Could this likely be a power supply problem?

[pdp76]

Upon cold boot, my system has been either hanging or powering off by itself and then powering back on immediately, but doesn't finish POSTing. I've been having to unplug the PSU and plugg it back in a few times, and then the system gets through POST and the BIOS says something about "overclocking settings didn't work... blah blah blah". I then go into the BIOS menu, exit without changing anything, and the system boots fine and stays running fine until I shutdown. I do overclock, but I tried it without overclocking and I get the same symptoms. I would typically point my finger at the motherboard, but since it eventually POSTs after several attempts and everything seems to work after this initial powering on and off I have to do, I'm not certain. Could this be a power supply problem? I'd try replacing the power supply, but it's a very tightly packed HTPC machine and a it would be a pain to do so. I just wanted some insight and remote confirmation about this before tearing apart my rig. Thanks.

 

[NiHiL8]

Well, we would like to see some hardware specs for your HTPC before jumping to any conclusions. I'd like to know if your HTPC is made from a bare-bones system like a Shuttle, a case from Antec that has its own PSU, or if you built it with different components all around.

 

[pdp76]

Well, we would like to see some hardware specs for your HTPC before jumping to any conclusions. I'd like to know if your HTPC is made from a bare-bones system like a Shuttle, a case from Antec that has its own PSU, or if you built it with different components all around.

It's all separate components, and several years old

INWIN BK623 case with the power supply that came with it (some generic brand?)
MSI G41M4-L motherboard
Celeron E3300 OCed to 3.3GHz (2.5 GHz stock)
2GB 800MHz PC6400 DDR2, I believe it's Patriot, not OCed
OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD boot drive
Seagate 750GB storage drive
LG DVD burner
Gigabyte Silent half height HD6450 PCIe graphics
Avermedia ATSC PCI HD tuner
Windows 7 Pro

I took out the tuner card and tried booting once just because that was a the easiest peripheral to take out, but that didn't make a difference either. Everything else will be much harder to remove one by one. Again, I just want to see if anyone has seen the same symptoms before and if there is a good chance it might be the power supply before I start ripping everything apart.

 

[Dangman]

Sounds like a PSU issue to me. Even if the PSU wasn't the exact cause, I'd still replace that PSU considering that it's probably damaging your PC right now.

 

[NiHiL8]

Well INWIN uses FSP/SPI Sparkle PSU's in their chassis and are normally reliable. The only time that they have never worked for me was when they were DOA. (Built plenty of systems with them over the years).

The only thing that sucks is that you are dealing with what we call a SFF power supply, and can be harder to acquire. It may be on it's way out, but the only way to know is to test with another power supply. Again, I don't want to jump to conclusions. Troubleshooting problems like this requires 'process of elimination', which will require ripping out every discrete component in your build. That is unless you have another PSU to test with.

 

[pdp76]

Sounds like a PSU issue to me. Even if the PSU wasn't the exact cause, I'd still replace that PSU considering that it's probably damaging your PC right now.

Well INWIN uses FSP/SPI Sparkle PSU's in their chassis and are normally reliable. The only time that they have never worked for me was when they were DOA. (Built plenty of systems with them over the years).

The only thing that sucks is that you are dealing with what we call a SFF power supply, and can be harder to acquire. It may be on it's way out, but the only way to know is to test with another power supply. Again, I don't want to jump to conclusions. Troubleshooting problems like this requires 'process of elimination', which will require ripping out every discrete component in your build. That is unless you have another PSU to test with.

Thanks for the reply guys. Looks like I will have to just try a new PSU then, off to Fry's to pick one up! Looks like they have a "mATX" PSU for sale there, and it seems to be the same dimensions as the PSU that came with the INWIN case (Coolmax CM-300). I'm likely going to be replacing this HTPC in the next year or two so I just need something to tide me over until then, it should work right?

 

[Dangman]

Well INWIN uses FSP/SPI Sparkle PSU's in their chassis and are normally reliable.

I've had some bad experience with FSP in the past so I don't exactly trust them.

 

[NiHiL8]

Nein, nein, nein! Sorry... no!

Do not put a Coolmax into that system. They are even WORSE than SPI in all respects. If anything, you want the same power supply or better in that system.

 

[NiHiL8]

I've had some bad experience with FSP in the past so I don't exactly trust them.

My chances of having a bad power supply from FSP were far less than that from Antec back in the days of the Sonata/Sonata II chassis.

 

[pdp76]

Nein, nein, nein! Sorry... no!

Do not put a Coolmax into that system. They are even WORSE than SPI in all respects. If anything, you want the same power supply or better in that system.

Ok, I promise I'll return the CM-300 once I try it out to see if it was the original power supply that was the problem Not sure if I want to invest more than $20-$30 on a PSU though since I'm going to start from scratch again within 2 years, am I being unrealistic with my pricing? There was an Athena Apollo 350 SFX also at Fry's, would that be any better?

 

[NiHiL8]

I really couldn't tell you if they are good or not. Frankly, anything that comes out of Fry's is scraping at the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Dangman]

am I being unrealistic with my pricing?

Yes. The cheapest decent SFX12V PSU that I can recommend would be this $50 Seasonic 350W PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151063

There was an Athena Apollo 350 SFX also at Fry's, would that be any better?

Not really.

I agree with NiHiL8 that the Coolmax is of substantially lower quality than the FSP. Hell it's of so low quality that I wouldn't trust that Coolmax to power any system for more than a minute or two.