Question about swapping Power Supplies

[Wheeler01]

I think my power supply is dying on me beacuse I'll just be sitting there doing nothing, or anything, and the damn thing just restarts itself for no reason. I posted a message in the OS forum thinking it might be something to do with WinMe, but a couple of people said it could be the power supply. So my question is, how hard is it to put a new one in...and if I have another computer that has a 300W PS like my broke one, could I just swap them in and out to see if that was the problem?

Thanks
Wheeler

 

[Aaron1982]

Yes

 

[Tsaico]

It should be very easy. All you need to do, (if it is a standard ps) is look for the four screws that hold the sucker in. undo those, and it shouldslide out. Toss in the new and reverse the process.... plug everything back in... and presto... new PS for you! Though, i would suggest, before you start unscrewing stuff, keep a mental note or even a physical one, on what you are really unscrewing and where these screws go. Sometimes, some cases have weird ways of doing things, and this might save you some time and trouble.

 

[Wheeler01]

Well upon looking at my old computer, I'm not sure if it is a 250W or 300W, there is no label on it that says....will it do any harm to put a 250W, in the computer that has the bad 300W?

Thanks again

 

[GregMal]

Your setup appears to be a homemade PC. Have you been fooling
around inside lately. The symptoms you've described may be that
the motherboard is touching something inside the case and
grounding, causing a reboot. Something to think about...
Greg

 

[corkyg]

One key bit of info is missing! The easy in and out only applies to another power supply designed for an ATX case. If you have an old computer, it may have an AT case, and the switching and wiring are totally different . . . better to just pick up a new ATX power supply.

 

[Tsaico]

that is true, i forgot about that. To figure out if your ps is at or atx, just look at what connects to the motherboard. If the plug is two peices, then it is an old at style. Nearly all the newsest boards out there will take the ATX which looks like one solid square plug. And as far as your board is concerned, you can hook up a more powerful ps to a board with no worries. Just make sure you have enough juice for what you are running. ( I have heard of people using as little as 145w on a full system without any problems.) I personally like 300 or 330w in my systems. And as far as the board is touching the case, unless ou just built this system and has always had this problem, the chances of a crew or support to fall out is rare. Good luck

 

[Wheeler01]

Well I swapped my power supplies, and I'm still getting reboots. I looked at the mother board and it doesn't appear to be touching the case anywhere...before this started I hadn't installed any new hardware within the past week.

Any other ideas?

Thanks

 

[Wheeler01]

Well I guess I'll try reformatting and hope that it doesn't restart halfway thru the formating