Is my PSU dying?

[jca]

After 18 months of being absolutely fine, I've been having increasing trouble with my PC not waking from sleep or getting it to even POST (let alone boot!) from shut down.

• Now, if I try to wake up the PC from sleep within 2 minutes of putting it to sleep, it will fail to wake properly 100% of the time (lights, fans etc come back on, but no signal to monitor or AFAIK any processes running etc).
  
• If I try to boot the PC after shutting it down, it will fail to POST most of the time. No POST beep is made, nor any error beeps. At no point does the monitor receive signal, but all the fans seem to start. Once this happens, it won't POST at all until it's "rested" for a few hours!

When it doesn't POST like this, my gfx card (Radeon 4870) gives three solid red lights (D1601-3, much like this guy: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1034365010), so I figured it was the gfx card and bought a Radeon 5770.

However, the PC still fails to POST! I've tried unplugging 2 unnecessary SATA drives (blu ray and USB extension), I cleared the CMOS and swapped out RAM, but still doesn't POST! Now I've ruled the gfx card out (ruling out the new 5770 being DOA as that would be terrible luck!), could it be the PSU? Various threads on the 4870 three red light issue suggest the gfx card may be lacking power?

Any help would be most appreciated, I'm going crazy and can't afford to keep getting new components!

Thanks in advance for any help, spec below in case that helps!

OS
Vista 64-bit
Processor
Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9450 (4 X 2.66GHz)
Mobo
ASUS® P5Q: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16
RAM
8GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz (4x2GB)
Graphics Card
512MB RADEON HD 4870 PCI-e
PSU
FSP700 700W Quiet Quad Rail PSU w/ active PFC

 

[Kalster]

Hard to say, it's entirely possible your PSU is causing the problems, but it can also be your motherboard. Something like static build up. Try flashing your bios to the latest version.

If you can get your pc to post, try running Prime95 or some stressful program that will tax the power supply.

 

[Dangman]

If you can, try another PSU.

Yes that FSP 700W PSU is pretty shitty but it should be able to get that system to boot at the very least.

 

[jca]

Got the PC to boot yesterday and ran Prime95 stress test Kalster, PC successfully completed all the tests! Still failed when I did the sleep -> quick wake test, and then wouldn't boot - as per usual.

Danny Bui - unfortunately there's no other PSU I have to hand, only got notebooks in the flat! Trying to avoid spending on one unless I'm certain it's going to fix the problem

Are there any other tests I can run when I next get it to boot that might help narrow down the cause? Any way I can test for static? When it fails and I poke around inside, I'm grounding myself with the PC case - surely this removes the static problem?

Thanks again for any help!

 

[Dangman]

Try following the stickied Basic Troubleshooting Guide and report back when you've followed all the steps on what to do when the PC does not POST.

 

[jca]

Tried the guide - gave up in the end and got a new PSU this morning.

Touch wood, everything is looks good. The PC is coming through problems (quick waking after sleep) it used to have and booting up OK.

 

[str3tchb0y]

yes

 

[Dangman]

Tried the guide - gave up in the end and got a new PSU this morning.

Touch wood, everything is looks good. The PC is coming through problems (quick waking after sleep) it used to have and booting up OK.

Cool. Was time to replace that FSP PSU anyway.

 

[jca]

As you seem to know your PSUs Danny Bui, I replaced it with an Antec New Truepower 650W - do you know anything about them? Reviews I read looked better than my other options.

 

[Dangman]

As you seem to know your PSUs Danny Bui, I replaced it with an Antec New Truepower 650W - do you know anything about them? Reviews I read looked better than my other options.

It's a good PSU. A little old but still a good PSU