possible power supply problem ???

Discussion in 'Power Supplies and UPS's' started by lnjr, Jan 31, 2011.

  1. lnjr

    lnjr Geek Trainee

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    Hello,

    About a week ago I started having some problems. I decided to first unplug all the additional items (usb printer, etc.) and just left the monitor, keyboard and mouse connected. But then when I went to plug the unit back into the electrical outlet the little green lite on the back of the tower did not lite and I had not power to the pc. I went to the HP website and followed the trouble shooting steps ---

    http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...=bph06788#N414

    which is why I am now thinking that it my be the power supply unit. At first when I plugged a different power cord into the pc and an outlet it did work but the other day they were calling for some really bad weather and possible power outages so (as I usually do) I unplugged my pc. When I went to plug the unit back it the problem started again but now it will not turn on. When I start to plug the cord into the pc the little green light in the back will start to go on but when it is completely plugged in the little green light on the back goes out again.

    I was doing some research and instead of just getting a new psu some sites state to test the power supply unit first. Some of the sites suggest testing the power supply unit manually with a multimeter or with a power supply tester.

    I do not have a power supply tester so I would have to go out and get one of those first. I do have access to a Simpson 260 VOM. The Simpson 260 VOM (volt-ohm-milliammeters) looks different from the multimeters I have seen online from this one. Primarily because this Simpson unit is much much larger; in a hard black case and is not digital.

    Can I use this Simpson VOM to test the power supply? If so is there anything specific I need to know or does anyone know where I can get information on exactly how to do this (don't want to make things any worse than they already are but the closest place to take it in for service is about 40 miles away and I can't easily take the tower in since I am disabled).

    Any assistance would be so very much appreciated.

    TIA

    Lisa
     
  2. Michael Condor

    Michael Condor Geek

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  3. cube_

    cube_ Mega Geek

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    Does your computer give any beeps when starting up? If so, how many?
     
  4. lnjr

    lnjr Geek Trainee

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    Hello,
    I did figure out that it is the power supply that went bad but everything else (including the motherboard is fine). A friend of mine gave me an old Dell Dimension 4400 which I took the power supply out of and plugged that one into the hard drive, motherboard,floppy and cd drives and the HP Pavilion 7865 started right up and ran just fine. Only problem is that the power supply unit from the Dell will not fit into the HP Pavilion since the HP is a much tighter fit and it is shaped differently so I need to try and find a replacement power supply unit for the HP (but have not been able to do so as of yet).

    I thought about taking the hard drive out of the HP and putting it into the Dell since they are both running windows xp professional and the hd in the HP is 80 gb and the one in the dell is only 20gb and I think it is going bad. But I'm not sure that it will work since the HP has an AMD processor in it and the Dell has a pentium processor. (not sure if that makes any difference or not) The RAM in the Dell can also be upgraded and the HP is already maxed out in RAM (which is less than what is in the Dell) The Dell does have space in it to add an additional HD to it so I was also thinking that perhaps I could just install the HD that is in the HP in the available slot - but again am not sure that it can be done since it is coming out of a pc with an different processor.

    Any assistance (either on where to find a psu for the HP or on taking the hard drive out of the hp and putting it into the dell) would be so very much appreciated.
     

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