I need a computer expert

1journeyman

Active Member
Ok.. yesterday my desktop blew a power supply.
So I replaced it. The computer is about 3 years old so I figured time to replace power supply. The new one blew in about 20 minutes. So, I actually investigate and see that my cpu fan has locked up, overheating and causing the power supply to pop. So I replace fan and replace power supply again. Now the computer won't come on.. it powers for about 2 seconds then shuts down and a red light appears on the motherboard. It stays lit for several seconds in which time the comp won't do anything. When the red light goes off I can power it back on for a couple of seconds before it shuts down again.
Can you get a power supply too powerful for an older motherboard? The old power supply was 300wts. The new one is 550.
Motherboard is an Nvidia Nforce2. Red light coming on is at the D30 position. I can't find my manual to look it up...
 

fenrir

Member
Couple of questions, is the mother board/CPU hot when it shuts off?
Does the mother board look burnt anywhere on the circuits?
And you shouldnt be seeing problems with to much power unless you wired it wrong.
 

1journeyman

Active Member
Not hot. It doesn't stay on long enough to get hot.. just 2-3 seconds. Then the warning light (I guess thats what it is) comes on and stays on for as much as 30 seconds to a minute. When it turns off I can again power on for 2-3 seconds.
No burned marks I can see.
I guess I could have missed a wire somewhere... I'll dig around and see, but I thought I was pretty thorough. Only had to plug into drives, CD, motherboard x2, think that was it.
 

jovial

Member
I think you can. If the power supply is sending too much current it may be shutting off as a safety feature to keep it from frying the circuits in the mother board.
 

1journeyman

Active Member
I think it is my CPU. I pulled a weaker power supply from another computer and its doing the same thing.
Thanks for the help though guys... guess I'll be replacing my motherboard and cpu.
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by 1journeyman
I think it is my CPU. I pulled a weaker power supply from another computer and its doing the same thing.
Thanks for the help though guys... guess I'll be replacing my motherboard and cpu.
Sorry for your troubles jon
 

digitydash

Active Member
Did your computer do this befor you put on the new power supply.If you got a good power supply they should replace it and your computer if it fried your computer.
 

scsinet

Active Member
A higher wattage power supply can always be used in place of a lower wattage supply. The motherboard and system components will only draw as much current as they require, your 550w power supply will not cause any problems.
I wouldn't suspect the CPU fan to be related. The heat sink will handle the CPUs heat anywhere from a few minutes to indefinitely without the fan's help. While you certainly need to replace the CPU fan, it's probably been a problem for a long time and you only noticed it now.
I may be able to help you figure out what the LED is, as finding out is probably going to tell us the exact problem, but I'll need the complete motherboard model. I'm pretty sure that NVIDIA doesn't market motherboards directly under the NVIDIA name, they usually license their technology to other manufacturers, so look for another brand name on there like ABIT, ASUS, etc.
 

1journeyman

Active Member
Ya.. I did some more thinking. I believe it's an Asus motherboard, but I can't find that anywhere on the board to confirm.
Edit: It's a "AN35 version 1.1" according to stamp on lower corner. I did some googling and the pic of the "AN35/N Ultra" by Shuttle looks like it.
Did some more digging... the D30 LED indicates a cpu overheat... since it occurs as soon as I power up I'm assuming dead cpu?
 
Top