power supply died and then came back to life , should i replace

[Brad the best]

a few days ago my power supply went? the fan on the power supply and the one on the heat sink turned on , my other fan i had on the lower part of the baord didnt turn on . the lights didnt turn on and i had no screen . so i switched the supply with my sisters and i went fine , so i took mine apart checked the fuse , and blew it out with an air compressor . this was after trying it in mine about 50 times getting the same response (nothing) so after the dust removal it is now working fine , im wondering if i should be replacing this or just ignoring it , so far its ran for about 6 hours and i havent noticed any problems , is there a good possibility it will go and take everythign else with it . ive had several power outages and breaker overloads on this comp its hooked up to a 60$ surge protector . it probobly ran 10 hours a day 5 days a week sinse 2000 . so far the motherboard went and processor , prior to the power source failure . well i supose if it does go my radeon will survive , its been threw about 10 computer melt downs , its always the only thing that survives , curious

[EzyStvy]

If the power supply is six years old, I'd consider replacing it. Very possible it'll take other parts with it when it dies.

[Cricket]

I'd replace it with something like this.

Cricket

[glc]

200 watts, 5 years old? Definitely replace it.

[RazorDX]

I have a feeling you may want to upgrade your computer in the next couple of years, so I'd go ahead and invest in a 450+Watt power supply from a reliable manufacturer.

[Cricket]

With a computer that old he'd be replacing almost everything in it if he does upgrade...might as well just build a whole new computer and keep the present one as a backup.

I have a PIII 600MHz and when the time comes I'm just gonna build a whole new computer instead of upgrade.

Cricket

[E-1337]

Ya, replace that old thing man, you'll be doing yourself a huge favor later on, not to mention you'll have peace of mind......

[Brad the best]

i supose i will replace the power source then . i still find it weird it stoped working and then worked agian. and then i might aswell do the board so i can put in that spare p4 chip i have . i wont miss the old p3 thats for sure oh well you cant complain at a free machine . im going upgrade all the way , i get discounts through my dads work. lol . thanks for telling me to not be so cheep and risk loosing my hd that would be sad .

[rspassey]

Replace it... and if you want to be sure that you aren't going to lose Data until you replace it, you might want to consider removing the Harddrive and slaving it in another PC and making a backup of important data. Or transfer important files with a cross over cable.