FYI Hardware Testing with HTPC's and Your local PC Store.
#1
Hey All,

I have been doing this a while and have tried all the software starting with MCE2005 and before anyhow the point being I have been plagued with all sorts of hardware failures over the years sometimes they are easy to diagnose and sometimes they are just a big PITA.

So a couple notes. I use to burn in my systems for almost 48 hours when I first built them and this seems to be past tense big time in the fast pace pc world we are now in. Almost all LiveCD versions have a copy of memtest on it atleast run that for one pass to make sure your ram is good.

My biggest issues is POWER. We all have dirty power coming from the wall in most places it is a forgone conclusion and we all know it to be true OR power conditioners would not be a booming business as it is.

I have a 2 isolated 20 amp circuits (arc suppression breakers) feeding my pc and entertainment and I still have a APC 900 on the pc stuff plugged into that 20 amp circuit.

So here is an example. I built my wifes machine last year basic desktop nothing fancy with a Antec Smart power 500 psu this past week it started to Not Auto suspend anymore, pardon me it would suspend but when she tried to wake it up the video would not come back she had to reboot. The the famous network cable is unplugged problem started. I check the setting and everything was as I set it up, swapped the psu and voila ALL problems gone, suspends and wakes up just as it did before.

I picked up a psu tester today, the best I have seen so far and for 15$ by cooltech or someone, I checked her old psu and all the 12V are fine I am getting a High +v reading on the 5v section - yep the 5v feed to the board and all the USB ports.

Here's an even better one, when I got my zalman hd135 the rave about psu was the Zalman 600W heat pipe I got one. it lasted a year then my machine started shutting down on it;s own, I replaced the psu and problems gone but I checked that psu as well and instantly checking the psu showed it was FINE, This tester has a power button with LCD display for all voltages, the longer you hold the power button the more load on the psu well I held it for 10 minutes and the power supply showed perfect. I went and got the hair dryer plugged it in and placed it 2' from the power supply on low setting and within 1 minute the power supply tested started setting alarms for everything high voltage low voltage etc on every voltage 12, 5, 3 etc.. So make sure if you have a psu tested at your local pc store THEY LOAD THE PSU SO IT IS HOT. I am really good customer at my local shop and they let me pretty much do what I like and usually never 2nd guess me when I tell them I have a bad part and I have always argued with the service techs about psu or device heat and load testing problems.

And just to prove my point The first server I built had an antec 650W trio power supply that is now at least 6 or more years old and ran in that server with 8 1TB hard drives until I swapped it with a pc power and cooling 750 as I was upping the drive count to 14 and wanted more amps on the rails. I also tested the ANTEC psu which I now use for testing boards etc, after connected and holding the power button on the tester for 10 minutes I place the har dryer 6" from the PSU on medium for 5 Minutes and guess what NOT a single change in voltage on any measurement which says alot for stability.

So my suggestion read up AND test this stuff yourself, pc stores are in the business to make money first and I am sure you guys have seen the pieces of paper in the new electronics stuff we buy now, as soon as you open the box the paper says do not return to retailer for warranty contact the manufacturer. Test, Test and re-test the SOFTWARE is not always the problem for instance my 9300 was at 80 degrees c the other day when testing, I dropped in a 120mm fan JUST blowing across the board dropped it to 50 degrees and that was an antec fan 3 spd on the lowest settings.

my rant for today, but a good lesson to learn about hardware problems.

Regards,

Dave
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FYI Hardware Testing with HTPC's and Your local PC Store.0