How to tell if my PC's power supply is bad?

Birk · Aug 21, 2022

I've been experiencing system hangups for the past week, and they are getting more frequent. Since I haven't been able to identify what's causing them I did an in-place update of Win11, but that has not helped. So I'm wondering if it could be a problem with my PC's power supply. Is there a way to tell if the power supply is OK or not?

davewin11 · Aug 21, 2022

Birk said:
I've been experiencing system hangups for the past week, and they are getting more frequent. Since I haven't been able to identify what's causing them I did an in-place update of Win11, but that has not helped. So I'm wondering if it could be a problem with my PC's power supply. Is there a way to tell if the power supply is OK or not?

Take look at How to Check a Power Supply: 12 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow

Dave

Berton · Aug 21, 2022

Working with a power supply is more difficult with the ATX-style motherboards versus the older AT-style. The AT had the power switch connected directly to the power supply while the ATX has the switch connected to the motherboard itself and the board connected to the power supply. The ATX switch only tells the board to get things started. Even when Off the ATX board still has power to it unless pulling the power cord from the back of it and if a Notebook/Laptop also removing the battery. There are testers available, older ones for the PATA/IDE drive connections and newer for the SATA connections. One software test I use is a bootable Linux LiveDVD or LiveUSB to run outside of the install Windows to determine if its a software or hardware issue. The Linux DVD is fully functional and could be used for long periods to see if the issue comes up, helps narrow things down.