Re: Dead computer (sometimes) with blinking light on motherboard.
- From: Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:11:06 -0400
ekohl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Oct 9, 9:06 am, Paul <nos...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:Erich Kohl wrote:Hi everyone,There is no mention in your parts list, of how many USB devices are
I'm having a frustrating problem with my custom-built PC. Any insight
would be appreciated.
connected, or whether any of them are high power devices. Note that
some motherboards now run all the USB devices from the +5VSB rail,
which is not very bright. (At one time, there was a header on the
motherboard, that selected +5V or +5VSB for that task. To save
money, the headers have been removed.) If you plug in a USB
"coffee warmer", that might be enough to overload it.
I doubt that I use many more USB devices than the average person.
Typically they consist of my printer (which I only turn on when I need
it), my keyboard, and a Logitech gamepad. Every so often I'll plug in
another device.
When I opened up my PC to reseat the main power connector, I had
everything disconnected from the computer, including all the USB
devices. As long as at least the power cable in the back was
connected to an electrical outlet and nothing else was connected, you
could see the LED blinking on the motherboard.
OK, I checked the Badaxe2 manual on the Intel site, and on page 45 at
the bottom, the LED next to the main power connector, is connected to
+5VSB. Is that what is blinking ?
http://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/bx2/D7364501US.pdf
All I can tell you, is a blinking +5VSB LED indicates a problem with
the +5VSB supply rail. Possible reasons:
1) Motherboard is overloading +5VSB on the power supply. This could be
due to a large number of USB devices, especially "dumb" USB devices
with high power consumptions.
2) Power supply is malfunctioning and is not able to supply +5VSB,
to its normal current rating.
If you swap in a different brand/model number power supply, and test
again, if the LED still flashes, then the motherboard is doing some
overloading. If the LED stops flashing, then you know the original supply
is not working properly.
I would use a clamp-on DC ammeter, to measure the power flow in the
+5VSB wire. That would make it easier to decide what was defective,
but not many people have a meter like that.
HTH,
Paul
.
- Follow-Ups:
- References:
- Prev by Date: Re: power supply issue
- Next by Date: Re: airflow inside my case
- Previous by thread: Re: Dead computer (sometimes) with blinking light on motherboard.
- Next by thread: Re: Dead computer (sometimes) with blinking light on motherboard.
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
