can a power supply harm your computer in any way?

Question

ive recently had a motherboard problem, and a corrupt harddrive. the harddrive is fine, but hte mobo needs to be replaced. i have a great computer, e6300, and 1900gt, 2 gigs of ram. but a not so good power supply, its 450 watts, which is enough, but its a cheap psu that came with my case. is it possible that having a weak or cheap powersupply can harm the other parts in my computer? how will i know if it needs to be replaced? thanks

so a power supply can blow or fry parts? how likely is that? and are there signs leading up to that? i dont plan on upgrading, 450 watts is enough for my parts i think, and i dont plan on adding more demanding parts ever. but the psu did come with the xionII case, so its a cheap psu, i just dont want it to damage my other parts down the road. i want something to last me 5 years, but i dont want to buy something i dont really need.

Answer 1

ok,u might need to get a better power supply check your manufactures of your processor and video and sound and hard drive because they will give u volts and add all together and see if its like 600vlts then u need a new one also check to see if u have enough cooling it might be to hot for your pcu or something so check that too

hope this solves your problem

Answer 2

If the PS blow then it could damage other things. Normally the PS that come with a Computer is OK. BUT!!!! As you add more Hardware that use power you may need a larger PS. This is important when adding Graphics Cards as they use more Watts. My PS in a Computer I built is 500 Watt with a Dual Rail 12 Volts. I got it cheap until I can get a 650 Watt and add the other Graphics Card. I did have the Dual Graphics (Cross-Fire) but removed one card until I get my other PS. I also have two more HDD's to intall to run RAID. Now, here the reason why: A woman friend had her PS blow. She just got another computer and gave the old one to me to fix. The Hard Drive was corrupted and not load Windows or Linux (Do not ask me how, it was). The MOBO was Fried along with the Processor. I have not tried the CD and DVD Burner. The Printer, keyboard, mouse and monitor were OK.
Here the PS I been looking at;
I like the cable setup, as you can remove what not used.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817190012
But, there are others. I still looking and reading up.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153034

Answer 3

The technical specifications for a PS demand that it does a self check and only when everything is fine it gives a signal to the main line that 'Power Good'.
Most PS come from the same manufacturers, they have been around for a long time. The power output, 450 watts, is more than enough. Of course it could be faulty but so could any other part. Very unlikely it was a spike. The best and quickest way is replacement of PS and M/B.

Answer 4

Well for one thing, the power supply cannot harm the computer unless it frys and then could corrupt the CPU or motherboard. Now 450 watts PSU depending on your CPU configuration and parts, normally 300-350 watts is the average PSU. You can get PSU up to 600 watts if you like. Now to answer your question about having a cheaper power supply, well it can harm your computer like I said if the power supply frys. A power supply supplies the computer with energy.If you believe you need a strong power supply, a good website you check out some PSU would be www.tigerdirect.ca ,hope this helped.

Answer 5

Use it is possible for a PSU to harm a motherboard and components with power spikes. Usually, cheap PSUs don't put out enough power, which can cause corrupt hard drives, but otherwise just causes errors which leads to sudden shut down, but no damage.

You can download Speedfan
http://www.download.com/SpeedFan/3000-2094_4-10540297.html?tag=lst-0-1
and use it to monitor the voltage rails for fluctuation.

If you think you have a failing PSU, it's best to just replace it to be on the safe side.