Q&A for How to Check a Power Supply

You should test all of them. So check the SATA plug, the molex plug, the A TX plug, the video power card, and whatever other plugs you have on your power supply. All of those plugs should be working if your power supply is functional.

Yes, theoretically, a power supply should still be able to function if only one of the pathways is bad. It can depend on which pathway it is, but it's certainly possible.

The only way to know for sure is to use a power supply tester. You can make some solid guesses based on how your computer is behaving, but there's no way to know for sure without a power supply tester.

Take out the power cord, hold the "on" button for a minute, and put power cord back in. Turn it back on.

The problem could be the GPU or the RAM, if not the board is faulty. You should check or reset the RAM first.

Test with a known good power supply. More likely, it is a faulty PSU, as the chances of getting a bad sensor are slim.

If you smell anything coming from your power supply, it's time to replace it ASAP.

Your computer may be overheating. Check to see if there are any problems with the fan.

It might be a blown PSU. You should test it with a new PSU or check the fuse on the plug.

Ensure that all the components are seated correctly. Then, check all power connections. Run the board with only the bare bones; that will allow the system to run. Check the PSU and Boot to Bios and ensure the default settings are loading. Faulty or incorrectly fitted RAM will cause startup issues as well.

Check to ensure there aren't multiple places for the monitor to be connected on the PC. Often the on-board video is auto-disabled if a video card has been installed; see if there's another place to plug the video cable and try that port. You could also try hooking the monitor to another device to ensure there are no issues there, and if you monitor has multiple inputs, be sure that it's on the proper HDMI/PC channel.

Yes. Your power supply is a victim of broken PSU. When you tried the method, the fan should run continuously until you unplug the power cord.

Some low-noise PSUs are supposed to act in that way. Check the manual to see if yours is a super/extreme low-noise PSU.

Your computer is not detecting your hard drive. Either the drive is bad, or it's not connected correctly.

This is usually because of overheating. See the temperatures of your CPU and GPU, and use a cooling fan.

Not necessarily. The LED may be blown off. If the fan is running continuously, your power supply is okay.

I would start with the graphics card. Depending on your unit you may have a physical graphics card or one integrated into your CPU. To test the physical card, you could unplug it and attempt to hook it up to another card (or to the back of the motherboard if you do have an integrated one and weren't using it for primary graphics). If this does not fix your problem and your power supply is good, I would think about replacing the motherboard.

This could be due to many reasons. The first thing you should check is the temperatures of your system, CPU, and GPU. If any of these are overheating, your computer will turn off to prevent any damage to these components. Download a trusted application that monitors hardware, like CPUID Hardware Monitor.

Try to test your PSU with a PSU voltage tester. It will tell you if the voltage is within normal range or not.

The problem is that computers get overheated while playing games. If you continue playing games, then do so with a cooler, as it cools down your computer. But it could be possible that he played too much and the computer is damaged by overheating, so you'll need to check that first.

In 90% of the cases I had this issue, it was because the RAM not seated properly (or a faulty RAM).

Check the manual, it should include a description for the wiring and certain diagrams for all connectors, make sure you don't have the wrong type of power supply unit. Don't overload the voltage and buy a power wire online.

The easiest way is to buy a PSU usage monitor. All you have to do is plug the monitor into the wall, then plug the cable from your computer into the monitor. You should see your total wattage, voltage, and more.

A. If your Windows PC says "Plugged In, Not Charging". B. If you plugged in a charging cable, but Windows does not detect it.

When a PC boots, it checks itself to ensure that the parts aren't damaged, specifically that they won't catch on fire due to a fault. If it is all good, then it should continue on. If it detects any sort of abnormality, it immediately cuts the power. This sounds like something inside your PC is completely dead, not necessarily the PSU but it is something.

Do you know how to get to your BIOS table? On old computers, it was either the F2 and\or the F8 key to gain access to the BIOS table settings. Look for the bootable drive change it to "C:\, CD-ROM, A:\, SCSI" drive, save the file and then exit from that point and re-boot your computer. You are looking for the way to boot your computer without using the boot diskette. But to boot on its own terms to get to Windows. During POST, your computer runs a command to get itself up and running by its bootstraps. If this doesn't work then you need to open up your computer and make sure that all the connections are firmly in place on the motherboard instead of being a loose connection.

Don't worry about that, it's not a stereo system on how many watts you have but of the current settings of voltages to run the computer. Keep it at factory settings as you find it. if you need further assistance, then some computers have a manual in them to find what you are looking for.

All you need to do is to replace the PSU, which should be easy to do with a screwdriver and remove the connections from the motherboard. Seek for another one at a computer shop that probably sell for $30.00. Write out what it states in every detail on the side of the PSU and take that to the service person to get an exact replacement part. Bring it home and reinstall the replacement part back into your computer that must have the exact same wires to go to the motherboard. Place them firmly into the motherboard and screw back in the required screws. Then reboot your computer.

This is a setting you might need to change, as it's in the specific settings that runs your drives. Is this operation when you turn on your computer the drives start's running? Then say 10 minutes later the drive shuts off but the computer is still on running. This setting is to save your hard drive from running "too - long and less wear and tear" situation. You can change that setting in the field of: "Turn on/off your monitor and hard drive" by pre-selecting that option. It's like a "Sleep" mode too. The computer goes to "Sleep", but the machine is still on in "Stand - By" mode. Also, no need to pull the plug that only creates more problems later on down the road for you.

It's not the wattage that your power supply has, it's not a stereo system. It goes by voltage.