but last time I bragged about my computer working fine it decided to crap out on me. I had to buy another 512 megs of ram to replace my old (and now dead) 768 megs, reset CMOS, had to fight to get my computer to recognize my harddrives....all that happened simply cuz I mouthed off about how great my computer ran. Karma can be cruel.

[Aku]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Karma can be cruel.</div>

Hah-hah! I've had more problems with this pc in the last three months as my previous pc in five years. It's possible that the brand of PSU they put in my machine (twice) is a crappy brand. It's also possible that 350w is just not enough to power a P4 with a GeForce 4, multiple drives, game controllers (though they should be self-powered), printer, speakers, etc. It's also possible that overloading the line can cause power fluctuations coming into the pc, causing the PSU to blow its fuse. Well, I addressed all three problems by getting a bigger PSU (400w), getting a good brand (Antec), and reducing the demand on that line to well under the limit (20 amps). If that doesn't solve the problem, nothing will.

[E.T.]

Aku: considering our systems are very similar, I tried to overload PSU by giving CPU simultaneously commands: running both drives [running game, burning from HD to CDRW], audio on high, e-connection on etc.
I ran this way for 5 minutes, no problem.
I did this w/a 200 watt PSU.

Im going to calcultate the total possible draw on PSU from above activities. As in any AC circuit, if the amperage draw exceeds the breaker [fuse], the power would be cut [shut down]. I find it odd that the PSU of a PC isnt protected by a relay or circuit breaker of some sorts.
Five minutes spent w/a hardware expert would sure clear things up for me on this issue.

[Maybe you're right, the PSUs youve been getting are simply defective, post w/any update/feedback].

[Aku]

<div class=\"smallfont\">Aku: considering our systems are very similar, I tried to overload PSU by giving CPU simultaneously commands
</div>

You are very brave. Glad your test on my behalf didn't blow out your power supply, although it would have made for a hilarious post!