Kill the PC : A how to guide for beginners.

[pam123]

Read it and empathize : http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1720

[lil Jimmie]

Kill the PC :

Kill the PC while waiting for the page to load

[Propain]

connection refused ..... probly just for US users

[Hi Ho]

Doesn't work for me either.

[glc]

Most Common Problems
26% PSU and power issues
23% Bad gear and user negligence
13% Heatsink related
15% Assembly and moving
10% Lightning strike and static
3% Computer cruelty
6% USB related
2% Overclocking

[HAL9000]

Works fine here

[Hi Ho]

Yeah it's working now. I think anyone that uses a PC should read it.

[spyder003]

No worky worky. No reply when pinged

[bailey]

link don't work here eather

[diver203_98]

It is 5:00am here and the link didn't work for me either.

[rightcoast]

Mechdotted

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by glc Most Common Problems 26% PSU and power issues 23% Bad gear and user negligence 13% Heatsink related 15% Assembly and moving 10% Lightning strike and static 3% Computer cruelty 6% USB related 2% Overclocking

I guess I'm not surprised that power supplies cause more problems than anything else...but I'd like to know the breakdown by manufacturer (wouldn't surprise me if DEER came out on top). And people new to building computers wonder why the more experienced of us stress getting a good quality power supply instead of those cheaper ones when choosing parts.

Here's the section on power supplies (took me awhile, but I got to the site):

"The Power Supply (PSU)

Three little words, but loaded with such destructive potential. Faulty power supplies are by far and away the most common source of computer mortality. In our reader survey, power issues accounted for over 30% of all dead-PC tales, and after working in a computer store for a few years I'm surprised it wasn't actually higher. We saw system after system come into the store for service with the immortal words "it just won't turn on" or "smoke came out of the back... Will it be ok?"

Here's a typical tale of bright lights, big balls of smoke;

"...The customer came in saying that the PC wouldn't start at all. Of course I suspected the PSU, but had to test it anyway. Plugged in the unit and pushed the power button and was illuminated by a flash of light. The PSU had indeed failed, and now had also blown a MOSFET on the system board and scorched the 512mb stick of PC3200 RAM..."

That the power supply is the most dangerous of PC components should come as no surprise. After all, its responsibility is to filter the massive wall voltage into the bite-sized 12V, 5V and 3.3V DC allocations that modern PCs need.

Power Supply Failures
When a power supply fails, it often sends random jolts through the rest of the system, killing (and sometimes burning) your valuable computer components. Unfortunately, many power supplies are manufactured by no name companies with little quality control and packaged in cheap 'white box' systems. The result is a steady stream of computers dieing before their time.

"...when I switched on my computer at night, suddenly there was a loud firecracker sound and lots of blue sparks came flying out from the back of my computer. It was from the PSU..."

It's worth mentioning that of all the problems we list here, this is also the one most likely to cause damage to your home and/or yourself. A third of the responses we received claimed that the defective PSU in question had burst into firely flames or belched out clouds of blue smoke or sparks. Needless to say this can present a very real fire hazard to more than just the expensive bits and bobs inside your computer!

This readers story sums up the dangers with a hilarious twist;

"...my friend was over and we decided to have a small 1 on 1 LAN game of half-life. I grabbed a rocket launcher and fired it at him as he was jumping. as the rocket hit him he froze in mid air. lag I thought. so I yelled downstairs "It'll fix itself in a few seconds" and he yelled "I'm fairly certain it won't", "whys that?" "come downstairs for a second." so I walked downstairs and into the office. smoke was pouring out the back of my New PC! The virtual rocket had made my very real power supply literally explode. I unplugged it and brought it out to the shop, opened it and some blue sparks shot out..."

How Not to Kill Your System This Way

It seems simple, but just two words are necessary. Brand name. The best way (not a sure way, but the best way) to avoid a power supply incident is to buy a power supply from a reputable company that specializes in manufacturing them. Here at PCstats we've reviewed several high quality power supplies, so you can use us as a guide, or ask your computer guru friends what they use and recommend.

You will pay more for a brand name supply, but it's worth it. From our experiences; PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic, Antec, Aopen, Vantec and Sparkle are reliable manufacturers.

Another good tip is to keep your PC off the floor and away from dusty environments (and family pets) to minimize the amount of dust and debris that build up inside the power supply. This accumulation of stuff often contributes to an eventual failure, and most commonly a seized cooling fan.

Low quality power supplies may also be set off by poor AC power conditions in your area. Consider purchasing some sort of UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) or power conditioner. This advice is actually echoed in some of the later entries in this article also."

Cricket

[pam123]

The site drew a crowd they didn't expect.
Check back again if you're still curious and the traffic has dropped.

[Cricket]

Just been to the site in the link and was able to get to every page of that article...very interesting read. Thanks for posting the link pam123.

The picture of the improperly installed heatsink showed the importance of taking your time and double checking your work before you turn the system on for the first time.

The reader submitted testimonials were great.

I posted the part about power supplies in the General Hardware forum earlier today since I felt it was good information for new builders.

Cricket

[pam123]

Good idea Cricket, that's the best place for it.

[Tin]

overclocking....2%. theres some encouragement for you folks . let it fly. the thing they dont point out....
26% PSU and power issues
23% Bad gear and user negligence
13% Heatsink related
ALL of those apply to overclocking. let me elaborate a little bit. choice A, you need a good PSU for overclocking, 360W Enlights and 400W Sparkles wont cut it if youre planning on doing a 939 or 775 firebreather. these newer systems need mucho power, and especially these PCI-E systems. they dont make 24-pin PSUs for nothing these days. if youre gonna do it, do it right. invest in a 470W+ OCZ Powerstream, Tagan 480W, or a PC Power and Cooling unit. this all may not be the case for a stock system, but when youre tuning high dollar gear you dont want to get burned. choice B, parts....buy good RAM, mobo, PSU, heatsink, and case ventilation. cheap ram wont get you anywhere, a crap mobo wont OC, and a crap heatsink and not enough airflow will make life hard on the OCed CPU. negligence....prime95 and memtest86 are your friend. alot of people just toss a few volts and up the MHz on their CPU without testing. this is a big no-no....instability not only can cause random restarts or data corruption, but it hinders overall performance as well. as for the heatsink issues...those are pretty much self explanatory .

[Force Flow]

Then *can* apply towards OCing, but are not necessarily limited to it.

Like it was said earlier, poor quality PSUs are a large cause for power issues.
Bad gear and negligence - poor quality parts (ie PCChips) and not taking care of the computer (ie - dropping it on the floor, letting it get kicked around and trampled, putting muddy boots on it, smoking near it, etc)
Heat sink related - improperly applied heatsinks and or thermal compounds.

Two ways of looking at it. A technical standpoint (OCing) and a user's standpoint.