Can a Power Supply half die?

[fellows]

Sup [H].

I have kind of weird question. Today at work a customer gave me an Antec Smart Power 450W Power Supply saying that it was dead. Thinking this was kind of strange as there seemed to be no fault, or smell, I asked if I could have it and he said no problem.

I took it home and suprise, suprise it seems to work no problem in an old system of mine. Is it possible that it hiccuped or more likely that it failed or 'died' under the load he was using it under, but has no problem's running a lighter system?

After googling "test dead power supply" all the results I found seemed to say that the surefire way to test a PSU was by plugging it into an old computer with a functioning mainboard.

Also, I'm trying to upgrade my current setup but am on a tight budget, and would like to use my existing Antec TruePower 550W on a Quad Core based system running an 8800GT and probably 2-3 HD's. Anyone see a problem running my current rig [see sig] with this 'refurb' Antec 450W assuming it doesn't blow up in the next few days.

EDIT: Is there a diagnostic tool or program like Prime that can be used to test/load a PSU

Thanks

 

[seithon]

I think PSU testing would require hardware to actually stress test it, kind of like they use in the tests here...
Its possible it might fail under a certain amount of load I imagine, all PSU's do and if something happened to partially damage a part to make it less stable or able to handle load then that would match up with what your saying.

 

[The-One]

Use a PSU Tester and if shows that everything is working fine. Install it and stress out the system to see if it crashes. Wiggle the wires a little to see if they have a short in them anywhere.

Is there a diagnostic tool or program like Prime that can be used to test/load a PSU

Plug alot of stuff into it and find out.
But I'm sure someone will be of more help.

 

[larrymoencurly]

You really have to load down each voltage rail with a lot of amps to tell if everything is OK. I had a 300W CWT-made PSU (identical to an Antec SmartPower) that had run my 466 MHz system fine, but when I tried it with a mobo that powered the CPU from the +12V, it put out less than 9V because both filter capacitors were bad (one bulged, the other looked OK but had high ESR).

 

[The-One]

You really have to load down each voltage rail with a lot of amps to tell if everything is OK. I had a 300W CWT-made PSU (identical to an Antec SmartPower) that had run my 466 MHz system fine, but when I tried it with a mobo that powered the CPU from the +12V, it put out less than 9V because both filter capacitors were bad (one bulged, the other looked OK but had high ESR).

Hi,
What's ESR ? (Nevermind, googled)
So you used a Capacitor Wizard to check for high ESR ?
I ask because it's the first time I've heard of this stuff.
Damn, a Capacitor Wizard is $195.oo on amazon

 

[fellows]

UPDATE:

Well I tried it in a slightly more powerful computer. [P4 3.0GHZ, 1-HD, 1-9600SE, 1-DVDRW] and it still seems to be fine.
I know it sounds stupid but I'm really hoping to try it in my main computer. [X2 3800+, 8800gt, 3HD's, 2DVDRW's]

 

[Thor]

there are a few things that could be at work here, it could have been over loaded and gone into thermal shutdown, i have had them not come back up 4 and 5 hours later and even 3 days later, only to discover that unplugging them for a few would fix them.. it might have just been that PSU, but it was an antec, (but not the same make you are talking about), if antecs employ something like this on a more common scale (not that i know of.. but hey... ) then it may have appered dead to him...

seconed thing, is that his mother board is infact faulty, in such a have that it2 would make the PSU seem to be at fault.. hard to tell

third, is that it could be in issue on one of the other rails, (if it has more than 1) and the only way to make the issue crop up would be to load that rail up

and forth, it that he had a failing device, cd-rom HD... ect, i have had a failing HD cause a PC to not power on because it was shorting the 12v rail, (it would blip on and then shut off again)


and now for the PSA protion of my program; remeber kids, dyeing PSU's take other componets with them when they go. if you dont trust it, dont use it in high value or mission criticle equipment.

that is all