Did Windows 7 blow my power supply?

[clifford_cooley]

Hardware goes out everyday. Now that people are installing a new OS they assume its the OS and not the fact that the hardware was going out regardless of what they are doing.

I can tell you from experience that if you have pins that are burnt, It takes more than one day for this to happen. That is a problem that has been happening over a long period of time.

 

[Veedaz]

Clifford wrote

if you have pins that are burnt, It takes more than one day for this to happen

And an OS wont cause a gradual degrade, if a PSU fan stops or is stopped the PSU will burn out fast.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Wiser2001 I have moved all your post to a new thread here - https://www.w7forums.com/random-bsod-and-trouble-installing-windows-7-a-t2734.html

 

[gfetters]

Sleep/Hibernate and windows 7

I have experienced the same problem with windows 7. My computer would go into hibernate mode (which I hate). I changed the settings to prevent it from going into sleep or hibernate, left the pc on overnight and came back to the pc off and I was unable to power up the unit. The exact same issue with the fans running for 1 second then shutting down. I assumed that the power supply had gone bad and bought a new one. That Power Supply ran fine for 1 day until I left it on overnight. Again the PC is off and will not boot. The fans kick on for a second and nothing. Isn't this a bit fishy that 2 power supplies can burn out in exactly the same way in such a short period of time? (minimal hardware btw)

I think windows 7 has a serious problem with hibernate or sleep. I suspect it is powering down the fans in the power supply but not turning off the Power Supply itself allowing the power supply to overheat and pop the fuse.

 

[gfetters]

Additional question

One more question. I have had a day to stew about my 2 burnt power supplies and I am just wondering which mother boards are having this problem with windows 7.

I have an ASUS P5N-D. Maybe this is a Windows 7 power management issue in combination with an incompatible Asus Bios Fan Control setting.

Are we all using ASUS MBs?

I'm installing ps #3 tonight. I am going to check bios settings first and I am going to watch it and see if the fans stop.

 

[Kougar]

The fans kick on for a second and nothing. Isn't this a bit fishy that 2 power supplies can burn out in exactly the same way in such a short period of time? (minimal hardware btw)

Why do you think it has burned out? During a startup on any modern motherboard PC fans usually "kick" on briefly, stop, then start up again and spin up as the machine POSTs.

I think windows 7 has a serious problem with hibernate or sleep. I suspect it is powering down the fans in the power supply but not turning off the Power Supply itself allowing the power supply to overheat and pop the fuse.

The OS does not control the fans in the power supply. That would be dangerous, as the PSU controls it's own fan speeds according to its own temperature(s). Some motherboards don't work well with some power supplies and will not allow the board to POST properly, resulting in exactly this kind scenario you are describing. Depending on the power supply you can reset the fuse by holding down the computer's power on switch for 5-10 seconds, then releasing the switch. Wait a few moments then briefly press the power on button again.

What brand / model power supplies are these? This wouldn't be the first time there have been PSU/board issues with ASUS motherboards.

 

[gfetters]

The power supply is
PC Power and Cooling S61EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
and the motherboard is an ASUS P5N-D.

The power supply and motherboard worked perfectly for a year and a half under XP, Ubuntu, and Vista. And for a while under Windows 7. The PS fried only after I changed the power settings to custom and set "NEVER" for sleep and hibernate.
There were no other pc changes.

The second power supply purchased last week worked for 1 day before frying in the exact same way as the first. I left the pc on overnight with the custom power setting and it was off in the morning with no way to wake it up.

I've tried several fixes, resetting the CMOS poping out the CMOS battery (overnight), Holding the Power button for 10 seconds. pressing the keyboard space bar, power key, moving the mouse etc...

Replaced the power supply again and the computer starts right up. I didn't have time to watch it last night so I shutdown and unplugged it.

There are several CMOS settings for QFAN control but I believe thes are all related to the cpu fan and case fan control. There is also a CMOS APM setting for when to allow hibernation and an HPET setting under APM (seems like the wrong place) for video performance. APIC is always enabled on this motherboard. It is stated as enabled and greyed out so you can't control it.

Another note (not related to my problem) I was reading from another post on this list about a whineing sound when WIN 7 shuts down. I think this is actually an alarm for low fan speed. the P5N-D has a setting for 600, 1200, and 1600 rpm fan speed rotation thresholds for the alarm and by default it is set on and 600.

The operating system does have control over the power supply. Maybe not fan control but it has to tell it when to hibernate. I bet it can tell the power supply to leave current on for hibernate. It has to or you couldn't hibernate. I think Win 7 is telling the powersupply to hibernate and the psu shuts down the fans but the motherboard and hard drive continue to pull power as the os has not told them to shut down per my power settings. And the psu continues to power them as they are about to shut down and they don't.

 

[TorrentG]

The operating system does have control over the power supply. Maybe not fan control but it has to tell it when to hibernate.

The psu doesn't hibernate. The system draws the current as it needs.

 

[gfetters]

PSU Hibernation

I don't know about your PSU but when my machine hibernates the cpu fan and all case fans including the fans in the power supply stop.

 

[Kougar]

I own a PC Power & Cooling 750W PSU, so they do have an electronic fuse as I described in my earlier post. I'm fairly sure that was what was partly behind the issues you were having as ASUS has caused issues in the past with their motherboards.

When a PC "hibernates", it powers off completely and nothing draws power. The entire system shuts down. Only in "sleep" mode does the system remain powered on. By default Windows is configured to auto-hibernate the system after a certain period of inactivity.

 

[blued]

Hi guys. Sorry to dig up an old thread but same thing happened to me this morning, dead PSU, sleep mode + Win 7.

PSU: Chieftec 450w, mobo: Gigabyte EP-31-DS3L. The PSU was very hot and tripped the the voltage stabilizer it was hooked to. Strong smell of burnt plastic in the room, so will not try to revive it. Have a spare PSU around, but am wary of using Win 7 in sleep mode again.

Like some of you, I wonder if its something related to Win 7. Because this never happened to me in 'standby mode' in XP. I've only been using Win 7 in this PC for a few weeks. Also have Vista in another machine which is always in sleep mode, but never had a problem with that either. I'm thinking it must be an odd combination of PSU, mobo and Win 7, because if it was a widespread problem, MS would have done something about it. I hope we can find out exactly whats going on here and if its fixable.

p.s. another thing I should mention is that there was a USB modem hooked up to it and it was always very warm even in sleep state.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Windows 7 has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with a PSU failure! Period!

If someone thinks that it does then they don't understand PSUs and software.

 

[Thrax]

Not only does it have nothing to do with PSU failure, Chieftec power supplies are know to be (apologies for being rather frank) utter rubbish.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Cheiftec is poor quality for sure. The odor you smelled was more than likely an electrolytic capacitor frying out or the voltage rectifier itself.

Go buy yourself a top-quality power supply such as Antec, Seasonic, OCZ, Corsair, BGears, Coolermaster, Thermaltake, etc.

Make sure it's rated as an ATX12V / EPS12V unit and 80 PLUS certified.

 

[Jeffreyobrien]

Did Windows 7 blow my power supply

Hi guys. Sorry to dig up an old thread but same thing happened to me this morning, dead PSU, sleep mode + Win 7.

PSU: Chieftec 450w, mobo: Gigabyte EP-31-DS3L. The PSU was very hot and tripped the the voltage stabilizer it was hooked to. Strong smell of burnt plastic in the room, so will not try to revive it. Have a spare PSU around, but am wary of using Win 7 in sleep mode again.

Like some of you, I wonder if its something related to Win 7. Because this never happened to me in 'standby mode' in XP. I've only been using Win 7 in this PC for a few weeks. Also have Vista in another machine which is always in sleep mode, but never had a problem with that either. I'm thinking it must be an odd combination of PSU, mobo and Win 7, because if it was a widespread problem, MS would have done something about it. I hope we can find out exactly whats going on here and if its fixable.

p.s. another thing I should mention is that there was a USB modem hooked up to it and it was always very warm even in sleep state.

has someone mentioned to try another PSU (I'd do that first in fact)

also try to clear CMOS jumper on your motherboard, try using it (3 pins which you close the 2 normally left open, then return jumper to original position.Usually near the battery, often labelled CMOS or clear CMOS or jbat). Often 'wakes up' a dormant mobo - but even if it does, mobo may be on its way out.check the power cord also?

If neither of these make a difference, I'd suspect mobo is dead.
PS. You could also disconnect everything you can from the mobo (hard, floppy & optical drives, any unneeded to boot PCI cards ) to see if you can get a POST screen.
hope this might help.good luck with it.
regards
jeffreyobrien

 

[Mychael]

Even if for whatever reason the PSU fan stopped, just about if not all PSU's of the past few years have a thermal safety on them to switch off if they were overheating.

The only way I've ever known you can hurt a PSU is if your constantly pulling it's full capacity of power in which case you need to upgrade to a larger unit.

 

[Nibiru2012]

I believe since the OP stated that the PSU was extremely hot that the problem is there and not with a the motherboard.

In addition, he stated that it tripped the "voltage stabilizer", which definitely means a bad power supply. A motherboard issue would not cause that to trip off.

Low-end power supplies don't have the thermal safety switches on them because they're a low-end unit.

 

[Pax]

I have this same problem and altho it is not supposed to affect the power supply...after upgrading to Windows 7 my power supply blew out ..took about 3 days after putting on windows 7 ...bought new power supply worked for 2 days went out...I thought there. Was something else wrong so I scrapped that computer..(I had 2 identical comps only 1 I put windows 7 on) took the hard drive with windows 7 put it into the other computer and it lasted less than 2 days before that power supply went out...even tho I know the operating system should have nothing to do with it. This can't be a coincidence ...