marksibert Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Hi. I have a brand new Lenovo desktop computer. I purchased a Radeon 3870X2 video card for it, and the stock power supply (280W) wasn't powerful enough for the video card. I have not installed the video card yet. I am still running with the integrated video on the motherboard. The PC boots and runs perfectly with the stock power supply. I removed the stock power supply and replaced it with a TX750 power supply. I am still running with integrated video (have not installed the new video card yet.) Now, with the new power supply, the computer refuses to boot Windows. As soon as the graphical Windows "loading" screen is displayed, the PC shuts down. On subsequent boot efforts, I'll get the boot options for "safe mode", etc. If I boot normally, it immediately shuts down. If I choose "safe mode", Windows will boot! So I guess this is a driver or power management issue? I would never have thought that a power supply could cause this sort of behavior. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? The power supply seems to be working fine -- Windows has been up for at least 10 minutes now in safe mode. What else can I do to debug the problem? Or is this a known issue with an easy fix? Thanks!! - Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted April 15, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted April 15, 2009 I would first make sure that the system supports an aftermarket PSU built to the ATX12v 2.01 (or newer) spec. Many OEMs will use PSUs which are either proprietary or built to outdated versions of the ATX spec to cut costs, so you want to make sure this is not a compatibility issue. If safe mode is working, then there could be a driver issue. A driver could be causing a hardware component to go out of spec (maybe only for a moment) and our PSU could pick it up as a short. I would go to Start...Run...MSConfig...Services...click hide all microsoft services...disable all. This should shut down all the applications that are trying to run in the background and see if you still have the same problems booting into Windows regularly. If you get into Windows, then I would enable each service one at a time and see which one is causing the boot failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksibert Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 The documentation and online forums at Lenovo state that any modern ATX power supply will work... http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=A_Series_Thinkcentre&message.id=1652&query.id=8458#M1652 I tried updating the BIOS to the latest version available and there was no change in the behavior. I used msconfig to disable everything. (Services, Startup items, etc). There was no change in the behavior. That was interesting because I thought that disabling everything would essentially be the same as safe mode. Booting into safe mode still works. Are there any utilities I can run to check compatibility? (Perhaps a boot cd or something?) I am also going to post on Lenovo's support forums, but I suspect they'll try to say that the power supply is doing something bad. So I'd like to debug this further and try to find out as much information about the problem as possible. Do you have any other ideas on things to try? Thanks! - Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 There are different versions of the ATX specification. You need to find out which specific ATX specification your motherboard requires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksibert Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 I couldn't find any information on Lenovo's site about which version of the ATX spec they expect the power supply to conform to. Just a statement that says "any modern ATX power supply will work." The motherboard model is "G31T-LM". There's not much information online about it, but I did find this page via google: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/212925162/Sell_Intel_G31T_LM_Core_2.html It unfortunately doesn't say anything about a version of the ATX spec either, but maybe there's something useful there. I'm still awaiting a response from Lenovo tech support. Is there anything else I can do in the meantime to debug this issue? Thanks... - Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksibert Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Still no luck... Tried booting with a Bart PE CD (a cd that can boot & run Windows XP from the cd). Same behavior... As soon as the graphical Windows "loading" screen appears, the pc shuts down. I also tried disconnecting everything from the power supply except the motherboard and hard drive. Same result. Tried power supply and dvd drive (no hard drive) and booting the Bart PE CD. Same Result. Is it possible the power supply is defective somehow? I wouldn't have thought so, since Windows boots and runs in safe mode just fine. The pc has been running all day with the old (280W) power supply. So there doesn't seem to be a problem there. But I can't install my new video card until I get the new power supply working. I'm happy to keep debugging if there's anything else I can try. I'm just out of ideas... Thanks! - Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted April 16, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted April 16, 2009 If possible I would test the PSU in a different system and see if you can duplicate the same issues. It sounds like something is going out of spec when a driver is being loaded, and its being picked up by our PSU. Or, its just not fully compatible with the motherboard that they are using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksibert Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Okay - I put the power supply in a different system. Keep in mind that this other system is 5+ years old. The motherboard is a Tyan MPX (S2466), which has a 20-pin ATX connector on it (and separate 4-pin ATX12V connector). This is in contrast to the new motherboard I'm trying to use, which has the larger 24-pin ATX connector.) The specs for the Tyan motherboard are here: http://www.tyan.com/archive/products/html/tigermpx_spec.html Windows booted fine with the TX750 on the Tyan motherboard. So I put the TX750 back into the new pc. Nothing changed. I tried enabling "/bootlog" and "/sos" in the boot.ini file. Nothing gets written to ntbtlog.txt. (I have versions of ntbtlog.txt for safe mode, and for normal mode with the 280W power supply.) Is there anything else I can try? Thanks for all the help so far... - Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted April 17, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted April 17, 2009 Will that system work with with any other PSU? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksibert Posted April 20, 2009 Author Share Posted April 20, 2009 I just tested it with another power supply and it did work. So it's looking more and more like the TX750 is defective. I had an Antec True550 (550W) power supply. It only has a 20-pin ATX connector, but from what I read you can still plug it into the 24-pin connection on the motherboard. I also had to use a converter to connect power to the SATA drive. (The power supply only has the older-style power connectors.) But Windows did boot all the way through in normal mode and ran fine. This is fine for a test, but I certainly wouldn't run a computer this way normally, as I'd be afraid of drawing too much current on the reduced number of power connections on the ATX 20-pin connector. So is there anything else I can try, or should I RMA the power supply? I still find it strange that the TX750 worked fine in another computer. But I also did some more google searching and found a few instances online of people having similar problems with the TX750. I'm concerned that the TX750 might not be as compatible as it claims to be, and that returning it for a replacement may just end up being a waste of time. Is there anything else I can try to debug this issue? Thanks! - Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 /products/html/tigermpx_spec.html[/url] Windows booted fine with the TX750 on the Tyan motherboard. - Mark Actually it is more likely you have a compatibility issue since the TX-750 works with the Tyan system. It would not work with 1 system and not work with another if it was truly defective. The motherboard in your Lenovo apparently adheres to an older ATX standard which was present when the older Antec PSU was made. I'm guessing your system requires a -5v presence which is no longer required on current ATX compliant MOBOs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksibert Posted April 21, 2009 Author Share Posted April 21, 2009 If that was the case, why would Windows boot in safe mode? Plus, I just looked at the power supply that came with the pc, and there is no -5V output on it. So that's definitely not the cause of the problem. Any other ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellowbeard Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 If possible I would test the PSU in a different system and see if you can duplicate the same issues. It sounds like something is going out of spec when a driver is being loaded, and its being picked up by our PSU. Or, its just not fully compatible with the motherboard that they are using. It's impossible to know without knowing more about the specifications of that MOBO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksibert Posted April 21, 2009 Author Share Posted April 21, 2009 I've ordered a 750W Thermaltake (W0116RU) power supply to see if it will work with the motherboard or not. I'll post the results after it arrives. Thanks for the help and suggestions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksibert Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 The Thermaltake ToughPower 750W (W0116RU) power supply arrived today and works like a champ in the new pc. Windows boots and runs in normal mode just fine. So what's the verdict on the Corsair TX750 power supply? Incompatible or defective? Thanks... - Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted April 23, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted April 23, 2009 If the TX750 works in a different computer then its not defective. There is either a compatibility issue, or possibly a short, or out of spec component is getting picked up by our PSU, and the other PSU is not picking it up. Odds are that it is not compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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