I think it's a failing boot drive, but . . .

[nlinecomputers]

Using a different PSU "on the side" as a diagnostic is a different thing entirely where that's being used to determine whether an actual replacement is warranted.

Ok my bad for being imprecise but the off the side test is what I was suggesting. You are electrically replacing the old PSU for a test. And yes it is a "throwing parts at it" method but as I said I have had MANY power supplies pass tests with volt meters and still be faulty. This is because it is difficult to simulate a true load while you do tests.

 

[britechguy]

And yes it is a "throwing parts at it" method but as I said I have had MANY power supplies pass tests with volt meters and still be faulty.

Actually, I don't consider a PSU "on the side" diagnostic check to be throwing parts at anything. It's a perfectly legitimate diagnostic step.

It was only because I truly thought you meant, "take out the existing one and put in a new one," without any preliminary testing, when you said "replace," that I had any negative reaction.

Substituting a known good for a possible bad is a classic diagnostic step. For some things, e.g., RAM, that's not "off to the side" because it need not be.

 

[GTP]

I haven't had a client, recently anyway, who has been one of these tech strip-tease artists where the full picture is never presented and you get small flashes of information that you have to put together. And this is really the kind of client I hate dealing with because they tend to hose things by playing in areas they had ought never enter.

And this point is where you part ways with the client.
Clients like this are not ever good clients because at some point you'll get the blame for all the problems he's having.

 

[GTP]

Ok my bad for being imprecise but the off the side test is what I was suggesting.

I thought that every "tech" would know exactly what you meant.
I did without even thinking about it.

 

[britechguy]

I thought that every "tech" would know exactly what you meant.

I guess some of that comes from one's own past experience. I've dealt with very few (relatively speaking) bad PSUs, all of which were entirely dead. I've also used testers to check voltages, but I've never used the "Grafted PSU Diagnostic Test." And replace sends my mind immediately to in-situ installation.

I can live with that. It's a perfectly logical conclusion based on my own experience since the mid-1980s.

 

[GTP]

Unfortunately - (or fortunate for me) South Australia has/had "Dirty Power." We have a lot of spikes in the delivery of energy and devices suffered/suffer from it. I think its better now, but also the amount of desktops has dwindled to almost nothing now as well.
PSU's seemed to be most affected and didn't seem to be able to cope for very long with the spikes. I had a spate of PSU failures or weird issues with PC's directly related to the PSU some years ago (2011?)- something like 8? - in one week. But there were more in the following week/s.

 

[britechguy]

As as aside, and a resolution of sorts to this saga, when I last spoke to this client I proposed that he power down the computer, remove all connection to AC power, then pull the CMOS battery and keep it out for a couple of hours - then reverse the process.

If memory serves, this should reset the BIOS to what was "in the hardware" when the thing shipped. But I am of the same mind as @GTP and really don't want to take on this client at all. I figure if I steer him in the proper direction that can't hurt, but I do not want to get into the "tweaking soup" that this person has created. There is no permanent good outcome, as you can be pretty sure that they'll keep up with the same behavior that caused the mess to begin with and, as noted, try to blame later messes on you.