[NBLUG/talk] Do I need a bigger power supply?

Lincoln Peters sampln at sbcglobal.net
Wed Jul 28 11:46:58 PDT 2004


My computer has the following hardware:

Four hard drives, three optical (CD and/or DVD) drives:
	hda:	30GB, UltraDMA 133 (root filesystem)
	hdc:	DVD-ROM drive
	hdd:	CD-RW drive (attached to sr0 via ide-scsi)
	hde:	60GB, UltraDMA 133 (/home)
	hdg:	160GB, UltraDMA 133 (/home/lincoln)
	hdi:	10GB, UltraDMA 33 (/var)
	hdk:	CD-ROM drive
Legacy 3.5" floppy drive
Onboard IDE, ethernet, and sound (all VIA chipsets)
ATI Radeon 9200 AGP 8X video card
"New"* PROMISE ATA/133 IDE controller
"Old"* PROMISE ATA/33 IDE controller
Sound Blaster Live! sound card

* "New" PROMISE controllers, such as the ATA/133, require a different
kernel driver than the "old" controllers, such as the ATA/33.


Somehow, I managed to power all of this from a 300-watt ATX power supply
(and I used an ampmeter to verify that it's drawing less than 300
watts).  However, I've noticed that, if I perform a "warm" reboot (as
per "shutdown -r now" or just "reboot"), the "old" PROMISE controller
fails to detect any attached devices.  However, if I perform a "cold"
reboot (I shut down completely as per "shutdown -h now" or "poweroff",
leave the system powered off for several seconds, then turn it back on),
everything works fine.

I've read that strange issues such as this one can be caused by power
supply issues, and I wouldn't be surprised if all of this equipment is
putting more strain on the power supply than it can realistically
handle.  Should I get a more powerful power supply, or is there
something else I should consider?

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln at sbcglobal.net>

It's always darkest just before the lights go out.
		-- Alex Clark





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