On 10/30/07, Eric Martin <freak4uxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
You can get a handheld tester (I have one at home, I can bring it to the next meeting). Basically if the light goes green it's good. Also, it has spots to check voltages of your power supply.
Richard Klein wrote:
I'm not sure that's adequate to tell if a PS is causing flaky behavior. I don't think it'll tell you if one of the voltage lines goes low under load or something. If it doesn't pass those tests, though, you'll know it's bad.
Also, open the PS case and look for leaking capacitors. If you find any leakage, then you know you have a problem. I would just throw out the PS at that point, but you could probably replace the capacitors.
Thanks. I went ahead and got a tester, and all appears normal. Nothing in the instructions say whether it puts a load on or not. I changed my video card, because the fan was making noise, and all reboots since then have been ok. No blank screens. Before, it was about 1/4 of the time. I did have one lockup since changing the vid card, and I think I read somewhere that it could be a result of using a realtime kernel. (someone correct me if I'm wrong.) I was doing a lot at once when it happened. Guess I have to experiment with it some more and look inside the psu. Greg