I am not sure what testers Hugh is talking about that are "cheap,"  but 
you can do as good a test by yourself, without buying anything, as with 
the cheap tester that I own.  You need a paper clip.  Here is the reference:

http://www.pcpower.com/support/ATX_troubleshoot.htm

The main problem with this test is that a positive is inconclusive.  If 
this test shows that your power supply is bad, then it's bad, but if it 
shows it is okay, it might still be bad.  (Been there, done that.)  
However, it can be very expensive to troubleshoot a computer by 
replacing parts piece by piece if you don't have the parts in hand, so 
this is a good first test.  You need to be sure that there is a load on 
the power supply, as the directions suggest.  ("one hard drive")

BTW, I have had similar problems lately, but with Intel processors, and 
I found that a viable work-around was to turn the power off at the power 
supply when I shut down in the evening.  It might work for you, too...

(Hopefully, BIOS updates will resolve these issues eventually.)

One of the problems with the wattage rating of power supplies is that 
there isn't any general standard that I know of.  A 400w one from one 
brand may be better than a 500w one from another.  I would check 
newegg.com to see what other users have said about any power supply that 
I was considering buying.

Good Luck,

Dean Kukral



On 9/20/2011 10:48 AM, Hugh Vandervoort wrote:
> PS  testers are cheap and you can even get them at Office Depot. Any
> shop will test it for you. It does sound like a larger PS is in order.
>
> On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 10:36 PM, Harvey Rose<[log in to unmask]>  wrote:
>> I've tried disconnecting the drives that I don't need to boot the computer
>> and even tried a different drive that I have Windows XP on also and it did
>> the same where I had to run it for 10 minutes then reboot. There are no
>> beeps at the beginning when the computer is cold or on the second boot. Also
>> I do not have a VGA port on this motherboard.
>> I am running 3 SATA drives plus a DVD drive and Video card is a NIVIDA
>> GeForce 8800 GT. I did try changing The SATA cables also still with the same
>> problem. The power supply been 400W. How does one test this other then
>> buying a new power supply? Is it not better to buy one say at 500W if I have
>> to replace it?
>>
>> Harvey
>>
>>

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