power supply question

for you tech gurus around i have a question. My dads computer is about 10 years old now xp 32 bit but when you put it in standby or shut it down the power supply is still running (or at least the fan is still going at a low speed not full bore) what he has is a 350 W Antec Model: SL350. (he does need a new pc but no spare money. doesn't game just basic web, email, word prcessing, solitaire you know) but is it just a bad PSU or is something else going on? checked bios nothing wrong there and its not temperature.

 

Looked again and saw that the fan over the processor was also running. So now I know that it is (most likely) the fan is going from age trying to cool down the processor after its been shutdown.

 

I suggest some canned-air. The culprit is more than likely nothing more than dust buildup.

 

cleaned really good with canned air still running after shutdown. so either the fan on the heatsink is going. (it is a cooler master) or the thermal compound needs to be replaced which after only maybe a minute of being on and this happening I think its the thermal compund. I did notice the boards closest to the processor are getting pretty warm. should probably download a temperature thing.

 

Download Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php) and check the temp. However, the fans are supposed to run when it goes into suspend. Only when you completely shut down the PC or hibernate do the fans shut off.

Try to boot into safemode and then shutdown, and see if it does the same thing.

It may also be something configured on the motherboard. If you do not have any special configuration on the motherboard (ie RAID) try to reset it to defaults and see if that helps. You may be able to do it through the BIOS, if not you will have to use the clear CMOS jumper.

 

didn't see anything in the bios or cmos but i'll try resetting.

 

I thought for sure it was dust. Any updates? Are the results the same from a safe mode shutdown?

 

safe mode didn't work and resetting defaults on bios did nothing. haven't yet tried resetting the motherboard but i still think the fan/heatsink is going. Everything gets hot way to fast. If I replace just the fan do I need thermal compound as well or is that only for replacing the whole heatsink and the fan?

 

Fan kept running after shutdown, the same as normal mode? If, so I'm like 90% sure it's hardware related.

 

When you say "didnt work" what do you mean? Did it do the same thing? Shutting down completely still leaves the fans running? Running until you pull the power? Do the fans start up as soon as power is back on the power supply - Before or after your turn the power on?

 

The fans are running after complete shutdown and to make them stop you have to turn off the power (either the switch on the back of the PSU or the power strip) its definitely a hardware issue. I can't even find what kind of fan I need for an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ series. google is being useless. I'm pretty sure it is a 60 mm fan but thats all I know right now. If it was windows I'd say it could be a software issue (I think 7 has a rare problem where the fan can do that) but not on XP. If the power has been off for a few hours the fans stay off once you turn the power back on (not the computer but actually let power from the strip or PSU switch is back on).

 

Here are a few, cheap also:
Rosewill RCX-Z100

Masscool AMD Socket A/370

 

I doubt it is the CPU cooler. It is more likely the power supply or motherboard.

 

I vote motherboard. Good luck finding a board for an early Athlon though. I would try the CPU fan just for giggles tho. It could be getting hot enough that its triggering some sort of safety on the board that runs the fan for awhile after shutdown. That's pretty much the only thing you can replace that makes economic sense.

I think I just threw away an old 2800 Athlon and cooler not too long ago. Or maybe I gave it to my brother. I don't remember anymore.

 

i would hope its not the motherboard. and the PSU is only a year or 2 old (fairly recently replaced) so I highly doubt it's that. It only started doing this about 4 days ago. Computer still runs fine (slow but then it is 10 years old) I still need to try resetting the motherboard. Fanspeed program showed the fans running fairly hot while the computer was running.

 

actually since there is nothing wrong with the PSU video card cd/dvd drive or hard drives (original the OS got corrupted none of the files though so my dad has 2 hard drives newer is master with xp on it) if I could find a cheap but decent combo of a motherboard/processor (maybe need new RAM with it not sure) heatsink/fan I could probably just upgrade his system. wouldn't have to reinstall windows since its on a hard drive already correct? (never actually built a pc and it will be semi building one)

 

Windows 7 or Windows XP?

7 handles hardware changes fairly well.. XP not so much.

 

its xp on there.

 

so the old fan was definitely dying (not dust it wasn't spinning at top speed anymore) so got a new one for the heatsink and it helps. still runs after computer is either put into standby or shut down but does stop once it cools everything down. But The underlying issue is that the case is not very air efficient and I think the motherboard is going (not there yet) so replacing the fan on the heatsink is only a temporary thing. But finding a motherboard that old would be really hard and expensive not even sure what the motherboard is (model, brand, etc) I want to say the computer is actually 10-12 years old.

 

could go full ghetto build like the vast majority when the computer gets old, pop the side off the case and use an external fan (cheap square box fan works wonders and covers the side of the case pretty well too!)

most people put it facing in, I've found you have less dust problems if you point it outward though.