Boot up problems with older Acer desktop [Solved]

[Falcon]

I've been having some issues with my 15 year old Acer desktop hanging during boot up. After some troubleshooting, some of the users on the Software forum suggested that the power supply might be going bad and suggested that I replace it. I measured the power being drawn by the computer during operation and it came out to be about 100 watts. The computer has two Crucial 250 Gb SSDs, a 3.5" floppy drive, and a DVD drive installed. There are also two older HDDs that are still in the machine but not connected, just in case I need them for something in the future.

There are a lot of inexpensive power supplies on Amazon, but I would rather spend some extra cash and get one of higher quality. Can someone recommend a power supply that will fit my computer, and has the necessary power connectors? A photo of the computer is shown below.

Thanks in advance.

[CharlesV]

Is this the machine?

Code: Select all

Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Acer product: Veriton M265 v: P01-A1 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 3 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Acer model: EG31M v: P01-A1 serial: <filter> BIOS: ACER v: P01-A1 
           date: 11/10/2009 

And just for giggles... there is no DVD in that drive ? ( I have seen VERY long posts with some dvd drives that have a dvd in them.)

[Falcon]

Here is the machine info from my original post. It is the same as you posted above.

achine: Type: Desktop System: Acer product: Veriton M265 v: P01-A1 serial: <filter> Chassis:
type: 3 serial: <filter>
Mobo: Acer model: EG31M v: P01-A1 serial: <filter> BIOS: ACER v: P01-A1
date: 11/10/2009

I checked the DVD drive and there is no disk in it.

[j2mcgreg]

The psu in the image looks like it's the standard size, so either of these would be a good buy:
https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/powe ... abu-4.html

or
https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/powe ... 00111.html

Search your local market for them so that you don't get hit with import duties.

[operadude]

@Falcon Thanks for the pic !

Any chance you can get a close-up pic of the capacitors that are positioned at the lower-left of the heat-sink fan (as shown in your pic). It looks like there are 3 just above the PCI-Express slot. The first one looks like it may be bulging (looks like there's a coil to the right of it), and the one below that looks like it has some nasty brown coloration on the top (maybe it has bulged and leaked?).

Also, what's the date on the PSU? And, what is it's Wattage rating? 500 Watts?

Are you sure that the heat sink and fan are still securely mounted on the CPU? (does it jiggle or move a bit if you apply a TINY bit of rotational force? It shouldn't!).

And, is that a floppy in there (attached with the large ribbon cable)???

Would love to hear that it is, and that it works!!!

[Falcon]

I tried getting some photos of the caps in question, but I couldn't get the camera to focus and they came out very blurry. However, you're 100% correct that they look bad. The tops of the two caps that you mentioned are bulged slightly outward and one does look like it was leaking. There is also a third cap that you couldn't see that has a bulging top. It's over by the blue connector on the right of the fan unit.

I checked the heat sink mounting and it is solid.

There is no date on the power supply label, but the output is rated at 250 watts.

And yes, the floppy drive does work...or at least it did the last time I used it several years ago.

I used to be an electronics technician before I was promoted to engineer, so this should give me a chance to practice my old trade. (LOL).

I'm wondering if I should replace these three capacitors and see if these will fix the issue before I move on to replacing the PSU.

[operadude]

I tried getting some photos of the caps in question, but I couldn't get the camera to focus and they came out very blurry. However, you're 100% correct that they look bad. The tops of the two caps that you mentioned are bulged slightly outward and one does look like it was leaking. There is also a third cap that you couldn't see that has a bulging top. It's over by the blue connector on the right of the fan unit.

I checked the heat sink mounting and it is solid.

There is no date on the power supply label, but the output is rated at 250 watts.

And yes, the floppy drive does work...or at least it did the last time I used it several years ago.

I used to be an electronics technician before I was promoted to engineer, so this should give me a chance to practice my old trade. (LOL).

I'm wondering if I should replace these three capacitors and see if these will fix the issue before I move on to replacing the PSU.

250 watts is probably enough: does'n look like you have much in there besides the drives and your DVI (?) graphics card. Anyway, the likeliest culprit IS usually the PSU, and it's gotta be old!

Not sure what those caps (on the left are for), though it looks like a classic Inductor/Coil-Mosfet-Caps configuration. And, it looks like there are more caps to the right of the bulging/leaking ones, so they may also be for the same circuit. In any event, those bulging caps may not be causing the problem. I have worked on boards that have a number of bulging caps, and the board worked anyway. It all depends what exactly they are for, and if there are enough redundancies in the circuit. Blah, blah, blah...

What is to the left of the problematic caps? Are those USB ports (on the rear)? Maybe that circuit is for the rear USB ports, or maybe for the PCI-Express card?

Anyway, IMHO, and as others have indicated, I would start with a known good PSU.

The best would be if you could get a loaner, or swap a known good PSU from a working machine, before purchasing a new one, just to make sure that it is the PSU. Then again, they are not so expensive, and maybe it would be good to have a new one, anyway-- especially if you have older hardware around, and may need a new one for another machine.

You mentioned a 2015 rig, and that's also getting on in years, so maybe get a new PSU, just in case?

Anyway, glad to hear you have the Electrical background

Just after I wrote my last post, I thought, "Oh, No! What if the guy electrocutes himself? Can someone sue me? "

Anyway, take necessary precautions, as I'm sure you will

[operadude]

FYI: Going down for halt (now).

Will check this thread tomorrow.

Keep lookin' up

[Falcon]

Don't worry, I won't sue you. My widow might, but I won't. (LOL)

I think that I'll pick up a new PSU and install it. I don't think that it can hurt anything. If it solves the problem, then I'll move on to fixing the bad caps.

[Tony45]

I have an Acer Aspire TC220
I also had problems with booting up / hanging for 39 secs to a minute
I also checked PS etc etc
It turned out that it was my bootloader which had dozenS of boot-entries from previous installed distros
Using < efibootmgr -v > showed me which ones and using < efibootmgr -b **** -B > removed the unwanted
After that I had no problems anymore
Whatver your problem is, --- > Good luck