Troubleshoot and upgrade

[a76erml]

Rob et al;

I am a previous customer, built my PC after researching your site and buying your book, want to say in the Intel e8400 days. My Antec Sonata III case power supply and fan have stopped working. any ideas how to troubleshoot? Not sure why both would be dead at teh same time.

Also, want to upgrade to newer components, do you have a recommendation for what to keep and what to replace? Thanks, Mark

[joenewbie]

Rob et al;

I am a previous customer, built my PC after researching your site and buying your book, want to say in the Intel e8400 days. My Antec Sonata III case power supply and fan have stopped working. any ideas how to troubleshoot? Not sure why both would be dead at teh same time.

Also, want to upgrade to newer components, do you have a recommendation for what to keep and what to replace? Thanks, Mark

I'm not sure why you'd have issues with the case, but I do know in order to recommend what to upgrade we're going to need to know what you have currently... besides the case. *grin*

Edit: Oh and what do you use this rig for? Gaming or just internet surfing etc... photos and video?

[zburns]

Post Script: Left out this 'thought' which may be most important. Your on/off switch and the '110 volt receptacle' for the power cord is part of the power supply housing. If the 'rocker arm' of the switch feels funny, like loose, really easy to move from one position to another, that would indicate switch problem. Could also be your incoming power cord. One of your other components should have a similar cord you could try.

ELECTRICAL SAFETY COMMENT ! !

Keep everything 'UNPLUGGED' when physically messing with the computer -- no hands inside it when turned on, etc. etc. ! ! Hopefully you are on a wood floor or carpet. One hand only on the computer when its turned on; other hand touching nothing -- other hand 'just in the air'.
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My Antec Sonata III case power supply and fan have stopped working. any ideas how to troubleshoot? Not sure why both would be dead at teh same time.

Deal with psu and fan stopped working at same time. I have a Sonata III case and Antec 500 watt psu; purchased 2008. Since the Sonata III case is a smaller size case, the 500 watt psu is probably all they ship in this case. In fact the current advertisement on the Antec site still shows a 500 watt psu.

OK, ref fan and psu stopped working at same time. Look for this: a flat 4 pin plug with 4 pins inside the plug -- this flat 4 pin plug coming from the psu. There are 4 openings for wires in this plug. In 1,2 3, 4 order across the plug, two red wires in one opening on one side of the plug, two black wires in the next opening, two more black wires in the next opening and two more red wires in the fourth opening.

The fan that is not working has two thin wires, one red and one black that go into a 'mating black plug' that in turn plugs into the plug with all the wires mentioned in the last para. 4 of the wires in the 8 wire total in the first black plug come from the power supply; the other 4 wires go on to another 4 pin plug -- all this visible to you.

The fan gets its voltage from the first mentioned black plug with 8 wires going into it. If the psu is not putting out voltage, then the fan will not run.
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You can take the psu out of the cabinet and remove the bottom cover. There is no fuse inside, but there is a 'capacitor' (tube like device with 2 pins on it - probably).

It is possible the capacitor has failed; if so it could be replaced. Cost to buy one in the $ 5.00 range. Look inside for signs of a loose wire or signs that something has 'cooked' or melted. Look outside also for some indication of a loose or broken wire.

If you do gaming and have done a lot of it and pushed 'the envelope' to get high frame rates, then it is possible a 'one winding inside the transformer has opened up due to overheating'. Best you can do is 'trace the wiring going from the 110 volt plug and look carefully inside the case for something that looks abnormal.
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I will look at this post in an hour or so and see if I need to clarify anything. Hope you can find the problem.
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Regards upgrading, the 500 watt psu sort of limits your case and therefore, the output frame rate of the computer running a video card. So if you are a 'high energy gamer (or want to be one), then you may be in the position of having to start from scratch -- so give us some feedback regards my comment.
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Sorry to keep adding comments. If the above comments do not definitively solve the problem then it is possible to do some trouble shooting with an ordinary electrical volt/ohm meter, assuming you have access to one. If you need to go this far, give us a post back and I will add some comments on using the voltmeter.