PC Power Supply Issues Tech Help

I have worked for several years as a technician fixing and repairing computers. And I have seen several computers come in that were apparently fixed by other technicians only to have the problem reoccur a few months down the road. This causes customer to lose faith in the technician and instead of the customer bringing the computer back they go elsewhere. Or in some cases the customer is passed the 30 days and will charged again by the technician and the customer feels duped. Quite often this problem is quite often the power supply.

Now, I feel that most technicians are honest and in a lot of cases fix computer with the ideal to reduce the customers costs as much as possible. Sometimes, this is the wrong thing to do. Power supplies can cause all sorts of problem. Computer freezes, booting to the windows screen, computer shutting off, slow fan, overheating, ram failures, hard drive failures, motherboard issues are some of the most common issues with a bad power supply. Just because it is giving power does not mean that it is supplying the recommended wattage. here is a step by step to follow.

 Well, There is the obvious if the power does not turn on and there is no light on the motherbaord try a new power supply of equal or higher wattage. My suggestion there is make sure it is a larger wattage power supply. There is wear and tear on the computer, so unless it is brand new out of the box the fan probably have accunmulated some dust and dirt and require a little more power to run. If the fan is grinding at all replace it. Fans are inexpensive and if the are grinding they are going to get worse. Slow running fans also don't cool the processor properly and that will cause your computer to slow down, as well as overheat.

So, motherboard lights up and the fans are running but you have no picture. Are you getting any beeping? Check beep codes for the motherboard, replace ram, or video card accordingly with known working parts. If still not working again, try new higher wattage power supply. If still not working try powering motherboard outside the case with just power supply,ram and video card (if video is not onboard). If works motherboard was probably shorting with the case. If not then once more try working ram and video card both and work backwards if issue is solved. If still not working the motherboard is most likely defective.

 Okay, let's say the computer does turn on but freezes at the windows screen. This general tells me that the computer can't get into the higher graphic mode. Try safe mode first if still o then try a lower power video card first, if still not working then again try a larger power supply. Anytime you upgrade a computer to a much higher video card, if there are any immediate issues there is a good chance you also need to upgrade the power supply.

Now, my favourite scenario, the computer runs, take a long time to boot up, then it freezes or shuts off occasionally. BACK UP IMPORTANT FILES. Now, the first thought is to run ram and hard drive diagnostics which takes a longtime. first of all, if the power supply is not giving the proper juice this can cause the tests for the ram and/or the hard drive to fail. My suggestion is to change the power supply first(5 minute job) then run the tests. If the hard drive or ram fail, then they were the issue. If they pass, run the computer with the new power supply and see if it  still shuts down and is slow. If it does then this is probably software, so reinstall the OS and you should be good to go.