Bad Power Supply And Bad Memory – Two Of The Most Common Hardware Problems

Over the years I have repaired a lot of computer systems, and for the most part, computer hardware is fairly reliable. Though it does happen, it is somewhat rare to see a motherboard or cpu fail, unless the system is just plain old.

In computer land a system is considered old when it reaches the age of 5 years old. Who decided that a 5 year old system was ancient? No one in particular. But in general if you get 5 years of good service life out of a computer system, consider yourself fortunate.

Over the years I have noticed, and so have others, that the two hardware parts of a computer that may be problematic are the power supply units and memory. Other failing parts such as sound, modems, network, etc., may limit the use of the computer, but normally the system will continue to function properly until the offending part is replaced.

Power Supplies – a power supplies main purpose is to convert standard household voltage and to break it down into smaller increments usually 5v or 12v to run the hardware in your system. Your first hint that something is wrong is when you hit the power button and you smell something electrical burning, a puff of smoke exits the rear, and the computer shutdowns and refuses to start. This is the best case scenario because now you can be 99.9% sure that the PS needs to be replaced. But a PS can also play with your mind before it totally ceases to function.

In the case of a weak or failing PS, you may experience one or more of the following systems: * Random rebooting of the system. * Unexplained lockups or system freezes. * Corrupted display in which the picture is distorted, fuzzy, or the colors are off. *

Drives or other devices that just stop working. If you look at the above list of problems, one might conclude that it is a software issue or bad driver. Users have spent countless hours scanning their systems for viruses, spyware, updated drivers, uninstalling and reinstalling hardware or software to no avail.

To add to our misery I have had power supply testers that gave everything a green light indicating all was well, only to find it was in fact a bad PS causing the problem. To make things even more enjoyable some OEM’s put in the absolute minimal PS they can get away with to save a few bucks. Joe user installs a new video card which totally screws up the system so Joe blames the video card manufacturer for the problem. Only to discover that no matter which card Joe uses, the problem is always the same because his PS doesn’t have enough ‘poop’ to power the new card.

Bad memory – not only can it mimic the systems of a bad PS but will normally cause a total system lockup forcing the user in some cases to unplug the system to get it to reboot. There are many free software programs that you can to test the memory such as the free one from Microsoft here. I have used these softwares on systems, including my own personal computer, only to have them report that all was well. I later determined that the memory was in fact bad. If you have two or more memory modules, try booting the system with one and then the other one. If the problem disappears, then you can surmise that bad RAM is to be blamed. If you have a single stick of RAM, try using a stick of equal speed from another system or you may need to buy a stick for testing purposes.